Wales coach Warren Gatland says he is hopeful of a resolution to Welsh rugby's strike situation today ahead of Wales' Six Nations clash with England.
Gatland has remained confident that the match this weekend would still take place despite the threat of players going on strike amid a contract dispute with Welsh rugby bosses. The Wales coach had been due to name his team on Tuesday, but decided to delay it at the last minute due to the uncertainty facing players.
A training session scheduled for Tuesday afternoon was also called off.
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Despite that, Gatland remains confident that the match will take place as scheduled - even being hopeful a resolution could be reached before Wednesday, the deadline that players had made for their demands to be met.
"Absolutely, yeah (I'm confident). I'm hearing positive things from both sides.
"I'm confident that with the discussions taking place, that it will get resolved today. There have been half-a-dozen meetings over the last few days or so."
When asked if he had been given assurances the match at the Principality Stadium would take place, Gatland replied: "Not at the moment."
Speaking about the training session that was called off today, Gatland said: “It’s been a challenge. You have to put those things behind you and focus on the game.
"Today was supposed to be a double session. We went a bit longer this morning with training because there’s been so many things outside of rugby so it was an opportunity for players to get away from it and refocus individually ahead of Thursday, ready to go.”
A meeting between the Professional Rugby Board and Welsh professional players is set to take place on Wednesday afternoon. Gatland added that his squad had already sat in around "half a dozen" other meetings on the subject in the last few days.
"Hopefully everyone will turn up on Thursday raring to go on Saturday. It's been a bit of a challenge but sometimes that galvanises people and brings them together," added Gatland.
"In fairness to the players, at training this morning they put their training heads on and trained well. We had a good week last week in terms of working the players incredibly hard and they responded well to that.
"There are big things going on, we're aware of that, but we're pleased with how they've trained.
"Discussions are taking place today and hopefully the players will be happy with the outcome.
"Things will hopefully get resolved today and we can just focus on the game on Saturday."
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