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Wales provide latest Biggar injury update with quarter-finals looming
By Josh Raisey
Wales attack coach Alex King has labelled the injury that forced Dan Biggar from the field in the opening minutes of the match against Australia as only a "slight injury" and remains upbeat about the fly-half's chances of making the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
The Toulon No10 will miss out on Wales' final match of Pool C this weekend against Georgia as he recovers from a pulled chest muscle, with Gareth Anscombe starting in his stead. With Wales already qualified for the quarter-finals after their record 40-6 win over Australia, this was always a change that might have been made regardless of whether the 33-year-old was fit or not.
After naming the squad to face Wales, King was fairly relaxed about Biggar's injury and remains confident that he will bounce back for the knockout stages.
"He is just getting his recovery in after his slight injury," he said. "He is in the recovery stage and it's important he gets back ready for the quarter-final."
After replacing Biggar in the first-half against the Wallabies, Anscombe went on to level Biggar's World Cup record points haul for Wales, 23, so former fly-half King has plenty of faith in the back-up No10.
He said: "He was great after coming on after nine minutes. If something happens in the game it shows the guys on the bench have an important role to be ready to go straight away and even the guys who aren't in the 23. If something happens between Monday and the weekend you have to know your role and be able to step in at a moment's notice. The strength of this squad is the 33, it's not just the 15 who start."
Wales only need a losing bonus point against Georgia to top Pool C, but King made it quite clear they want to win the match, particularly after losing to them in Cardiff last year.
"We want to win the game," King said. "We want to carry on [what we have been doing] over the last four weeks. We understand the threat Georgia pose after meeting in Cardiff 11 months ago, the performance they put in against Fiji on the weekend.
"I know one of the coaches, he is a good friend of mine. They will be absolutely firing at the weekend that is for sure."
It is likely Wales will then face one of Argentina or Japan in the quarter-finals, who are both level on points in Pool D and face each other on Sunday.
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Latest Comments
Warren, if you think you should stay on coaching Wales, you are beyond deluded. If you love Wales & Welsh rugby as much as you say you do (& I'm sure you probably do) you should resign immediately so this once proud & passionate rugby nation can rebuild without you. How many of your players will make the British & Irish Lions squad.?
It's time to walk the plank.!
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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