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Gareth Anscombe breaks silence about his contract-cancelling injury
Wales out-half Gareth Anscombe has broken his silence about the injury that resulted in his contract for the 2023/24 League One in Japan being cancelled just weeks after he arrived at Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath.
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It was last July when he was unveiled as a new signing in the Far East after finishing up at the Ospreys. At the time, he was training with the Welsh ahead of their Rugby World Cup campaign and he went on to star at the finals for Waren Gatland’s side, especially in the pool stage win over Australia in Lyon.
However, he pulled up lame with a groin injury in the warm-up before their final group match against Georgia and while he was to miss the subsequent quarter-final loss to Argentina, it was felt the injury wasn’t serious – especially as Wales had earmarked him to be available for the semi-finals if they had progressed that far.
Scans, though, following his arrival in Japan told a different story and a resulting operation led to Suntory Sungoliath cancelling Anscombe’s contract and replacing him with Argentina’s Nicolas Sanchez.
Anscombe has now launched a Sportin Wales podcast and on the show with Test teammate Alex Cuthbert and host Geraint Hardy, he shed light on the cruel injury that has left him on the sidelines without a club despite impressing at France 2023.
We are LIVE with our brand new podcast??
Episode 1: The One With The Founders.
Meet our Co-founders – @acuthbert11 and @Gareth_Anscombe?
We have an EXCLUSIVE with Gareth following his Japan move and return??
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— Sportin Wales (@Sportin_Wales) January 9, 2024
“Clearly it wasn’t the plan to come back,” he said in the studio in Wales. “Obviously, I picked up an injury at the World Cup and unfortunately we didn’t realise how serious it was. The plan was to hopefully rehab it and try and get right for the semi-final.
“I passed all my tests during that week, so from our side, it looked pretty promising and I was still really functional. Obviously, disaster struck with us and we lost to Argentina which we didn’t see coming but from a fitness point of view, we didn’t think it was too serious.”
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Anscombe admitted he felt his adductor tweak again post the finals but thought nothing of it before flying out to Japan, but scans at his new club left him crestfallen, returning to London for surgery and ultimately learning he was being released by the Tokyo outfit.
“I remember speaking to the physio and he said, ‘Mate, you have pulled your adductor off the bone’. That was really surprising but also really unusual – you don’t tend to see adductors fully torn off the bone. So it looked like I had to get surgery and I flew back to the UK as quickly as possible and got under the knife really quickly in London.
“It just floored me really, because I was still so functional. Once I got to Japan, I knew something wasn’t quite right, but usually people with these injuries, they are on crutches. I could walk and even thought I could probably run in a straight line, so it just didn’t make sense to me that I had such a big injury and yet I felt so good. It surprised everyone.
“They [Suntory] decided that it wasn’t quite worth the risk and decided to go get another international. It is upsetting, frustrating, a whole mix of emotions, but you understand the nature of the game and they have got to protect themselves just like I have got to protect myself.”
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The ordeal hasn’t completely put Anscombe off the idea of playing in League One when he is fit again. “Would I love to play in Japan? For sure. But right now all the clubs there will be focusing on this season, so we will just wait and see.
“I’m just trying to get back to full fitness. I’m desperate to play rugby – where that is, I’m not too sure yet. I’m hopeful I will be fit in the next couple of months, could be quicker, could be a little bit slower, but we’ll see. Then we will just see what is out there.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 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 …
31 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
4 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!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 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.
31 Go to comments