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Wales reveal level of care taken to ensure concussed Dan Biggar is symptom-free and safe to face France
Warren Gatland says that Wales have done “due diligence” and “covered all the bases” in terms of fly-half Dan Biggar’s recovery from concussion.
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Biggar suffered head injuries in successive World Cup games against Australia and Fiji, but he has met all targets and will line up in Sunday’s quarter-final appointment with France.
“He felt better after the (Fiji) game, it was clear,” Wales head coach Gatland said. “So we went through, made sure in terms of consulting the right people and making sure that they were aware of everything, getting him scanned, (the) independent consultant, that was important.
“So we feel that we’ve gone through that due diligence and making sure we’ve covered all the bases in terms of Dan. He has obviously done all the protocols, been fit for three or four days in terms of having passed those, so we are obviously taking all the proper precautions from our point of view.
“He’s desperate as a player to play, but yeah, there’s always… we’ve been conscious in the past, and George North in the past has had a few knocks and other players.
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“And we have just got to make sure if it does happen, if he gets a knock in the next few games, the next couple of months, obviously there would probably be a different course of action. But he is very confident, you know that he is 100 per cent.”
The Welsh Rugby Union said it had “worked collaboratively” with World Rugby to deliver the highest level of care for Biggar. The WRU said that Biggar remained symptom-free after his last game. Management had included MRI scanning and two consultations with a globally-renowned independent concussion consultant from Australia.
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Biggar, centres Jonathan Davies (knee) and Hadleigh Parkes (shoulder), plus wing George North (ankle), have all been named in the Wales starting line-up to face France in Oita.
Here are your teams for Wales vs France #WALvFRA
Our index gives Wales a 91% chance of victory, agree? pic.twitter.com/r6TeQ5VtZI
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 18, 2019
Gatland has selected the same team that accounted for Pool D rivals Australia last month, with Aaron Wainwright, Justin Tipuric and Josh Navidi forming the back row unit, and Ross Moriarty being on the bench where Adam Beard provides lock cover instead of Aaron Shingler.
Gatland added: “Hadleigh took a full part in Friday’s training session. That was the first time he had taken a part (since) he got a knock on the shoulder. Jonathan trained two days ago, so he was fit. As a squad, we are pretty healthy, really.”
As for tackling France – they knocked Wales out in the 2011 World Cup semi-finals – Gatland said: “They are a big team, a physical team. We’ve had a great record against them – we’ve won seven of the last eight games – and the one we lost was the 100-minute game in Paris where they scored in the last minute.
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‘Even experts, we can’t tell on some of the concussions. It's a very diverse, varied sort of reaction to head injury. Every person is different’
– Dr Rahul Jandial on what message @owen_faz not needing @rugbyworldcup HIAs sends out to grassroots rugby https://t.co/qXyyECYsjl— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 17, 2019
“But even in saying that, they have always been close games and we are going in with a lot of belief, a lot of self-confidence and are really excited about the game. We are feeling really positive about the way we have prepared. We had a great training session on Friday morning. There was an edge to this week and the players have been incredibly professional in the way they have prepared.
“The staff have done extra work, and in doing that we have tried to nail off every situation because we know it’s knockout stages. The message to the players we’ve been driving is you have got two choices here – we are either on the plane on Monday going home, or we are here until the end of the tournament.”
– Press Association
WATCH: Warren Gatland is nearing the end with Wales after a decade-plus tenure
Comments on RugbyPass
It will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
1 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to comments