Liam Williams and Samson Lee will start for Wales in the World Cup opener against Uruguay a week on Sunday, but otherwise the World Cup semi-finalists, at the end of a week when they had to deal with the loss of two leading backs, will be keeping their frontline players back for the Twickenham encounter against England six days later.
Williams, who will replace the injured full-back Leigh Halfpenny, and the tighthead prop Samson Lee have not played since last season after having foot and achilles tendon operations respectively. They have resumed full training but will not be considered against England unless they have played in the opener.
“Time on the rugby field is important to any professional player,” said the Wales attack coach, Rob Howley. “Given the length of time both Rhys [Webb] and Samson have been out, you can expect them to be starting against Uruguay in that first game. It is fair to say that they need to do so to be in the running for England.”
Wales lost Halfpenny and the scrum-half Webb to injury after last weekend’s final warm-up match to Italy having learned to live without the Lions centre Jonathan Davies, who damaged knee ligaments at the end of last season. The lock Alun Wyn Jones suffered a knee strain playing against Ireland last month, but is expected to be fit for Uruguay, along with Jamie Roberts, who suffered bruised ribs in Dublin, although neither will be risked against the minnows of the group.
“From here on in, it is important everyone is fit and after what happened to Leigh and Rhys, we have to look after our key players,” said Howley. “We made decisions in recent weeks to play players after speaking with them. They wanted to play and felt a bit undercooked: going into a game against England not having played for weeks or having had one match in six months is a huge ask at this level.”
While Williams, if he proves his fitness, is a nailed-on replacement for Halfpenny, the picture at scrum-half is less clear with the relatively inexperienced Gareth Davies and Lloyd Williams joined in the squad by the 99-cap Mike Phillips.
“We made the decision to leave out Mike originally because of the three nines we had and the way we wanted to pay the game,” said Howley. “I have spoken to Mike several times this week: the way he dealt with not being selected showed his maturity and is a huge positive for us. He brings experience and he is a streetfighter whose physical attributes are known to everyone. We are fortunate to be able to call on him.”
The loss of Halfpenny will rob Wales of a player capable of kicking penalties from 60 metres. “It changes the landscape for us a bit because there will be times when we kick for the corner rather than for goal,” said Howley. “Matches against top nations are about dominating the white zone and with Leigh’s kicking prowess, we have not gone into it too often.
“His kicking is phenomenal and he will be missed, but Dan Biggar is a quality kicker and the challenge for him this tournament will be to kick and play.”
