Welsh scrum-half Tomos Williams was good off the bench in the defeat by Argentina a week ago and he was building wonderfully on that performance against the Force, scoring twice, before he came off with what is being called a “tight hamstring”.
How tight? Head coach Andy Farrell tried to play a straight bat in the aftermath. “You don’t know until you know, and we’ll only know in the morning anyway,” said Farrell about the severity of the injury.
Might he fly out Scotland’s Ben White, who is nearby in Auckland with Gregor Townsend’s team on their three-match tour of the South Pacific? Jack van Poortvliet is another contender but he’s a long way away with England in Argentina.
“You have to let these things settle down and see what the outcome is, giving it a little bit of space, added Farrell. “I’ve not got a clue. There’s a little bit of concern there, but you can only deal with what you can deal with in the here and now, so fingers crossed.”
Jamison Gibson-Park is fit and should start in Brisbane on Wednesday. Alex Mitchell makes it two fully fit scrum-halves. The question here is whether Williams is going to need some time to recover but can stay on tour or is completely out. Either scenario surely means a call to Auckland.
Having only two fit scrum-halves for a period of time is not sensible, especially when one of them, Ireland’s Gibson-Park, is only just recovering from injury himself.
One game down in Australia and the spectre of injury has already hit. Hopefully, Williams, one of only two Welsh players, is fine. He’s a man in rich form, clearly capable of putting the heat on Gibson-Park, the frontrunner for the nine jersey in the Test series.
