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Halfpenny to see specialist as concussion symptoms persist
By Liam Blackburn
Leigh Halfpenny would appear to be a doubt for Wales' Six Nations campaign after the Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac confirmed he would visit a specialist due to his concussion issues.
The full-back has not featured since November 10 when he took a blow to the head from Samu Kerevi in Wales' victory over Australia in Cardiff.
Halfpenny had been due to return against Cardiff Blues last weekend only to withdraw prior to kick-off and despite training with the Scarlets in the build-up to Saturday's Pro14 clash against the Dragons, Pivac has confirmed he will not feature due to ongoing headaches.
With Wales beginning the Six Nations against France on February 1, Halfpenny is now due to see a specialist to determine how much longer he can expect to be out for.
"Leigh is still out," Pivac said.
"He was training at the start of the week and still picking up the odd issue there in terms of headaches.
"He is seeing a specialist and that will hopefully give us an accurate timeframe for him in terms of coming back to play. We will know more next week, hopefully.
"It has been about eight weeks now so we want to get some reassurance that we are doing the right things and make sure we stay on track."
There is better news elsewhere for Wales, with Halfpenny's international team-mate Liam Williams set to make his return from a hamstring injury when Saracens face Sale Sharks in the Premiership on Friday.
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The England backs can't be that dumb, he has been playing on and off for the last couple of years. If they are too slow to keep up with him that's another matter.
He was the only thing stopping England from getting their arses handed to them in the Aussie game. If you can't fit a player with that skill set into an England team then they are stuffed.
Go to commentsSteve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
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