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Wales' injury crisis deepens ahead of finale against the Wallabies
Wales assistant coach Jonathan Humphreys says it is unlikely that forwards Will Rowlands and WillGriff John will be fit for Saturday’s Autumn Nations Series finale against Australia. Lock Rowlands and prop John suffered head injuries during Wales’ 38-23 victory over Fiji in Cardiff last weekend.
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John’s fellow prop Tomas Francis, meanwhile, is following return-to-play protocols after being concussed in training last week. And wing Josh Adams, who was withdrawn from the starting line-up just before kick-off against Fiji due to a calf muscle issue, is also being monitored.
Humphreys said: “Regarding the two head injury assessments [Rowlands and John], they are following protocols, but it is unlikely they are going to be right. Tomas Francis is again following protocols, so we are a bit more hopeful on that.”
On Adams, Humphreys added: “Hopefully, he is going to be right. It will probably be a last-minute clearance on that, but hopefully he is going to be right.” Wales No8 Aaron Wainwright has been recovering from a shoulder problem, and Humphreys said: “Again, it’s going to be a late call. He has made significant improvement, so hopefully he will be involved at the weekend.”
Wales went into their autumn schedule of Tests against New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji and Australia without injured star names like Leigh Halfpenny, George North, Justin Tipuric and Josh Navidi. Then key personnel such as captain Alun Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, Ross Moriarty and Taulupe Faletau were ruled out injured after the campaign started; centre Uilisi Halaholo tested positive for Covid-19 and Liam Williams was unavailable to face New Zealand while he recovered from appendix surgery.
The Wallabies have confirmed who will take over from Hooper as skipper this weekend versus Wales#Wallabies #WALvAUS #AutumnNationsSeries
https://t.co/XPaLzuxKIc— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 16, 2021
The casualty count is more than 20, and although Humphreys admits that back-drop has proved challenging, it will not remotely hamper Wales’ bid for a third successive victory over Australia, which is their sole current focus. “There is a team here who are battered and bruised off the back of the most challenging autumn that they have ever had,” he said. “We are just thinking about how we get the tank off empty to put up a show against Australia and go and win that game.
“Clearly, we would have wanted more people available to us, but from my point of view it has turned out very similar to the last autumn, where we found out a lot about people. There has been a lot of positives.”
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Wales’ tighthead prop position would be of major concern if John and Francis are ruled out, leaving only Dillon Lewis as a solitary specialist in that area without reinforcements being summoned. Humphreys added: “Dillon going on at the weekend (against Fiji) playing 75 minutes and he hadn’t trained all week because of some issues with both feet, I thought he was incredible.
“For a tighthead to go 75 minutes while covering two bad feet was an incredible job for us. It just makes us go deeper, try to find solutions and you find out about people. The people outside who could possibly be called in are all injured as well. It’s one of those. It is a testing time. The tanks right now are low, but I know that come the weekend we are going to be right and we are going to be ready for the fight, which it is going to be, against one of the best teams in the world.
“I think it (autumn campaign) has been brilliant for us in terms of finding out about people who can add to our depth. I don’t see it as being frustrating at all. Those injuries that we’ve had have forced players to play who probably wouldn’t have played much. So rather than look at the negatives of we are missing all these people and has it maybe stopped us winning, against particularly South Africa, I think the bigger picture is telling us we’ve got a team that can fight toe to toe with all those injuries, and that is a huge positive for us.”
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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