OWENS LINED UP FOR ALL BLACKS
KEN Owens is set to be offered the chance to feature for the Barbarians this autumn in their clash with the All Blacks at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Sheriff, as Owens is affectionately known, hasn’t played for 11 months because of a career-threatening back injury.
It is hoped the Carmarthen man will be available sooner rather than later for the Scarlets, but he will need time to get back up to speed and readapt to the physical challenges of the sport.
An attractive offer could be coming the hooker’s way, though.
The Rugby Paper says he is wanted by the Baa-Baas for their date with New Zealand in London on November 13.
The invitation, the paper continues, will be issued subject to Welsh Rugby Union approval.
Owens, a warrior for Wales and the Scarlets for beyond a decade, will presumably have as a long-term goal the target of playing in a fourth World Cup.
A place in Wayne Pivac’s squad for the November Tests would be a step along that road.
But after such a serious injury, involving a prolapsed disc, the 35-year-old will not want to rush anything at this point in his long-haul recovery.
The Barbarians are also said to be monitoring the progress of Leigh Halfpenny as they look ahead to their plum game with Ian Foster’s side.
Halfpenny is another who has been out for a significant amount of time. The full-back has been sidelined since suffering a serious knee injury while playing for Wales in the summer of 2021.
Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel last week expressed optimism that both Owens and Halfpenny are closing in on a return in the coming weeks.
“They may be a week or two apart but they’re both in training at the minute,” he said.
“I’m expecting that in the next week or two they’ll be really ramping up the training into full stuff and then we’ll see at the back end of that.”
But prop Samson Lee is unlikely to return to action until January at the earliest.
The tighthead suffered a serious injury to his Achilles tendon in South Africa earlier this year, with Peel not expecting him to feature again in 2022.
“He tore his Achilles and we’re expecting that to be nine to 12 months,” Peel added.
“I think he did it around February time so we’d be looking around about the new year.”