Wales arrived in France confident and determined to reach at least the last four of the World Cup and maybe even go all the way to the final in Paris.

Head coach Gareth Jenkins had laid out his vision for winning the ``Welsh way'' and believed his side could equal the third-place finish Wales achieved in 1987.

Four matches later, Jenkins was an ex-head coach and Wales' dreams had been shattered by Fiji. They crashed out of the tournament without even reaching the
quarter-finals.

It was Wales' worst World Cup performance of the professional era and Jenkins was sacked before the team had even left their hotel.

What went so badly wrong? After all, Jenkins' entire 16-month reign was spent building for the World Cup and the squad were the fittest, strongest and fastest they had ever been.

Jenkins insisted Wales would grow into the tournament after a slow start against Canada, when they had to come from 17-9 down to win.

They were blown away by Australia in the first half in Cardiff and, significantly, it began to emerge that players and coaches were not pulling in the same direction.

They all wanted to win, but there was a clash between the style of play the coaches demanded and what the players were willing to produce that was never resolved.

The influence of former attack coach Scott Johnson was still palpable, particularly in the squad's senior players, and Jenkins could not shake it.

The players complained of being ``too structured'' following the defeat to Australia but, when they needed to put some strict organisation into their game, against a Fijian side who revel in open rugby, they either could not or would not do it.

Wales paid the ultimate price and the senior players must take responsibility for that.

South Africa were lured into a similar open style in their quarter-final victory against Fiji but captain John Smit demanded change and it occurred immediately.

That instruction never came from the likes of skipper Gareth Thomas, Stephen Jones or Martyn Williams.

Wales number eight Ryan Jones, who missed the tournament through injury, admitted this weekend the players were to blame.

The Welsh public demand a certain style but Jones said: ``It is we players, too, who have championed the Welsh way.

``After showing that it can be successful in the Grand Slam of 2005 we are desperate to show that it still can be.''

Jones believes Wales must take heed of England's World Cup success as they prepare for a new era under a new coach.

``We can learn so much from England's backs-to-the-wall revival, and also maybe the policy of selecting the players and employing tactics which are arguably negative, to achieve success at a given moment in time and against a specific opposition,'' Jones wrote in his column for BBC Sport.

``Not to heed the lessons that this tournament has offered, though, would be entirely ignorant.''