Under pressure... Could Halfpenny be a fall-guy as Wales look for new ideas?

ALEX Dunbar and Richie Gray have added to Scotland’s injury problems with the Six Nations only a week-and-a-half away.

Dunbar came off in Glasgow Warriors’ victory over Exeter Chiefs at the weekend following a head knock, while Gray is currently nursing a calf injury.

The lock will remain with club side Toulouse to continue his rehabilitation and it appears as though the 28-year-old will miss this weekend’s Top 14 encounter against Oyonnax.

After seeing their front-row decimated with Alasdair Dickinson, WP Nel, Zander Fagerson, Allan Dell, Darryl Marfo and Simon Berghan currently absent, this will add to head coach Gregor Townsend’s frustrations.

“Richie has a calf issue. He’s in France at the moment.

“We’re hoping he’ll be joining us at some point in the near future,” forwards coach Dan McFarland said.

“Hopefully it will be relatively soon. We were disappointed for Richie.

“When you think of all the time Richie took to come back from his [back] injury. He has played over the last two or three games and has been looking athletic. He was getting round the park as if he had never been away from that.

“There were bits of his game he was looking to improve and we had been in contact over those things. He was looking in a really good position to step on. We would have liked to have seen him play this weekend but it looks like he won’t. That was a disappointment.” WALES attack coach Rob Howley has admitted senior players are under pressure to keep their places ahead of the Six Nations opener against Scotland.

And full-back Leigh Halfpenny is among them.

When fit, Halfpenny has been long been one of the first names etched on the Wales team-sheet, a rock at the back with a reputation as one of the deadliest kickers in world rugby.

Since returning from the knee injury that ended his 2015 World Cup hopes, the 29-year-old has been an ever-present in the Welsh back three.

During the 2016 November series, he started in all four matches, three at full-back and once on the wing, the position where he started his career a decade ago.

He was at 15 in all of Wales’s matches during last year’s Six Nations and all three against the southern hemisphere big guns this autumn.

However, as Wales look to develop a more expansive, attacking game leading into the next global gettogether in Japan and with the emergence of young talents like Steff Evans and Josh Adams, Halfpenny is no longer a shoo-in...