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Wales suffer crucial injury blow before All Blacks test

Liam Williams

Wales have suffered a major blow with versatile weapon Liam Williams ruled out of this weekend’s test against the All Blacks, severely denting their chances of ending a 64-year old drought against the men in black.

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Williams will be sidelined with an abdominal injury suffered in the 13-6 victory over Georgia last weekend.

Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards said that Wales is taking the ‘next man up’ siege mentality.

“The next guy on the roster is up. I think Steff [Evans] and Hallam [Amos] have got a pretty good chance of getting picked. We’ll work it out,” Edwards told reporters on Tuesday (NZT Wednesday).

“We’ve gone from having the biggest backline in world rugby to one of the smallest.”

Williams, who can play at fullback or on the wing and was a stand-out performer for the British and Irish Lions in their drawn series with the All Blacks in June, playing a major role in scoring one of the best Lions tries of all time in the first test.

The loss of Williams will be felt on attack, with Williams elusive running style hard to replace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLIV4EQ4c4k

 

 

 

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SK 1 hour ago
The times are changing, and some Six Nations teams may be left behind

If you are building the same amount of rucks but kicking more is that a bad thing? Kicks are more constestable than ever, fans want to see a contest, is that a bad thing? kicks create broken field situations where counter attacks from be launched from or from which turnover ball can be exploited, attacks are more direct and swift rather than multiphase in nature, is that a bad thing? What is clear now is that a hybrid approach is needed to win matches. You can still build phases but you need to play in the right areas so you have to kick well. You also have to be prepared to play from turnover ball and transition quickly from the kick contest to attack or set your defence quickly if the aerial contest is lost. Rugby seems healthy to me. The rules at ruck time means the team in possession is favoured and its more possible than ever to play a multiphase game. At the same time kicking, set piece, kick chase and receipt seems to be more important than ever. Teams can win in so many ways with so many strategies. If anything rugby resembles footballs 4-4-2 era. Now football is all about 1 striker formations with gegenpress and transition play vs possession heavy teams, fewer shots, less direct play and crossing. Its boring and it plods along with moves starting from deep, passing goalkeepers and centre backs and less wing play. If we keep tinkering with the laws rugby will become a game with more defined styles and less variety, less ways to win effectively and less varied body types and skill sets.

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