'I expect to lose him to Wales in the next two or three weeks'
Bath head coach Neal Hatley says he expects to see a fit-again Taulupe Faletau called into Wales’ Guinness Six Nations camp.
Faletau played the full 80 minutes of Bath’s 24-20 Gallagher Premiership defeat against Leicester, which followed an hour-long comeback after seven months out injured in the loss to Wasps last weekend.
He has overcome an ankle problem and it would be no surprise if Wales head coach Wayne Pivac added him to his squad ahead of next Saturday’s Twickenham appointment with England.
Back-row forward Falatau won the last of his 86 Wales caps almost a year ago, and Hatley said: “He is a world-class player and you would never say he has been out for seven months.
“He was good last week and he backed up again today. He is just going to get better and better, and I expect to lose him to Wales in the next two or three weeks.
“He is like a chameleon. You put him in a level up and he just blends in.
“He has that innate ability that, whatever the quality of the players he is playing with, he is the best player on the pitch and he has done that for ages.
“I am going to turn my phone off and if I see that Welsh number from Wayne Pivac we won’t answer! We want to keep him, but I imagine at some stage he will get a call.”
Leicester trailed by six points at half-time against the Premiership’s bottom club, who were good value for their lead through tries from wing Will Muir, centre Max Ojomoh and back-row forward Josh Bayliss.
Fly-half Orlando Bailey added a penalty and conversion, but the Tigers were not to be denied as number eight Jasper Wiese, scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth and fly-half Freddie Burns claimed touchdowns.
Burns also kicked three conversions, while full-back Bryce Hegarty booted a second-half penalty, with Leicester bossing the final quarter to deny Bath.
Hatley added: “It’s frustrating. I am not going to say we are happy with a loss. We have got to be better than that.
“I think that was one that got away. They are a good side, well-drilled and well-coached, but for me that feels like we missed an opportunity.
“They won the territory battle in the second-half and they started to squeeze us a bit there towards the end.”
Leaders Leicester survived a major scare to record their first Premiership victory at Bath for 11 years.
They had lost nine league games in a row at the Recreation Ground and they needed to dig deep before posting a 14th Premiership win from 16 starts this season.
Leicester head coach Steve Borthwick said: “We started the game really well, then there was a tough spell. In that second quarter of the game, they put us under enormous pressure.
“It was very clear what we needed to do to make sure we got a result in the second half. We tweaked things in a couple of areas.
“It is a tough competition. Every game is tight and it was pretty fine margins.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments