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Justin Tipuric ruled out of Scotland match
By PA
Wales suffered a blow ahead of their Guinness Six Nations clash against Scotland in Llanelli when flanker Justin Tipuric was ruled out.
The Welsh Rugby Union said that 77 times-capped Tipuric was sidelined due to tonsillitis, with Scarlets forward James Davies replacing him and Aaron Wainwright taking over from Davies among the substitutes.
Alun Wyn Jones, meanwhile, prepared to set a new world record of 149 Test match appearances.
The Wales skipper drew level with New Zealand World Cup-winning captain Richie McCaw a week ago, and he led a team looking to end a run of four successive defeats.
Tipuric’s absence meant that Wales head coach Wayne Pivac made seven changes from the side beaten by France last time out.
The switches included a Test debut for Cardiff Blues flanker Shane Lewis-Hughes and starts for the likes of scrum-half Gareth Davies, prop Tomas Francis and lock Will Rowlands, but wing George North was dropped.
Fly-half Finn Russell returned for Scotland, handed a first Test start since last year’s World Cup after being omitted from the squad in January following a breach of team protocol, while captain Stuart Hogg and lock Jonny Gray were also back following their domestic and European double-winning exploits with Exeter.
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Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
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