Rugby World Cup 2015: Gatland frets over injury count as attention turns to England
WALES 54 URUGUAY 9
Wales coach Warren Gatland admitted that a number of his walking wounded are in danger of missing Saturday’s showdown with England after injuries blighted their bonus-point victory over Uruguay at the Millennium Stadium yesterday.
Centre Cory Allen, who became the fifth Welsh player to score a Rugby World Cup hat-trick, is a major doubt for the remainder of the tournament after suffering a hamstring injury described by Gatland as “significant”.
There are also question marks over full-back Liam Williams, who picked up a thigh injury 35 minutes into his return from foot surgery, while props Samson Lee and Paul Jarvis suffered calf injuries.
“Cory’s got a significant tear in his hamstring and at this stage it looks like he’ll definitely need to be replaced. But he’ll be scanned on Monday,” said Gatland, whose side entered the tournament without key trio Jonathan Davies, Rhys Webb and Leigh Halfpenny.
“Hopefully some of those players will recover over the next couple of days. The next day we’re back in training is Wednesday to get ready for Saturday.
“Sometimes you go through a spate of picking up injuries and you have to deal with that.”
Aside from Allen’s treble, scrum-half Gareth Davies touched down twice, while there were also tries for Lee, wing Hallam Amos and flanker Justin Tipuric, while fly-half Rhys Priestland kicked seven conversions.
Uruguay had led 6-0 courtesy of two penalties from the boot of fly-half Felipe Berchesi, who added a third to complete Los Teros’s scoring, before Wales’s predicted romp to victory ensued.
Despite dominating the scrum, Gatland was left unimpressed the composure shown by his backs in possession, although he declared himself satisfied with the potentially group-defining bonus point.
“The number of turnovers was a bit disappointing. We had 24 turnovers, handling errors,” added Gatland. “Respecting the ball and keeping the ball in hand is a big thing. I was pleased up front. We stuck to the task and I was pretty happy with some of the performances. Tipuric was outstanding again. Jake Ball had a really strong game for us and the front five stuck to their task as well.”