It’s Taul over for big Dragon
Wales Georgia 19
43
WALES completed a clean sweep of World Cup pool matches with a bonuspoint victory over Georgia – but at a huge cost.
The Dragons lost Taulupe Faletau late on with an arm injury, having seen Gareth Anscombe pull out in the warm-up after aggravating his groin.
“Faletau has broken his arm so he’ll be out,” said Wales coach Warren Gatland.
“We’re just going to assess Gareth over the next 72 hours. He’s pulled his groin very high up. Talking to the medics, he’s got a bit of power still in his leg, which is a positive.
“It means he’s not pulled it off the bone. We’ll probably know in the next 48-72 hours what we need to do with him. Whether we’ve got time for him to recover or replace him directly.
“We’ve got to look at a replacement for Faletau, whether that’s directly as a loose-forward or whether we look at another position.”
Wales had headed to Nantes, the scene of one of their worst World Cup memories having bombed out of the tournament here in 2007 against Fiji, needing only a point to seal top spot in Pool C.
They suffered a firstever defeat to Georgia in Cardiff just 11 months ago, but there was no slip-up here thanks to a hat-trick from Louis Rees-zammit.
Tight-head prop Tomas Francis forced his way over from close range for the opening score on 16 minutes. Wales’ second came seven minutes later, with Sam Costelow floating a delightful pass to put full-back Liam Williams over.
Costelow’s boot built the lead to 17 points, before Merab Sharikadze crashed over five minutes before the break to reward Georgia for a period of pressure in the Welsh 22.
After half-time, a loose Georgian pass handed Rees-zammit a run-in from his own half. Georgia scored their second just before the hour mark through Vano Karkadze and then Davit Niniashvili scythed through for a try that took the Lelos within a score of Wales.
Any fears of another Georgian upset were extinguished when Reeszammit latched onto Williams’ chip ahead to score his second.
Taine Basham and Niniashvili were both sent to the sin-bin after a scuffle broke out and Wales finished the job shortly after as Rees-zammit completed his hat-trick before George North added their sixth try at the death. On Rees-zammit, Gatland said: “To get a hat-trick was pleasing from his perspective.
“He needs to get the ball in his hands a little bit more and I want to see him taking players on one-on-one more. He’s got so much growth in him as a player, we’ve been really pleased with his progress.”
Gatland added: “It was a bit messy and ugly but we got the job done.” WALES: Tries: Francis, Li Williams, Rees-zammit (3), North; Pen: Costelow; Cons: Costelow (5) GEORGIA: Tries: Sharikadze, Karkadze, Niniashvili; Cons: Matkava (2)
We’ve got to look at a replacement, directly or in another position