Here are the latest rugby headlines on Sunday, August 6.
Gatland says just three Wales players guaranteed to start amid Faletau doubts
Warren Gatland has revealed that he knows just three of his best starting Wales XV.
A youthful Wales side defeated England 20-9 on Saturday in the first of two consecutive Rugby World Cup warm-ups against Steve Borthwick’s men.
A number of players really put their hands up for squad selection, including new captain Jac Morgan and No. 8 Aaron Wainwright, while five new caps ran out for the first time on the same day Leigh Halfpenny earned his 100th.
During a post-match interview on Amazon Prime Video, Gatland admitted he would only be certain of three players if he had to name a starting Wales XV for the World Cup.
Wales have two more warm-ups, away to England on August 12 and at home to South Africa on August 19, before Gatland names his final 33-man World Cup squad the following week.
“If we were to name a starting team tomorrow [for Fiji] then we’d probably only have about three names nailed on,” he said.
“There’s some serious competition in this squad, we’ve got three quality sevens, Faletau, we know how good he is but is he going to be fit? Some options at six, Dan Lydiate will probably get a run out next week. Great to see Will Rowlands back, Daf Jenkins was excellent today and Ben Carter came on and did a really good job for us as well and two new caps in the front row. Elliot Dee came on and was excellent for us as well. It’s a really nice position to be in and we’ll get some good confidence from that game today going into next week.”
As for the combination he is going for in the back row, the New Zealander added: “We’ve mixed and matched and I know with Sam Warburton there were periods when him and Justin Tipuric played six and seven, but the ideal scenario is you want an out-and-out seven and you’ve got to mix that with a physical six and eight who tend to play a bit tighter. In the past our best combination was when we had Lydiate at six, Warburton at seven which allowed Faletau to play a bit wider. We’re just trying to find a balance.”
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Wales injury update
Injuries to Wales hooker Ryan Elias and lock Dafydd Jenkins threatened to take the gloss off their victory against England, with both set to undergo scans on Monday.
Hooker Elias left the field as early as the sixth minute while second-row Jenkins suffered a knee injury in the second half.
Head coach Gatland said: “They’ll be scanned on Monday. Ryan looks like a slight hamstring tear but it’s not too bad. I thought the two second-rows were great, so with Daf we are hoping it isn’t too serious a knee injury.
“There was a bit of mixing and matching going on with Taine Plumtree coming on and going into the second-row. Taine Plumtree rolled his ankle and we wanted to get him off. It was one of those games we wanted to get the subs on early no matter what, and if we went down to 14 men that’s not a bad experience in a warm-up game as well. Thankfully we were able to keep us to 15.”
Wales had won only two of their previous 10 games but Gatland, who took over for a second stint before the 2023 Six Nations Championship, believes his squad have benefited from pre-World Cup camps in Switzerland and Turkey.
He said: “I think we’ve done a lot of work as a group in the last eight weeks. The line-out defence was excellent and we competed well. Despite the scrum penalties, I thought we dominated there. I need some clarity from the referee in terms of the decisions.
“We were winning the collisions and the hit. It’s a good start. The pleasing thing is there’s a group of players who will get an opportunity next week who are desperate to perform.”
Steve Borthwick left pondering World Cup squad after Wales loss
By Phil Blanche, PA
Steve Borthwick said he would reflect ahead of his World Cup squad announcement following England’s lacklustre performance in their 20-9 defeat to Wales. England withered after leading 9-8 at the interval in Cardiff, making over 20 handling errors in total and being outshone after the break as head coach Borthwick was given plenty to ponder less than 48 hours before naming his World Cup squad.
“I will give a period of reflection,” Borthwick said. “I will reflect where I am in terms of the squad selection and whether this game changes anything or clarifies anything regarding that. It is another piece of information in terms of the full picture, which is what I was always after on each and every one of the players to make the best informed decision.
“This game informs many different elements and it is another step as we build forward through these four games. I’m looking forward to announcing the squad on Monday and the Test match against Wales at Twickenham next Saturday.”
England will also travel to Ireland and host Fiji before heading to the World Cup in France next month. Borthwick will be able to reintegrate players who were absent at the Principality Stadium but who are expected to start England’s World Cup opener against Argentina on September 9.
On England’s underwhelming display, Borthwick said: “We created a load of opportunities, but in Test rugby you have got to score when you are down there. Instead, we came away with three penalties. So, we created no scoreboard pressure.
“Our line-out and scrum went well in the first half, but at the mid-point in the second half, in both of those areas of the set piece we faltered. We also made a large number of handling errors and errors in contact against a team that jackal hard for the ball. We couldn’t sustain pressure because we turned the ball over.
“The turnover count I saw was 21 to nine and it’s very difficult to win Test matches with that. We created opportunities in the opposition 22 and we’ve got to take them. We’re still in quite a big training phase and we will sharpen up over the next three games together.”
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Ireland boss shrugs off injury concerns amid ‘clunky’ win over Italy
By Ed Elliot, PA, Dublin
Andy Farrell played down the severity of injuries suffered by Jack Conan, Jimmy O’Brien and Craig Casey during Ireland’s “clunky” World Cup warm-up win over Italy.
Number eight Conan was pictured in a protective boot following his first-half withdrawal in Dublin, while full-back O’Brien and scrum-half Casey were taken off with shoulder and back issues respectively.
Caelan Doris shone for the Guinness Six Nations champions with two tries in a 33-17 victory in which Dave Kilcoyne, Stuart McCloskey and replacement Cian Healy were also on the scoresheet.
Speaking of the injury concerns, head coach Farrell said: “They seem not too bad. Jimmy’s shoulder has shut down a little bit, it’s something he’s had in the past. Jack lost power in his foot, he seems OK. Craig had a tight back which was making his hamstring cramp. They were taken off as precautions more than anything.”
An experimental Ireland side recovered from a sluggish start at a subdued Aviva Stadium to take control of the contest but did not fully convince, despite the comfortable scoreline.
“To get up and running with a victory is nice, but I think we all know really that it was a bit clunky, to say the least, at times,” said Farrell. There was some really good stuff as far as possession is concerned and opportunities to convert were there in spades. But we weren’t patient enough to be able to convert that, so I think that’s the morale of the story really.”
Back-rower Doris, selected in an unfamiliar role at openside flanker, was the standout performer, while Ciaran Frawley, Calvin Nash and Tom Stewart came off the bench to make Test debuts.
“I’m sick of him getting man of the match,” joked Farrell. “He just keeps getting better and better. We all know he’s good at jackalling and good over the ball and I don’t know whether he took that through the roof because he had a number seven on his back.
“He epitomises what we’re trying to do as far as the player being in control of his own mind. It doesn’t really matter whether he makes a mistake or two, he just gets on with the next job the whole time. He’s playing extremely well but he’s certainly growing as far as his leadership role is concerned as well. He’s coming on leaps and bounds.”
Ireland move on to a training camp in Portugal before taking on England and Samoa later this month.
Italy head coach Kieran Crowley said: “In the first half, we were dominated all over the place. Ireland were too good for us in that first half. Second half, we came back but we’ve still got a lot of work to do in our breakdown work and just in general with our management. I saw an improvement in that second half – we won the second half, I think, but that’s not winning the game.”
Scotland braced to be without Zander Fagerson for part of World Cup after red card
By Anthony Brown, PA
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend is braced for the possibility of losing Zander Fagerson for at least a portion of the World Cup after his red card in Saturday’s exhilarating 25-21 warm-up victory over France. The Scots produced a magnificent second-half fightback to overturn a 21-3 deficit at the break and record a morale-boosting 25-21 victory despite having the Glasgow prop sent off following a high challenge on Les Bleus hooker Pierre Bourgarit in the 50th minute.
Fagerson was initially yellow carded before having his punishment upgraded to a red a few minutes later after a review via the newly-implemented bunker system. With just two warm-up matches remaining – away to France and at home to Georgia – the Scots fear any suspension for Fagerson could carry over into the World Cup.
“Yes, of course there’s concern when someone picks up a red card,” said Townsend. “It’s a difficult one. The contact area is so fiercely competitive. France are a team that like to jackal and the hooker that Zander collided with is one of the best jackalers in world rugby.
“If it’s a timing issue or a height issue, yes, we have to make sure that we don’t get those head knocks, head collisions but there was no malice or foul play. It’s more from the rugby incident of mistiming on a ruck clear so we just have to hope that the judiciary see it the same as what we see.”
Fagerson was handed a four-game ban after being sent off following a similar incident against Wales in the 2021 Six Nations, but Townsend does not believe this offence was as severe.
“I’ve seen the incident again and he does adjust his feet,” said the head coach. “The one from the Wales game he comes in very quickly and at the time it was very understandable because someone else hadn’t gone to the ruck clearance so he knew if he didn’t come in quickly, Wyn Jones would have got the jackal.
“On this occasion he did adjust his feet so there’s nothing reckless in wasn’t as much speed, it wasn’t reckless, he just didn’t get underneath the French hooker’s chest area which can happen in all the 200 ruck clears there are in a game. What I hope for Zander and for us as a team is that they see there is nothing reckless in there, nothing was out of control, it’s just a timing issue that he couldn’t get underneath the jackaller.”
Townsend expects to find out Fagerson’s fate before their rematch against the French in Saint-Etienne next Saturday.
“Automatically any red card would go to a hearing and we’d expect that to be done by Tuesday or Wednesday,” he said. “It would affect our plans for next weekend and our World Cup squad is announced a week on Wednesday so we’ll need to know before then.”
Scotland lost another key man in the shape of Ben White, who limped off in the first half with an ankle injury, but Townsend is hopeful that it will not cause the scrum-half to miss the World Cup.
“He’s much more positive now,” said the head coach. “He got his foot trapped under him when they kicked through, he got high tackled and got his foot trapped under him.
“It was an area where he had an issue at the beginning of our World Cup camp but he’s been training fully now for the last six weeks and in initial testing (after the game) it seems OK.
“He’s off to hospital just to make sure there’s nothing in the scan so fingers crossed that he’s OK. It might be that he struggles to train this week but hopefully he’ll be available for the World Cup.”
