WALES DIG DEEP IN INJURY CRISIS
Yet to start for his club this season but Jamie is tipped to be in from the off on Saturday after proving he’s got the fight stuff
BY BATTERED AND bruised Wales admit they have never known an injury crisis like this autumn.
Wayne Pivac (below) has seen his ranks decimated by the absence of key figures with captain Alun Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, George North, Justin Tipuric and Josh Navidi among those having treatment. The long list of those in the sick bay yesterday prompted forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys to admit: “We are probably as deep as we can go in nearly all positions.” Wales were beaten by New Zealand and South Africa in their first two autumn clashes and only inched past 14-man Fiji thanks to a late salvo inspired by Louis ReesZammit’s wonder try. Pivac’s men finish off their campaign against Australia at Principality Stadium on Saturday. But Will Rowlands (left) and
WillGriff John are set to add to the injury list after taking head knocks against Fiji. Tomas Francis (head), Josh Adams (calf) and Aaron Wainwright (shoulder) are all big doubts to face Australia too. Humphreys added: “The tanks are low right now, but I know that come the weekend we are going to be ready for the fight.
“This autumn has been brilliant for us in terms of finding out about people who can add to our depth. I don’t see it as frustrating at all. “Rather than look at the negatives of we’re missing all these players, the bigger picture is telling us we’ve got a team that can fight toe-to-toe even with all those injuries. Australian captain Michael Hooper has been ruled out of the match. He won his 118th Test cap in Australia’s 32-15 defeat by England on Saturday but went off with a foot injury during the second half. Prop James Slipper will captain the team against Wales.
JAMIE BLAMIRE has convinced England he is up to starting against South Africa by graduating with honours from the Fight Club.
Super sub Blamire has not played a single match from the off ALL season either for club or country.
Yet Newcastle’s reserve hooker, 23, (left) is the first England forward ever to score a try in four successive internationals.
And if six tries in the first four matches of his fledgling Test career is not astonishing enough, he now finds himself in line to face the world champions at Twickenham on Saturday.
Injuries to front-line duo Luke Cowan-Dickie and Jamie George has left
England’s cupboard bare when it comes to experience at hooker.
This is not the game Eddie Jones would choose to have to pick from Blamire, Jack Singleton and Nic Dolly (below) – three players with one start between them.
Yet forwards coach Matt Proudfoot, who steered the Springboks to 2019 World Cup final victory over England before swapping sides, says Blamire, if called upon, has the mettle to trump his lack of experience.
Proudfoot said: “It’s about what is inside the man, that’s what we look for firstly. In Jamie we identified a strong character and someone who has a lot of personal fight.
“When he came into camp in the summer we chucked him into what we call the Fight Club – where the front row do a lot of extra work – and the way he ripped in was really promising.
“It showed a lot about what is inside the man. We know he has a big future ahead of him and we’ve invested in him.”
Blamire is a rookie when it comes to the set-piece and a hat-trick of tries on his only start against Canada, and one apiece against each of the USA, Tonga and Australia does not change that.
“But whenever an opportunity presents itself, it’s about how the person grabs that opportunity,” Proudfoot added.
“You can go back in history and look at every great player. The first time they got the opportunity, the narrative would have been, ‘Is he ready? Isn’t he ready?’ “Jamie will improve over the years, he’ll improve his technique – he’ll get better at what he does. “But for me, on Saturday, it’s about what’s in that jersey, who is putting that white jersey on. “I’ve a lot of confidence in any of the front-rowers we’re going to pick to put that white jersey on.”
Proudfoot knows first hand the power of the South Africa pack heading for Twickenham and set up England’s Fight Club to build warriors to counter it.
He said: “It is where we do extra contact work and extra body position work. Where we take the front row through extra technical, binding and physical work to improve them as players.
“Playing the world champions is always big challenge. They have proved over the last two years they are the best in the world and they deserve that title.
“You can either face it or back away from it and our mindset is to go straight at it and not back away.
“I am confident the young guys will be up for the challenge.”