AGONY FOR AMOS AS CAREER LOOKS AT END
THE career of Wales and Cardiff full-back Hallam Amos looks like it could be over after he suffered what appeared to be a hamstring injury against Munster on Friday night.
The 27-year-old was the shining light in blue and black in what was an entertaining first half at Musgrave Park, but his time on the artificial turf was cut short around the half-hour mark.
After making a break, Amos stayed down on the deck, clutching the back of his right leg.
There was an air of resignation on his face as he appeared to be diagnosing himself when in conversation with the physios on the field. He was then helped onto the back of a stretcher and his team-mates on the replacements’ bench raised to their feet to clap him off as he exited the field.
The 25-cap international has taken the early decision to hang up his boots at the end of this season to pursue a career in medicine. With just three games left, this may well be the last time we see Amos on a rugby field.
A tweet from Cardiff Rugby said: “Heartbreaking for Hallam Amos, who is helped off with what looks like a hamstring injury. It might be the final time we see Hallam on the rugby pitch. Wishing him the very best.”
It capped a disappointing night for Cardiff, who were beaten 42-21, with Dillon Lewis and Rory Thornton also leaving the field injured.
But director of rugby Dao Young was pleased with the efforts of his players in Cork.
He said: “The scoreboard was unkind to us. It was a lot closer game than the scoreboard suggests.
“Munster were more clinical than us, when they had opportunities but the effort, commitment and energy was first class tonight.
“We pushed them a lot closer than the scoreboard suggests. A few exits went awry, which put us under pressure. That gave them opportunities to get points, as did the restarts. They got the first three restarts back after we scored.
“So we weren’t able to continue to put pressure on them and build momentum. We played some good stuff and left one or two try-scoring opportunities out there.
“But it was a huge step-up from where we’ve been over the last two weeks, in everything we did.
“You’ve got to take the positives out of it. The scoreboard suggests it’s a heavy defeat but we were up against a very good team and pushed them really close.
“We’ll take the positives out of tonight, build on them and work on the things that let us down.”
And Young is hoping to take those positives into Cardiff’s final three games of the season, starting with their last home game against Zebre on Friday.
“We’ve played a lot of rugby. We’ve gone from playing no rugby to playing something like 10 on the bounce,” he added.
“That’s starting to tell as we’re running out of numbers, but we’ll patch people up and give them recovery.
“Hopefully we can come out with the same sort of intensity, energy and commitment and build on the positives that we saw tonight.
“I’m proud of the effort. Nobody likes losing, and the scoreboard suggests it was heavier defeat than it was.
“The biggest thing for us is that we perform. If we do that and give everything, but are still not good enough then we have to accept it.
“The disappointing factor of the last few weeks has been that we haven’t performed near where we can.
“Obviously the results are always disappointing if you don’t win, but the performances have to be there.
“We believe that if we perform near our best then we’ll win a lot more than we’ll lose. Tonight there were good aspects to our game with one or two sloppy areas that we need to tighten before next week. But I’d certainly like to think that there are positives we can build on ahead of next week.
“You get confidence and belief from winning but there was a real determination tonight.
“People forget that the players also hurt, the same as the supporters. We’re all in this together.”