Gatland sweats over Davies injury ahead of Georgia

JONATHAN DAVIES is a doubt for the rest of Wales’ November series – Georgia are next up on Saturday – after he was forced off injured in the 29-21 defeat to Australia.

“It looks like an ankle injury,” Warren Gatland said. “He has been strapped up and is on a crutch. It doesn’t look brilliant, but we will know probably in the next 24 hours or so.”

The injury to the Lions centre won’t have helped Gatland’s mood as he watched his side suffer a 13th consecutive defeat to the Wallabies.

“I don’t think there is anything that showed that there is a mental block about playing Australia,” Gatland insisted.

“We were architects of our own downfall because of us not being accurate enough in the first-half.

“Given the potency they have got as an attacking team, we made it easier for them. We got more accurate as the game went on. No-one is thinking remotely about a mental block about playing Australia.

“I thought it was a much better second-half performance. We allowed Australia opportunities from us being inaccurate with some of our exit plays in our 22, which put us under a lot of pressure. As the game went on I thought we got stronger and stronger.

“I felt if Kurtley Beale had not scored that sort of freakish try, there was a good chance we could have won the game. Against a side of that quality, you have just got to be a bit more clinical. We probably tried to force a few too many passes and off-loads.”

Elsewhere, Gregor Townsend earned his first home win as Scotland boss as his side survived a late scare from Samoa.

In a cracking contest that saw 11 tries scored, the hosts edged it with two from Stuart McInally, and one each for Stuart Hogg, Huw Jones, Alex Dunbar and Peter Horne.

“The opposition are going to force you into errors because they are excellent players, and we know on all aspects of the game we have to be better and we know that going into next week,” Townsend maintained.

“There are a couple of areas that we will definitely have to be better to take on what is currently the best team in the world (New Zealand). I think we knew from both attack and defence that it wasn’t going to be perfect.”