Gatland faces a timely selection headache
WARREN Gatland will be able to call on a host of big names as he names his Wales team to face Ireland at noon today.
British and Irish Lions Dan Biggar, Taulupe Faletau, Liam Halfpenny and Liam Williams have reported as fit and available for the trip to Dublin in a significant boost to the Kiwi, set for his 100th Test in charge.
Gatland must now decide whether to stick with the players who have engineered a win over Scotland and a bonus-point defeat to England or introduce some of his stars for a match his team must win if they are to have any hopes of reclaiming the title. Options: Warren Gatland has a number of big names available
The back three is particularly crowded after Williams, George North and Hallam Amos all played for their clubs last weekend, while Halfpenny was a late withdrawal from the England game. Biggar and Faletau are two weeks ahead of schedule but are light on recent game time.
Scrum coach Robin McBryde said: “It’s nice to have headaches in a few positions. It’s always good to have plenty to choose from and there’s a competitive edge. It will be a tough call on a few individuals.”
Ireland, meanwhile, will hope to have Tadhg Furlong, Iain Henderson and James Ryan available for today’s pivotal training session at their Kildare base.
Furlong and Henderson have hamstring issues and have not trained fully since coming off against Italy last Saturday week, while Ryan has a hip issue and sat out training last week.
Schmidt usually rules players out if they cannot train on the Tuesday before a Test match. OWEN Farrell is blossoming into a “natural” Test match inside centre, according to World Cup winner Mike Tindall.
England’s most-capped centre Tindall has hailed Farrell and George Ford for forging a “genuine partnership” at 10 and 12 in Eddie Jones’ set-up.
The 2003 World Cup-winning midfielder believes England are itching to hit their free-flowing best in Saturday’s NatWest Six Nations clash in Scotland.
And the former Gloucester and Bath star expects British and Irish Lions playmaker Farrell to produce another top showing in the weekend’s Calcutta Cup en- Cool customer: Owen Farrell has impressed at inside centre
counter at BT Murrayfield.
“I used to think there would be a better option at 10 and 12 for England, but now Ford and Farrell are playing as a genuine partnership,” Tindall said.
“If I was going to pick my own pairing, I’d probably have Far- rell at 10. But the way the two of them have played in the last two games, Farrell’s actually playing like a natural 12 now, rather than a 10 playing at 12.
“He’s hitting lines, he’s fully acting as a distributing 12 as they like to see. And that’s allowing Ford to play better in terms of just bossing the game, running lines knowing Farrell’s off him, whereas before he’d be looking at space or putting in behind or what we do out the back.
“Now if there’s space, Farrell’s running straight at it, and it’s looking a lot better. Now it’s a viable inside back partnership.
“And we know how good Farrell is at 12 defensively and bossing the team, so it fits in well and is looking good at the moment.”