Wales appear to confirm triple boost ahead of England's 'massive threat'
Wales boss Wayne Pivac has confirmd a triple personnel boost as they looked ahead to a showdown with England in two weekends time.
Centre Uilisi Halaholo, who has been out with a hamstring strain, and wing Josh Adams – an absentee against Scotland due to a tight calf muscle – should be fit for Twickenham.
“Certainly, we welcome back anybody from injury,” Pivac said. “Willis (Halaholo) has been training with us for a good week and a half, and he will be a lot sharper for another week. He will come into the reckoning.
“Josh is recovering from a tight calf, and we would expect both of them to be available for England, hopefully.
“Toby (Faletau) has a game next weekend, and we will review that closely, and hopefully Josh Navidi will be back very shortly for Cardiff. We will monitor their progress.”
For now, though, Wales can reflect on an impressive comeback after events in Dublin, before all attention switches to England.
Pivac hailed captain Dan Biggar as “someone who fights for every last inch” after he defied injury and inspired a Guinness Six Nations title revival.
The defending champions looked down and out after a miserable defeat against Ireland last weekend, but Biggar hauled them off the canvas.
Despite having an issue with his right knee that saw him wince in pain several times, Wales’ captain kicked 15 points, including a match-winning drop-goal 10 minutes from time, to floor Scotland 20-17.
It was a fitting way to mark 100 Test match appearances for Wales and the British and Irish Lions, underlining his unbreakable spirit and commitment to the cause.
“Dan epitomises for me what you want in a rugby team, and that is someone who fights for every last inch,” Pivac said.
“He doesn’t give an inch, and not only does he fight to win every blade of grass on the pitch, he also does a good job with the match officials.
“I am very pleased he was able to do a good job and captain the team to victory.”
Biggar’s stunning display was not lost on his team-mates either as Wales made it 11 successive victories over Scotland in Cardiff.
Biggar put his body on the line against Scotland. #GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/T6BiK0sHBt
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 13, 2022
Wales hooker Ryan Elias added: “He took a knock early doors, and I thought the way he was rolling around he could be going off.
“It is just a testament to the bloke he is and the player he is. He is so resilient, and he had a great game. I thought he was class again.”
Wales have still got it all to do in this season’s tournament, facing England in a fortnight’s time, then hosting unbeaten title favourites France.
But beating Scotland, who were buoyant on the back of Calcutta Cup success against England seven days earlier, will lift spirits ahead of a trip to Twickenham, where Wales have not claimed a Six Nations win since 2012.
And there is also encouraging news on the injury front, with number eight Taulupe Faletau making a try-scoring return for Bath on Saturday after seven months out, while flanker Josh Navidi is closing in on a comeback.
Elias added: “We had a long hard look at ourselves following the Irish match. There were quite a few areas we wanted to get better at, and one of them was the physicality side of things.
“For us forwards it was a case of wanting to front-up physically and get stuck into them (Scotland).
“We’ve got to build on this, and hopefully go up another gear against the English because it is a tough old Test match at Twickenham. We need more of the same, and we need to keep getting better.
“You know that England are always going to pose a massive threat, physically.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Pls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
124 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
124 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
5 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
5 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
124 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
3 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
4 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
4 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
124 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
4 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to comments