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Wales No.8 Taulupe Faletau to make long-awaited return to field for Bath
By PA
Wales number eight Taulupe Faletau will begin his comeback from a long-term injury in Bath’s Gallagher Premiership game against Wasps on Saturday.
The 31-year-old has been sidelined since suffering an ankle injury during the British and Irish Lions’ South Africa tour last summer.
He took no part in Wales’ Autumn Nations Series campaign earlier this season and was not considered for the Guinness Six Nations squad.
Faletau has been among a number of injured Lions unavailable to Wales head coach Wayne Pivac, alongside the likes of Alun Wyn Jones, George North, Ken Owens and Justin Tipuric.
But the 86 times-capped forward, who will join Cardiff next term, could find himself summoned by Pivac if his return to domestic action goes well.
Faletau starts at blindside flanker against Wasps in Coventry, and Bath head coach Neal Hatley said: “It is fantastic to have Taulupe back in our starting line-up.
“He has worked so hard on his rehabilitation with the support of our medical team, and we are all excited for him to run out in blue, black and white this weekend.
“He brings a wealth of experience and his presence – as well as his role in managing our game – will have a huge impact on our team.”
BATH: 15 Tom Prydie, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni , 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Will Muir, 10 Orlando Bailey, 9 Ben Spencer; 1 Valeriy Morozov, 2 Jacques du Toit, 3 D’Arcy Rae, 4 Ewan Richards, 5 Josh McNally ©, 6 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Jaco Coetzee, 8 Nathan Hughes
REPLACEMENTS:16 Tom Doughty, 17 Arthur Cordwell, 18 Kieran Verden, 19 Josh Dingley, 20 Richard de Carpentier, 21 Joe Simpson, 22 Max Clark, 23 Tom de Glanville
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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