Left: Warren Gatland, Wales coach
Top Right: Rhys Webb injured
Bottom Right: Leigh Halfpenny stretchered off
Following Saturday’s narrow win over Italy, Wales have now been hit by the news and reality that Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb are out of the Rugby Wolrd Cup, their injuries serious enough to keep them out of the tournament in total.
Leigh Halfpenny:
Leigh Halfpenny suffered torn right knee ligaments in a warm-up match against Italy at the weekend.
Toulon star Halfpenny, 1 of the outstanding goal-kickers of his generation, sustained the injury in Wales’ hard-fought 23 / 19 win over the Azzurri at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium last Saturday.
Halfpenny, 26, underwent a scan on Monday and Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal said that his star fullback would now be out for around 6 months.
The Welsh Rugby Union added: “Wales fullback Leigh Halfpenny has suffered an ACL injury, ruling him out of the forthcoming Rugby World Cup.
“Leigh will undergo further examination and assessment before further details are announced.”
Wales kick off their Rugby World Cup campaign against Uruguay on 20 September, going on to play hosts England, Fiji and 2-time champions Australia in the toughest of the 4 pools.
The line-up means at least 1 of Rugby Union’s major nations won’t qualify for the quarterfinals as only the top 2 teams go through to the last 8.
Halfpenny’s injury is a further cruel blow for Wales coach Warren Gatland, who already lost key centre Jonathan Davies at the start of the off-season.
Halfpenny’s understudy Liam Williams is only himself coming back from a broken bone in his foot.
Gatland will now look to call up a replacement for Halfpenny, likely to come down between New Zealand-born utility back Gareth Anscombe, who is also currently out for up to 3 weeks with an ankle ligament injury, and James Hook. Both are proven kickers.
Rhys Webb:
Wales’ Rugby World Cup hopes took another heavy blow on Tuesday with the announcement that 1st-choice scrumhalf Rhys Webb has been ruled out of the tournament with a foot injury.
Webb, last season’s Welsh player of the year, was injured during the 23 / 19 World Cup warm-up victory over Italy in Cardiff on Saturday.
“Wales scrumhalf Rhys Webb has sustained a significant midfoot injury ruling him out of the forthcoming Rugby World Cup.
Rhys will undergo further examination and assessments on both his foot and knee before further details can be announced,” the Wales Rugby Union said in a press release.
Replacements:
Wales head coach Warren Gatland has called Mike Phillips and Eli Walker into his Rugby World Cup squad to cover for the 2 injuries.
Scrumhalf Phillips has won 94 caps for Wales and was a surprise omission when Gatland named his 31-man tournament squad, while Ospreys wing Walker made his international debut against Ireland last month.
“It is extremely disappointing for both Leigh and Rhys,” Gatland said.
“They have worked exceptionally hard to establish themselves on the world stage and to prepare for the tournament and we wish them all the best with their recovery.
“After announcing the squad we spoke about the need for players to remain ready for action and it is a great opportunity for Mike and Eli.
“It’s great that we can call on players of this calibre. To bring Mike’s experience into the squad is a bonus along with Eli’s exciting talent.”
Wales are in the toughest-looking group in the 1st round up against hosts England, former winners Australia, Fiji and Uruguay.
Got to feel for the young men getting injured so close to the competition, but I guess it’s a risk every player takes.
The loss of Halfpenny is a massive blow to the Taffy Bastids.
2 @ BrumbiesBoy:
Thanks ou Perdjie!
Ja, die tyd stap aan…
Slept in a bit today, but the freegin phone started ringing off the hook from 07:22 onwards… eish!
@ grootblousmile:
Flok, so that’s why your phone was engaged when I tried at 07:23!
Have a good one, boet!
@ grootblousmile:
You been holding out on us GBS?
A belated “many happy returns”.
Hope you had a great evening.
5 @ Scrumdown:
Had a really, really good day yesterday…
Got up a little later, was spoilt rotten, and for a change everything just fell into place work wise… was actually a very productive day!
6 @ grootblousmile:
Glad you had a good Tuesday.
I certainly hope your Saturday is miserable (from Rugby point at least).
7 @ Scrumdown:
Hahaha
Big one for our 2 teams…
Golden Lions are more settled into their patterns and style of play, whereas the Blue Bulls under Nollis Marais is still building those structures and play patterns, but they seem to be a happy camp now.
If I was the Golden Lions, I would try to disrupt these new structures & patterns of play at the Blue Bulls… break them down and then hammer the advantage home.
On the other hand, being a Blue Bulls supporter, I would be looking to exploit the now already established weaker aspects of Golden Lions play (not that there are that many to exploit)… maybe attacking wide on the wings, exploit the Golden Lions tendency to attack from anywhere with great counter-attacks.
The Golden Lions scrum should dominate the weaker Blue Bulls scrums, lineouts should be about equal… so the Blue Bulls MUST put a huge emphasis on the breakdown situations, cut their error rate down and take points when on offer.
It is difficult to judge who will win or who to pick on SuperBru for this game.
We should see some very entertaining rugby!
8 @ grootblousmile:
Hmm. What odds a draw?
A bunch of us Lions supporters are thinking of going, but haven’t finalised anything yet.
I’m not even sure where I’ll be on the weekend, might be in the Piet Retief area with a few Solar Power & Mobile Repeater installations to do… if I do not go on Friday, I’ll probably leave on Tuesday to come back Thursday…. and I’ll take 2 or 3 Half-Techie Installers with me to do the hard graft of climbing on roofs and in ceilings and drilling holes through walls & shit, whilst I just direct traffic and bark orders and commission the units.
The quotes are already accepted by the 3 clients, just waiting for full payment into my bank before I twitch a finger on processing the orders.
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