Why Wayne Pivac has every confidence in Liam Williams after 20-week layoff
Wales head coach Wayne Pivac says Liam Williams and Josh Navidi are “ready to go” in Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations clash against England following lengthy injury lay-offs.
Scarlets wing Williams has not played since Wales beat World Cup quarter-final opponents France on October 20, suffering an ankle problem during training just a few days later. Back-row forward Navidi last featured on the pitch in mid-January before a subsequent hamstring issue laid him low.
But both players will start at Twickenham, with Williams replacing an injured Josh Adams and Navidi preferred to 75 times-capped number eight Taulupe Faletau, who is on the bench. “The key was to get enough volume into them,” said Pivac, who has also called up scrum-half Tomos Williams instead of Gareth Davies and selected prop Rob Evans over Wyn Jones.
“We’ve done that, and we think they are both ready to go. They’ve put in a lot of hard work to get to the start line this weekend. They are both very experienced players and they know their bodies as well as anyone. We are confident they can do a job for us.”
Wing George North and fly-half Dan Biggar, meanwhile, are both fit and retain their places following Wales’ defeat against France on February 22. North failed a head injury assessment during that game, but he has passed all return-to-play protocols and also been independently assessed by a concussion expert.
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Biggar has recovered after going off with a knee injury in his club Northampton’s loss to Saracens last weekend. Reflecting on the changes to his pack, Pivac added: “Wyn has had all the starts so far. He’s had a hip flexor (problem) and he hasn’t trained for about 10 days, and that has counted against him.
“Rob had a pretty good experience against England in the Six Nations last year, and he is chomping at the bit for an opportunity. Taulupe started on Sunday (for Bath against Bristol) and hasn’t trained fully until today. That has counted against him. He took a bump in the game on Sunday.
“That’s just one of the downsides to guys playing outside of Wales, having to play on a Sunday before a Test match. We think it’s better this weekend for him to come off the bench and have a smaller part in the game.”
Wales last beat England in the Six Nations at Twickenham eight years ago, and defeat on Saturday would make it three successive losses in one tournament for the first time since 2007. It is also the first occasion that new Wales supremo Pivac will have opposed England head coach Eddie Jones in the international arena.
“He is a fantastic coach,” Pivac said. “His track record speaks for itself. I find him one of the game’s great characters, and I am really looking forward to it and I’m looking forward to catching up with him afterwards. We’ve prepared as well as we can. We’ve got a good side taking the field.
“We are going there to try and improve each week, improve on the French performance which, apart from the scoreline, we did well in most areas of the game. I thought they (England) were very impressive against Ireland. Very impressive. They controlled that game from start to finish, dominating in virtually all areas.
“They wouldn’t have been happy with that first half against France, but since then, there was a bit of weather in Edinburgh which made it difficult. But judging them on that Ireland game, this is going to be a big task.”
– Press Association
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Comments on RugbyPass
Big 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
1 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 commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to comments