Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Wales Online

Sport

Simon Thomas

How many minutes Wales' Six Nations players have actually had since the autumn as startling situation emerges

Wales (Organization) Six Nations Covid-19 Christ Tshiunza

Never before has a Wales coach been faced with a situation like it heading into a Six Nations campaign.

Yes, you’ve had injury crises in the past which has left the national side short of key, experienced men.

But you’ve never before had that combined with so many of the squad being so short of game-time.

That latter aspect is, of course, the legacy of the extraordinary nature of this season, amid the ongoing effects of the Covid pandemic.

We’ve had two of the regions hit by extended stays in hotel quarantine following ill-fated trips to South Africa, ruling players out for a lengthy period.

Then there have been the glut of postponements and cancellations for Covid-related reasons, leaving teams kicking their heels.

Add in the injuries which have further limited the game-time of some squad members and it’s a pretty concerning situation.

How concerning? Well, we’ve done the maths and the figures are startling.

Out of the 36-man squad selected by Wayne Pivac, no fewer than 23 of them have had less than 250 minutes of rugby since the autumn internationals.

Of those, 10 have had less than 150 minutes in those nine weeks.

Ross Moriarty hasn’t played at all due to the shoulder damage he sustained in the autumn opener against New Zealand, while injuries have contributed to Exeter back-five forward Christ Tshiunza and Ulster hooker Bradley Roberts having just 10 and 40 minutes of rugby respectively.

The 20-year-old Tshiunza made his first appearance for his Devon club in two months last weekend, with a brief outing off the bench against Montpellier, and now he has been sidelined after testing positive for Covid.

Given the number of players who have had limited action, Pivac has opted to release five of them back to the regions to get some game-time this weekend.

Flanker Moriarty will make his comeback for the Dragons at home to Benetton on Friday night and if he comes through that unscathed he could well be involved in the Six Nations opener against Ireland in Dublin on February 5.

Props Rhys Carre and Dillon Lewis will both line up for Cardiff against Leinster on Saturday evening, with tighthead Lewis having only had 40 minutes of rugby since the autumn Tests due to a foot problem.

Fly-half Gareth Anscombe also gets a run-out for the Ospreys versus Edinburgh, while Scarlets scrum-half Kieran Hardy will be itching to get out there having had the grand total of just 43 minutes in the past 10 weeks since figuring in the Fiji Test. Hardy will be up against Ulster, for whom hooker Roberts will also get some much needed game-time.

The five English exiles are all with their clubs this week and - aside from Tshiunza - it’s notable how much more rugby they have played than their Wales-based colleagues.

Bristol fly-half Callum Sheedy has had more minutes (560) than any other squad member since the autumn campaign, while Northampton’s Dan Biggar isn’t far behind on 480.

Then you’ve got Saracens centre Nick Tompkins with 443 minutes under his belt and Gloucester wing Louis Rees-Zammit with 413.

Of the home-based contingent, it is the Ospreys who have seen the most game-time, reflecting how they have been disrupted less than the other regions by Covid issues.

You’ve got centre Owen Watkin leading the way on 443 minutes, with forwards Adam Beard and Jac Morgan both on 400 minutes.

But those kind of figures are the exception to the norm when it comes to the bulk of the Wales-based gang.

Through no fault of their own, a number of players are pretty under-cooked and it remains to be seen just how that will impact upon performances when the Championship kicks off.