LIAM’S FEARS OVER BAN

WALES and Lions star Liam Williams is sweating on a possible Six Nations ban after being red-carded in the Scarlets’ PRO14 defeat to Cardiff Blues.

Williams was sent off in the first half of the Welsh derby after a reckless entry into a ruck that saw him make direct contact to the head of Blues flanker and Wales team-mate Shane Lewis-hughes.

The Scarlets man will this week go before a disciplinary panel to learn his fate, and could yet receive a suspension that rules him out of the start of the Six Nations.

Wales open their campaign at home to Ireland on February 7, before heading to Murrayfield to take on Scotland the following weekend.

Williams’s cause may not be helped after he told referee Craig Evans ‘Going to start playing touch, is it?’, as he left the field.

It remains to be seen how disciplinary chiefs react to that remark, although Williams may well be more contrite when he speaks about the matter to Scarlets officials and attends this week’s hearing.

Williams was dismissed after making no attempt to wrap his arms, and his own head made direct contact with Lewis-hughes.

Having only recently overcome injury woes, Williams knows a ban is the last thing he wants as he seeks to reestablish himself as Wales’s firstchoice full-back in Lions year.

However, Leigh Halfpenny has been in excellent form, while Wayne Pivac also has the options of George North, Josh Adams and Louis ReesZammit on the wings for the Ireland opener should Williams be ruled out.

Scarlets head coach Glenn Delaney said: “He’s just apologetic and he’s a good, honest man. He just feels disappointed.

“It’s a shame he didn’t get to see the contest out.”

Cardiff Blues won 29-20.

Read more from the pages 2&3. game on