AUTUMN INTERNATIONALS... LATEST NEWS
Edwards ‘incredibly upset’ by Davies blow PLUS Amos aiming to make a big impression against Georgia
SHAUN Edwards has admitted Jonathan Davies is “a massive loss” and one of the players Wales would least want to be without.
The Lions Man of the Series will miss the rest of the autumn campaign and the Six Nations after suffering a serious foot injury in the final play of last Saturday’s 29-21 defeat to Australia.
The Scarlet will require surgery that is expected to keep him out for six months and defence coach Edwards conceded that the centre will be a very hard man to replace.
“I’m obviously incredibly upset for the player,” he said. “It’s his third really big injury in the last three or four years.
“Our thoughts are with him and we wish him a speedy recovery.
“He’s one of the form, if not the form 13 in world rugby and he is going to take some replacing. It’s a massive loss and he’s got big shoes to fill, there’s no doubt about it.
“I have got a lot of work to do over the next three weeks and the Six Nations. I’m not saying he’s irreplaceable but he’s definitely one of the positions you would least want to lose.
“It’s unbelievably disappointing. But it’s just the way it goes sometimes. The last World Cup was a great example that sometimes you are going to get injuries and you just have to get over it.
“We were in the toughest group there has ever been at the last World Cup and we had an horrific injury list, with people falling down left, right and centre and we still got through it.
“We have to show a bit of resilience like we have shown in the past. I am sure there will be players who will put their hand up to play 13.
“We will just have to look at it over the next three game and obviously the Six Nations.”
Edwards was full of praise for the bravery shown by Davies’ centre partner, Owen Williams, who gave a good account of himself against the Wallabies on his first Test start.
Whether he liked it or not, the Gloucester man was the face of Wales’ new attacking style but it was his defensive work that caught Edwards’ eye.
He was giving away almost two stone to opposite number Samu Kerevi and saw plenty of traffic come down his channel.
“Owen is a very meticulous lad. He does his homework on the computers,” he said.
“He looks at every different aspect of the opposition attack.”
“He studied it diligently. I said to him ‘On top of all that technical stuff mate, you’ve got to do one thing, you’ve got to be incredibly brave because these big guys are going to be running at you.’
“He did that, he muscled up in the right areas. He’s not the biggest in stature compared to the two lads he was playing against at the weekend, but he certainly showed the bravery that was needed to be a Test match player.”
Reflecting on Wales’ defensive effort against Australia, Edwards was left to survey a somewhat perplexing picture.
Over the 80 minutes, Wales missed just two tackles but were outscored two tries to four, consigning them to their 13th consecutive defeat to the Wallabies.
“We only missed two tackles in the whole game, out of 110, and somehow we conceded four tries, three of them legal and one of them, potentially on review, not legal,” he said.
“I was a little bit confused why the Hallam Amos decision was reviewed absolutely thoroughly, but the Kurtley Beale decision was reviewed very, very quickly.
The fact Beale did an immediate drop goal was a little bit of a giveaway that he might have dropped the ball. I am told the TV footage shows it was clearly a knock on.
“I am not saying I am disappointed or angry, I am confused why they didn’t take longer over the TMO decision.
“Generally I thought it was encouraging defensively. Having not played together for seven months it was a decent effort.
“We just got outflanked on two occasions, there was a driven lineout and the Kurtley Beale try. We do have to work on our driven lineout defence, there is no doubt about that.”
He continued: “We have all bought into this new way of playing.
“Did it put pressure on our defence at the weekend, of course it did. We lost the ball 11 times in our own half, which is a loss.
“But, going forward, that will be addressed with more practice, and we will get the balance right. We have been working on kick exit strategies.”
Edwards revealed that injury doubts Rhys Webb, Justin Tipuric and Samson Lee are all taking a part in training ahead of Saturday’s second autumn Test against Georgia.
Looking ahead to that challenge, he said: “It’s probably their biggest game for ten years outside of World Cups.
“They are fighting desperately for Six Nations entry and they know a good performance against us would put them in good stead.”