Martin Hall has called on Wales to 'get physical' ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Lebanon.
Watch Wales v Lebanon live on Sky Sports Xtra from 8pm on Friday
Welsh coach Martin Hall has called on his players to 'get physical' ahead of their crunch World Cup qualifying repechage semi-final against Lebanon on Friday.
Wales, semi-finalists in the last two World Cups in 1995 and 2000, face the ignominy of not even qualifying for next autumn's World Cup in Australia after going down to a narrow two-legged European Group One defeat to Scotland.
The men in red claimed an 18-16 victory at Old Anniesland in the second leg last week but could not claw back the first leg deficit of seven points following Scotland's 21-14 victory in Bridgend last year.
However, their failure to dispatch the Scots has left the Welsh facing a treacherous route to clinch the tenth and final spot in the World Cup.
Wales need to win the repechage against Lebanon at the Halton Stadium, Widnes, before beating the winner of Friday's other repechage clash between Samoa and the USA at the Chris Moyles Stadium in Featherstone next Wednesday.
Physical
But Hall is not even thinking about 14th November and knows the size of the task that faces his team against an abrasive Lebanon side, which boasts inspirational Sydney Roosters scrum-half George Ndaira.
Ireland only squeezed through their qualification group on points difference from Lebanon after two drawn pool games against the middle east nation and Hall is taking nothing for granted.
"We can only really take it one game at a time and there are a lot of hypotheticals, said Hall. "Lebanon are a team with a lot of NRL experience and we know they are going to be very physical. We have got to match them physically and then try and use the skill of our players."
Hall, coach of National League One Halifax, accepts Wales are up against it and they face a difficult task to join England, Scotland and Ireland in next year's World Cup and he believes the team need to show a more ruthless streak against Lebanon also known as The Cedars.
Pressure
"We didn't play anything like at our full potential," said Hall of last week's 18-16 victory against Scotland. "We had enough opportunities to win by more than a two-point margin but we did not take them. We have to put on the performance like we did the previous week against Papua New Guinea (Wales won 50-10) when we were much more clinical."
It is almost unthinkable that Wales, a nation that has produced rugby league legends such as Jim Sullivan, Billy Boston, Jonathan Davies and John Devereux cannot qualify for the ten-nation World Cup next year.
However, the majority of the team are part-timers, the squad will not be coming together until Thursday night and much will depend on the experienced half-back pairing of Bradford's Iestyn Harris and Warrington's Lee Briers to steer Wales through the perilous waters of qualification.
The game will be screened live on
Sky Sports Xtra from 8pm on Friday with the other repechage semi-final between Samoa and the USA preceding at 5.30pm.
