Wales are worried about the fitness of Dan Biggar and George North before Saturday’s Six Nations meeting with England in Cardiff.
Biggar, the outside-half whose 23 points helped Wales defeat England at Twickenham in the 2015 World Cup, suffered a rib injury during Sunday’s victory over Italy in Rome and failed to come out for the second half.
North, a Lions wing, sustained a dead leg in the first half but remained on the field and scored a try from 65 metres with three minutes to go. The flight home on Sunday night exacerbated the problem, however, and Wales have delayed announcing their side on Thursday by two hours so that it follows, rather than precedes, a training session.
“We are giving Dan and George as long as possible to make the game,” said the defence coach, Shaun Edwards. “They are two vital players for us. It is a matter of time as it is bruising rather than a pulled muscle and it is a question of whether they can handle the pain. We are worried about both of them.”
Wales will have their Lions No8 Taulupe Faletau available. He missed the trip to Rome because of a knee injury but has been passed fit this week. He has not played since Christmas Eve, however, and may be named among the replacements.
His only appearance in November came off the bench for the second half in the final Test of the month, against South Africa. “Sometimes you finish with your strongest team rather than start with it,” Edwards said. “There was the example of Ben Te’o coming off England’s bench last week. A number of big games are decided in the final 20 minutes.”
Edwards suggested that, if Biggar is passed fit, he would keep his place in the starting lineup despite the impact made by Sam Davies as the replacement fly-half against Italy. He was involved in Wales’s three tries, all of which were scored by three-quarters.
“We did not have much defending to do in the second half,” Edwards added. “We had all the ball when Sam came on and only had to make 11 tackles. Sam capitalised on the work that had been put in before and had some sublime touches which contributed to tries. We were very happy with his impact and sometimes your best attacking players are better on in the last quarter, when most tries are scored.”
Edwards said Wales were focusing on discipline, pointing out they conceded an average of seven penalties in their past five matches with no yellow cards: England have had one player sent off and three sent to the sinbin in their last three Tests.
“Discipline will be massive with the standard of the goalkickers on Saturday,” Edwards said. “A big part of winning a Six Nations is keeping 15 players on the pitch for all the games. Our discipline was excellent in Italy and it is a big thing going into Saturday.”
