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Wales injury woes continue with four players doubtful for Australia
By PA
Wales look set to end the Autumn Nations Series racked with more injuries. Head coach Wayne Pivac will need assessments on four players ahead of next Saturday’s autumn finale against Australia in Cardiff.
Wing Josh Adams, who was due to line up at outside centre against Fiji on Sunday, was withdrawn just before kick-off due to a calf muscle issue.
Prop Tomas Francis had already pulled out after suffering concussion during training, while his fellow front-row forward WillGriff John and lock Will Rowlands suffered head knocks in Wales’ 38-23 victory over Fiji.
Wales went into the autumn series with star names such as Leigh Halfpenny, George North, Josh Navidi and Justin Tipuric all absent as they continued long-term injury recoveries.
And Pivac then saw several of his original squad – including captain Alun Wyn Jones and fellow British and Irish Lions like Ken Owens, Ross Moriarty and Taulupe Faletau – sidelined at various stages of the autumn schedule.
He added a number of players to the group, with hookers Bradley Roberts and Kirby Myhill making Test debuts, and he could again be forced to summon reinforcements as Wales prepare for the Wallabies.
“With a six-day turnaround, we will have to see how they (John and Rowlands) are on Monday,” Pivac said. “It could be we dig a bit deeper into the squad.
“As it happened on Friday, Tomas Francis is already a couple of days into the protocols and has passed those so far, so he is currently on track.
“Josh felt something in his leg in the warm-up. It was a late change in the changing room, but these things can happen and you just have to adapt.
“Hopefully, it won’t keep him out for too long. That was precautionary.”
Wales will tackle an Australian side beaten by Scotland and England during the autumn series, and having toppled the Wallabies twice in succession following a run of 13 successive defeats against them.
Pivac added: “Australia are well-coached – I know Dave Rennie very well.
“They have got a lot of quality throughout the side. They will be hurting after the last couple of games.
“We expect them to come and be physical. If the weather’s good, it will be free-flowing, too, with any luck.”
Pivac, meanwhile, has received some positive fitness news, with Dragons hooker Elliot Dee being recalled to the Wales squad.
Dee, who has won 40 caps, suffered a neck injury last month while in United Rugby Championship action for the Dragons.
The Welsh Rugby Union said: “Dee made a return to action last Friday in Dragons A’s starting line-up for the friendly fixture against Scarlets Development.
“Kirby Myhill, who made his international debut against New Zealand in Wales’ opening Autumn Nations Series Test, has returned to Cardiff Rugby.”
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Latest Comments
oh ok, seems strange you didn't put the limit at 7 given you said you thought 8 was too many!
Why did you say "I've told you twice already how I did it but your refuse to listen" when you had clearly not told me that you'd placed a limit of 8 teams per league?
"Agreed with 4 pool of 4 and home and away games?"
I understand the appeal of pools of 4, but 6 pool games might not go down well with the French or the South Africans given already cramped schedules. I do still think that you're right that that would be the best system, but there is going to be a real danger of French and SA sides sending b-teams which could really devalue the competition unless there is a way to incentivise performance, e.g. by allowing teams that do well one year to directly qualify for the next year's competition.
Go to commentsFoster should never have been appointed, and I never liked him as a coach, but the hysteria over his coaching and Sam Cane as a player was grounded in prejudice rather than fact.
The New Zealand Rugby public were blinded by their dislike of Foster to the point of idiocy.
Anything the All Blacks did that was good was attributed to Ryan and Schmidt and Fozzie had nothing to do with it.
Any losses were solely blamed on Foster and Cane.
Foster did develop new talent and kept all the main trophies except the World Cup.
His successor kept the core of his team as well as picking Cane despite him leaving for overseas because he saw the irreplaceable value in him.
Razor will take the ABs to the next level, I have full confidence in that.
He should have been appointed in 2020.
But he wasn’t. And the guy who was has never been treated fairly.
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