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Wales handed fitness encouragement alongside further injury concern

Aaron Wainwright of Wales during the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Wales at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. (Photo By Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

No 8 Aaron Wainwright is expected to be fit for Wales’ Autumn Nations Series campaign after overcoming a hamstring injury, although his game time will be limited before Warren Gatland’s side face Fiji on November 10.

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The Dragons back-row has been out since starting for Wales in their first Test loss to Australia in Sydney in July in what was his 50th cap. The 27-year-old had started every match for Wales in 2024 prior to that.

While his Dragons head coach Dai Flanagan has ruled him out of the United Rugby Championship clash with Benetton on Saturday at Rodney Parade, he is expected to return the week after against Connacht.

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Though the match against the Irish outfit will come after Warren Gatland is expected to name his Wales squad for the autumn, the back-row would be a surprising omission given his performances in red this year. Though his game time would be limited before linking up with the national squad, his presence will be a boost for his coach.

“Connacht is a realistic target, as long as he can complete these two weeks of training,” said Flanagan.

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“We need to make sure he is safe, but he has hit every target that has been set for him, and exceeded some.”

Unfortunately for Gatland, Flanagan also confirmed that hooker Elliot Dee is not expected to return until December after suffering a setback to the ankle injury that ruled him out of Wales’ summer internationals.

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This injury update comes the day after it was confirmed that lock Dafydd Jenkins will also not be available for the internationals, where Wales face Fiji, Australia and South Africa.

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Bull Shark 24 days ago

Aaron Wainwright has got to have the gnarliest ‘do and ‘tache in World Rugby.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
Four talking points after a 'bonkers' England loss to Australia

On the face of it the England rush defence seemed to be worse this week than last. I thought the line speed last week was very effective against NZ, and that the NZ tries had to be very well worked to get around or through. But in fact the apparent deterioration of the England defence may have been more about Schmidt learning from the NZ game. Australia were quick about getting the ball outside of the midfield defenders, and England struggled to cover it effectively. Suaailii was a key element of this. The Boks are going to test this next week, and if England don't address it we should see some Bok tries out wide.


The England attack was as expected, ie fairly ineffective, per last week. Smith is the exception. His magic was behind almost everything England did on attack. While it's great for England to have a player like this, the question is what will happen when an opponent targets him to minimize his impact. Can England win a game with their Plan B? We saw what happened in the 2019 RWC final when the Boks shut down George Ford.


More of a surprise was the England forward pack. This ought to be the area in which Bothwick excels. It is a traditional England strength, and Borthwick was a forward himself. And there is a lot of experience in that pack. So I thought Australia might be overwhelmed up front. But that's not really what happened. It's not obvious that the England pack is any more than average at the moment.


My conclusion this week is similar to last, namely that England has not solved its coaching problem. It looks very different for NZ and Australia - they both have coaching results that are looking quite good.

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LONG READ
LONG READ Borthwick the innovator needs to trust his instincts and cut England loose Borthwick the innovator needs to trust his instincts and cut England loose
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