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Wales share picture of injury doubt Dan Biggar at captain's run training


(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
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Wales have shared a photo of Dan Biggar training with a heavily strapped knee on Friday ahead of their Saturday Guinness Six Nations showdown with England at Twickenham. 

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It looked as though the fly-half would miss out on this Test when he was forced off the field last weekend against Saracens with a hyperextended knee while playing for Northampton Saints. 

The initial signs did not look good, but he has made a swift recovery to retain his No10 shirt in Wayne Pivac’s team. 

The photo was taken during the captain’s run on Friday and while his knee is strapped, the positive for Wales is that he is playing. 

While Jarrod Evans is a player that is more than capable of stepping up in Biggar’s absence, Pivac will be delighted that the 30-year-old is available to play. 

Biggar has a long-running history with England and has raised his game to near-superhuman levels in this fixture in the past. 

His second-half cameo in the Six Nations last year secured a monumental victory against Eddie Jones’ high-flying team, paving the way for their Grand Slam success. Many English and Welsh fans will also have his imperious 2015 World Cup performance etched in their minds forever. 

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After two straight losses in February, Biggar is the man Wales want at the helm to guide them through a notoriously tough arena for them to win in. 

Fortunately, with Leigh Halfpenny in the team as well, Biggar may be relinquished of his kicking duties from the tee if his knee is a hindrance. It’s why the benefit of having two world-class kickers may be illustrated this weekend. 

Questions will linger over the fly-half’s fitness and England will put as much pressure on him as they can early on, but it is likely that Biggar will have a huge say in whether Wales can pull off a victory. 

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ENGLAND: E Daly (Saracens); A Watson (Bath), M Tuilagi (Leicester), O Farrell (Saracens, capt), J May (Leicester); G Ford (Leicester), B Youngs (Leicester); J Marler (Harlequins), J George (Saracens), K Sinckler (Harlequins), M Itoje (Saracens), G Kruis (Saracens), C Lawes (Northampton), M Wilson (Sale Sharks), T Curry (Sale Sharks). Reps: L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter), E Genge (Leicester), W Stuart (Bath), J Launchbury (Wasps), C Ewels (Bath), B Earl (Saracens), W Heinz (Gloucester), H Slade (Exeter).

WALES: L Halfpenny (Scarlets); G North (Ospreys), N Tompkins (Saracens), H Parkes (Scarlets), L Williams (Scarlets); D Biggar (Northampton), T Williams (Cardiff Blues); R Evans (Scarlets), K Owens (Scarlets), D Lewis (Cardiff Blues), J Ball (Scarlets), A W Jones (Ospreys, capt), R Moriarty (Dragons), J Tipuric (Ospreys), J Navidi (Cardiff Blues). Reps: R Elias (Scarlets), R Carre (Saracens), L Brown (Dragons), A Shingler (Scarlets), T Faletau (Bath), R Webb (Bath), J Evans (Cardiff Blues), J McNicholl (Scarlets).

WATCH: Jim Hamilton discusses the ramifications of the Six Nations going behind a TV paywall

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TL 52 minutes ago
Joe Schmidt bows out on a high - but can the Wallabies escape 'the twilight zone'?

All of that seems fair enough, aside from the 10 criticism: Lynagh was injured so not up for selection this year + missed most of SR, Noah went to Japan league 2, maybe an argument for bringing him back in early, but we had Carter. Dono and Meredith (who looks decent enough). Definitely not a straightforward call. Edmed was an experiment that didn’t bear fruit, I’m happy to forgive him that one though, because he did what Cheik and Rennie didn’t do, which was consistently look to develop young 10s in the face of criticism (Rennie’s chopping and changing wasn’t great for Noah, and it was back to the future too often for Cheik, which hurt our development pathways e.g. Mack Mason, Jack Maddocks, and too often gambling on people out of position—more than Joe!). Tane is one specific failed experiment. l just wish we had a more scrupulous punditry when it comes to the recent past (your obvs not in the crosshairs here, it’s the Aussie media). TBH, I worry about the identity piece: feel it should be the salt on the meal, rather than the meal. The Reds are full of Aussie identity but they play the most hairpulling rugby at times and the identity seems to excuse this, while the Brums with less talent and less of an identity in the Australian mould over perform. To be optimistic, maybe it does look a little like the Ireland transition with Les coming in a bit like Farrell, seemingly more of a emotive, man motivator type than the technician Joe. What would have been fantastic and helped everything also was for RA not to burn bridges with Lancaster and be able to get him back and have the Tahs cooking, that is one big piece of the puzzle (the Tahs) that will make our national coach’s job a lot easier.

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