Wales fullback Leigh Halfpenny pulls out of Ireland Test
Full-back Leigh Halfpenny has been ruled out of Wales’ Guinness Six Nations opener against Ireland in Cardiff on Saturday.
Halfpenny was due to win his 98th cap and make a first Wales start for 19 months, but assistant coach Jonathan Humphreys said he had suffered a back spasm and would miss the game.
Experienced Cardiff back Liam Williams will replace Halfpenny in the number 15 shirt.
Williams missed Wales’ entire Autumn Nations Series campaign this season because of injury, and has not started for his country since last summer’s South Africa tour.
Humphreys said: “Unfortunately, Leigh had a back spasm this morning and Liam will be playing.
“I think it’s more disappointing for him as a person. He is an unbelievable professional and an unbelievable person.
“He has got to pick himself up again. You feel for him that he’s got to pull out at this late stage.
“Liam is good to go.”
Wales team to play Ireland in the Guinness Six Nations Championship on Saturday.
Liam Williams (Cardiff); J Adams (Cardiff), G North (Ospreys), J Hawkins (Ospreys), R Dyer (Dragons); D Biggar (Toulon), T Williams (Cardiff); G Thomas (Ospreys), K Owens (Scarlets, capt), T Francis (Ospreys), A Beard (Ospreys), A W Jones (Ospreys), J Morgan (Ospreys), J Tipuric (Ospreys), T Faletau (Cardiff).
Replacements: S Baldwin (Ospreys), R Carre (Cardiff), D Lewis (Cardiff), D Jenkins (Exeter), T Reffell (Leicester), R Webb (Ospreys), O Williams (Ospreys), A Cuthbert (Ospreys).
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Barnes is on the board of the RFU as referee representative. The Referees Union who wrote the letter calling for a Special General Meeting over the pay of execs/losses and more made mistakes. A symtom of a good letter is that you can stand behind every line in it as factual. While there are several good points in their letter they allowed a few ill thought out rants. This meant that the Board via Wayne Barnes can undermine the letter by focusing on the inaccuracies which weakens the real points. I'm not saying Barnes is acting untoward, he's not, he is concerned about refs showing hypocricy and he is also defending the RFU.
The Referees position is weakened simply by not being able to write a proper letter.
This is not untypical of sporting organisations and representatives at all levels.
Go to commentsYes, it will become much harder to target an opposing scrum now, which is why I think having a solid rather than dominant scrum will be enough for teams in the future. While the impact of the 30 second law is still to be fully felt, the free kick law has already had an impact. I can't imagine the Boks taking many quick taps from free kicks in the past. They would have taken a scrum to work a penalty or continue their 'slow poison' on the legs of the opposition. With that option off the table the scrum has already become less important as a weapon.
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