Wales delight as Tipuric wins his 14-month fight for fitness
JUSTIN Tipuric has finally been given the allclear to begin playing again after a 14-month fight to save his career.
The Ospreys’ master back row craftsman will be on the starting grid for the new season ready and able for another fight, to reaffirm his status amongst the global elite before a third and final World Cup next year.
Tipuric, last in action for the Lions against Japan at Murrayfield in June of last year, sustained damage severe enough for his employers to assess it as “resembling a road accident”.
Early estimates that he would recover in time for last season’s Six Nations proved to be wildly inaccurate.
The injuries having extended to multiple shoulder fractures, a second operation in the New Year left Tipuric no option but to write the season off which meant missing all 15 of Wales’ matches since their nearest of Grand Slam near-misses in Paris.
Toby Booth described the injuries at the time as “never seen in rugby before”. Now the Ospreys’ head coach confirms Tipuric’s full recovery with Wales rubbing their hands at the prospect of their 85Test flanker being fit and firing for the autumn series starting against New Zealand in November.
Tipuric, 33 last week, knows that the landscape has changed, that he faces serious competition on the openside of the back row, notably from Tommy Reffell and Taine Basham. Wales know that ‘Tips’ at the top of his all-round game puts him in a class of his own.
He will now hope to emulate fellow Ospreys Dan Lydiate and George North in returning to the big stage from serious injury. Both made an impact during last month’s encouraging series against the Springboks, their first Tests for almost 18 months since the early rounds of the 2021 Six Nations.
A fourth wounded Welsh Lion, Leigh Halfpenny, is also on course to start the season, some 15 months after rupturing knee ligaments in the first minute of his last match, Canada in Cardiff.
Wales have sent kicking coach Neil Jenkins to help sharpen Halfpenny’s marksmanship as a shortage of alternatives to full-back Liam Williams leaves the door wide open for Halfpenny to return, form permitting.
The three casualties of the Springbok series – Gareth Anscombe (rib cartilage), Alex Cuthbert (shoulder) and Tomas Francis (concussion) – are all due to be cleared to start the URC season sometime next month.
As the Welsh casualty list shortens, doubts persist over the future of another Lion, Ken Owens. He is said to be making ‘slow progress’ from the back trouble which made him a non-Test starter throughout last season but no date has been set for his return.