Wilson unsure on injuries as Bradbury joins Scotland squad

SCOTLAND assistant coach Danny Wilson says he is unable to provide any more detail about the extent of the knee injury that has ended Hamish Watson’s World Cup campaign, or the ankle injury that has Ali Price hobbling around on crutches and wearing a “moon boot”.

It was announced at lunchtime yesterday (Japanese time) that Watson will be replaced by his Edinburgh club-mate Magnus Bradbury, who is already in the country as precautionary injury cover while Jamie Ritchie gets over a facial fracture.

“It is obviously a major blow, losing him [Watson] from the squad,” said Wilson. “I can’t tell you a huge amount about the severity yet until he’s had the full assessment. It would be wrong for me to get that inaccurate, so we’ll wait for the full results on that.

“He is a very good player, who has played very well for Scotland. But, likewise, I’m pretty confident that Magnus can come in and bring a ball-carrying presence we maybe didn’t have, and we showed we didn’t have last night [during Scotland’s 27-3 defeat to Ireland in their World Cup opener].”

Wilson went on to say that while Watson was the only out-and-out openside in the squad, there is no shortage of options to fill the No.7 jersey.

“Jamie Ritchie has shown himself capable of playing openside, John Barclay has played openside and, as you saw on Sunday [hooker], Fraser Brown has played there for Scotland more than once and is a very capable rugby player who has just returned from an injury,” he said.

The coach was just as noncommittal when it came to Ali Price’s prognosis. No injury was reported regarding the player after the match, but the scrum-half was on crutches and wearing a “moon boot” when the team caught the bullet train from Tokyo to Kobe yesterday, ahead of preparations for their second pool match against Samoa next Monday.

“Again, he is going through the assessment,” said Wilson. “We got back to the hotel late last night and then we’ve been travelling but, over that time, the assessment process has been sorted so we should, by the end of play, have a bit more information.”