Wales issue a medical update confirming 2 players definitely out
Injury-stricken Wales have issued a Wednesday morning medical update that has ruled WillGriff John and Will Rowlands out of contention to play against the Wallabies in this Saturday's Autumn Nations Series finale in Cardiff. It was Tuesday when assistant coach Jonathan Humphreys described it as highly unlikely the pair would be involved and official confirmation of this disappointing prognosis has now arrived.
"Wales can today confirm that Scarlets’ WillGriff John and Dragons’ Will Rowlands have been released from the national squad," read a statement from the WRU. "Both players suffered a concussion in Sunday’s victory over Fiji and won’t feature in the final Autumn Nations Series test against Australia on Saturday."
Prop John and lock Rowlands and prop John suffered head injuries during Wales’ 38-23 victory over Fiji in Cardiff last Sunday but they weren't the only injury doubts Wayne Pivac is juggling this week.
Tomas Francis, another prop, is following return-to-play protocols after being concussed in training last week and wing Josh Adams, who was withdrawn from the starting line-up just before kick-off against Fiji due to a calf muscle issue, is also being monitored.
The Wales casualty count for the series is more than 20. However, Humphreys admitted on Tuesday that while this back-drop has proven challenging, it won't hamper their bid for a third successive victory over Australia.
“There is a team here who are battered and bruised off the back of the most challenging autumn that they have ever had,” he said. “We are just thinking about how we get the tank off empty to put up a show against Australia and go and win that game.
“Clearly, we would have wanted more people available to us, but from my point of view it has turned out very similar to the last autumn, where we found out a lot about people. There has been a lot of positives.”
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I’m sick to death of waiting 3 years for league players to become half decent. It cripples Australian rugby in the meantime. The Reds actually looked half competent without Vunivalu not starting last week. He’s just a liability of errors. Paisami is looking better than he has in previous years but I’d have Kerevi back in a flash. A kiwi wont tho …...
Go to commentsExcellent analysis Nick as we have come to expect. I was not really aware that NFL strategies have been adopted by rugby teams, especially in defence. One point I would make is that the Northhampton attacking player on the end of the chain in the video examples has not maintained the correct depth to be effective. In the footage shown the outside player is too flat to make the best of the opportunity his inside players have provided. In each case they have to reduce speed and turn their body backwards to secure the ball, losing all momentum and giving the impressive scrambling defence the chance to shut down the threat.
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