Shields suffers broken cheekbone on
Brad Shields endured a nightmare start to his Wasps career when the England flanker was taken to hospital last night with a fractured cheekbone that threatens his participation in the autumn Tests.
A bloodied Shields was forced to withdraw from the contest in the 44th minute after a clash of heads with Exeter scrum-half Stuart Townsend. Wasps
last night said he would be out for three to eight weeks, with a decision to be taken tomorrow on whether he required surgery.
There was a further back-row concern for England head coach Eddie Jones when Wasps No 8 Nathan Hughes suffered a hamstring injury as Exeter maintained their impressive start to the season with another high-octane, bonus-point victory.
“Brad took a nasty knock to his cheekbone, so he has gone to hospital to get it checked out. It doesn’t look great,” said director of rugby Dai Young. “It hasn’t been classed, although it could be concussion. We don’t seem to get much luck when it comes to injuries. He has been so excited about pulling the shirt on and playing his first game this week.
“He was really upset because he wasn’t playing last week. He had only
been here a week then. It will be a real blow for him and us if he’s out for a number of weeks. “Nathan came off with a tight hamstring. Fingers crossed he hasn’t pulled it or torn it – he doesn’t feel like he has. It just really tightened up, and he felt a bit compromised if the game opened out a bit more so we made that change.”
The injuries to Shields and Hughes were a cruel by-product of this dramatic contest, which showcased Premiership rugby at its very best in the week that the club owners will consider bids for a multi-million-pound stake in a league that they expect to be worth £1billion by 2025.
The result was only confirmed in the final minute, when Don Armand went over from close range for his side’s sixth try to leave Wasps with just a fourtry losing bonus point for their efforts.
It capped a thrilling final quarter
played under increasingly heavy rainfall during which Dan Robson had brought Wasps to within a score of victory with a sniping try of his own.
It had seemed as if a power-play by Exeter at the start of the second half, which culminated in a second try for
Sam Simmonds and also for Henry Slade, had been enough to ease Rob Baxter’s side to a comfortable victory.
Wasps, however, despite the back row injury setbacks, were able to rediscover some of the swagger that had seen them twice lead the contest in the first half after a stunning try by Elliot Daly and then Josh Bassett, with All Black fly-half Lima Sopoaga showing talent in a 35-minute cameo.
If Young was left to rue his side’s lack of ruthlessness in their finishing in contrast to Exeter, there was still much to take from the display, including an impressive rookie performance by Billy Searle, who created the try for Bassett and landed a long-range penalty before one of his passes was intercepted by Slade for his second try.
Matt Kvesic continued his resurgence with another impactful display at the breakdown while Kieran Brookes
delivered an eye-catching scrummaging performance to suggest he may yet rekindle his England career. Yet if Exeter could not quite replicate the intensity of their six-try rout over Leicester last weekend, Baxter’s side once again showed their class and character by weathering the opening by Wasps and appeared to control the contest once they had gained the lead in the first half after tries by Santiago Cordero, Simmonds and Slade.
Exeter may have been edged in the scrummaging contest, but they enjoyed line-out dominance, scoring their first two tries from a strong platform, while Simmonds and Slade did no harm to their England aspirations.
Gareth Steenson showed there is plenty of life left in his Exeter career too, having reclaimed the starting flyhalf position from Joe Simmonds.
While Wasps had been able to snatch