{"id":337069,"date":"2023-10-07T22:55:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-07T22:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=337069"},"modified":"2023-10-07T23:01:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T23:01:00","slug":"wales-rocked-by-major-injury-ahead-of-quarter-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=337069","title":{"rendered":"Wales rocked by major injury ahead of quarter-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tournament ending broken arm to Taulupe Faletau and Gareth Anscombe's groin injury marred a box ticking Wales win against Georgia by 43-19 at the Rugby World Cup on Sunday (AEDT).<\/a><\/p>\n

Faletau was the only forward to have started every Wales<\/a> game in France at his third World Cup<\/a> and came off clutching his arm.<\/p>\n

The No.8's absence is a major setback to Wales' chances in the quarter-finals next week.<\/p>\n

Watch all the action from Rugby World Cup 2023 on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> Every match ad free, live and on demand in 4K UHD<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Taulupe<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt he was starting to come back to his best,\u201d Wales coach Warren Gatland said.<\/p>\n

"He was excellent last week (against Australia) in terms of his footwork and carrying and stuff, taking kickoffs and giving us some go forward as well. It's a big loss for us."<\/p>\n

\u201cWe'll have to make a decision in terms of how we look at the balance of the back row going forward and in particular for next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> The story behind anguished Wallabies star's photo<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>'Blame myself': Eddie reveals great World Cup regret<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Referee ripped after Junior Paulo's dominant KO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Wales<\/p>\n

Anscombe was due to start at flyhalf against Georgia but tweaked his groin while kicking in the warm-up and withdrew.<\/p>\n

The injury was high up, Gatland said, and more will be known in 48 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe's got a bit of power and stood on his leg which is a positive, it means it\u2019s not come off the bone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

NEW PODCAST! Michael Atkinson and Sam Worthington preview a thrilling final round of pool games to decide the quarter-finalists at the Rugby World Cup in France\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/rugby-world-cup-inside-line\/pray-for-portugal\/embed?in_playlist=podcast&style=Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

But it's doubtful whether Anscombe will be fit in a week, and Wales' usual starting 10 Dan Biggar was already carrying a damaged pectoral muscle from against Australia two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

When Anscombe was hurt, Sam Costelow played flyhalf and Biggar was pressed onto the bench, though he was the only reserve not to be used.<\/p>\n

The bonus point win gave Wales 19 points out of a possible 20 in pool play and secured a quarterfinal next weekend in Marseille against Argentina or Japan, who meet on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Wales needed only a point to win Pool C and secured it with a fourth try in the 67th minute that ended a Georgia comeback from 24-7 down to 24-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit messy and ugly but we got the job done,\u201d Gatland said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1710671277592047932?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Probably because of seven changes to the team after crushing Australia, and having a quarter-final already sewn up before kickoff, Wales played without an edge.<\/p>\n

It went through the motions against a Georgia side that took half an hour to get its game clicking.<\/p>\n

By then, it was 17-0 down and chasing, and Wales simply waited for errors.<\/p>\n

The errors came, and the biggest beneficiary was wing Louis Rees-Zammit, who scored three of Wales' six tries.<\/p>\n

Wales didn't take long to take charge.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1710669110433157127?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

When the backs butchered a four-on-two, prop Tomas Francis barged over and scored.<\/p>\n

Then Costelow threaded a beautiful pass between Georgian defenders for Liam Williams to touch down, and three goalkicks put Wales 17-0 up after 27 minutes.<\/p>\n

Georgia made its first entry into the Wales 22 count by forcing an attacking lineout and captain Merab Sharikadze ran over George North to score inside the posts.<\/p>\n

Only 17-7 behind at halftime, Georgia needed to score next and was building again.<\/p>\n

But centre Giorgi Kveseladze played first receiver and threw a pass to nobody except North, who sent Rees-Zammit flying away untouched in the 43rd.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1710665837852414106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Georgia wasn't fazed with 11 starters from the historic first win against Wales last November.<\/p>\n

Soft penalties by Wales gave Georgia the territory to score twice in three minutes.<\/p>\n

Replacement hooker Vano Karkadze powered over, then wing Davit Niniashvili smoked the defence and finished with a swan dive.<\/p>\n

The Lelos were only 24-19 behind and suddenly a game broke out with a quarter to go.<\/p>\n

But Wales, just as suddenly, killed the tension with successive tries finished by Rees-Zammit from a Williams chip ahead, then his own kick ahead from 60 metres out.<\/p>\n

\"Louis<\/p>\n

He dribbled the ball into the in-goal and didn't appear to apply downward pressure but the try is in the record books.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get the ball in his hands a little bit more,\u201d Gatland said with a smile.<\/p>\n

In between those Rees-Zammit tries, Niniashvili didn't like a tackle over the sideline by Wales' Taine Basham and they started a melee which ended with both of them in the sin-bin for the rest of the match.<\/p>\n

The game finished with Rees-Zammit turning provider for North's try as Wales remedied a couple of bogeys by beating Georgia after the humiliation of a year ago, and returning to Nantes for the first time since 2007, when Wales was upset by Fiji and eliminated in the pool stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tournament ending broken arm to Taulupe Faletau and Gareth Anscombe's groin injury marred a box ticking Wales win against Georgia by 43-19 at the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":337071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=337069"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337077,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337069\/revisions\/337077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/337071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=337069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=337069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=337069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}