Wales lose Biggar but survive scare to see off physical Fiji
Dan Biggar, the Wales fly-half, has been ruled out of Sunday’s fixture against Uruguay in Kumamoto after suffering a concussion in the win over Fiji.
Biggar came off worse in a sickening collision with team-mate Liam Williams as both players attempted to catch the ball, with Biggar’s head crashing into the turf after hitting Williams’s shoulder and knee, sparking immediate concern after Biggar’s failed head injury assessment in the previous match against Australia.
As required by World Rugby, given Biggar was removed from the field with concussion, he will now be independently assessed.
“He didn’t do a HIA. He was just removed from the field. It means that he won’t be in consideration for Sunday and he will have to go through protocols. We’ll probably get someone to look at him as well,” explained the Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, who was more positive on injuries to centre Jonathan Davies and wing Josh Adams, with Adams scoring a hat-trick against Fiji as Wales confirmed their place in the quarter-finals.
“There are no fears. Josh just took a dead leg. Jonathan, with his knee, it was the same sort of thing. You never know with knees. He will probably be assessed tomorrow when all players go and have a review of today. There are some sore bodies. The guys are just sore after a tough and physical game.”
Biggar’s unavailability leaves Rhys Patchell as the only remaining specialist fly-half in the squad to face Uruguay, with Gatland assessing other options to fill in behind on Sunday.
“I don’t know,” Gatland replied when asked who could cover 10 if required. “We’ll sit down as coaches and look at that. Some players are going to have to [act as] back-up. We may go for a six-two split on the to look at every phase, so we need to go out of our country and play many matches to improve and to watch other sports to learn.”
The United States coach, Gary Gold, said his side had improved despite finishing with no points. “I’m really proud of the effort,” he said. bench with six forwards. We’ve got some quality nines. We may look at that. Hadleigh Parkes was talked about and Liam Williams. We’ve been running Hallam Amos at 10 in training and he’s looked sharp.
“We’ll weigh those options up in terms of who we think can do the job. Gareth Davies went on the wing today and he did a job there. We’ve got players who may be a little unfamiliar but we have been running players there at training.
“With the short turnaround, we need to freshen players up. Hopefully, we’re good enough to do a job on Sunday to secure this group.”
Wales remain in control of Pool D, but only after overcoming a monumental scare from Fiji.
Gatland’s side came from behind in both halves, down 0-10 after the first 10 minutes and then 14-17 after the break. But it was only when Liam Williams crossed to score after 68 minutes that Wales could truly relax, having been put through the wringer by the spectacular Semi Radradra and his team-mates. Every touch Radradra had was outstanding, including a rib-crunching tackle on Liam Williams. Quite rightly, he was named player of the match.
“Semi is a world-class player and he has shown his class in this tournament,” said Fiji head coach, John Mckee. “To win player of the match on the losing team is a big effort.”
Josua Tuisova’s wonder finish in the corner for the opening try was box office. Adams, Biggar and Josh Navidi could not stop Tuisova before he reached out to score, swiftly followed over by Kini Murimurivalu to make it 10-0 to Fiji, with Ken Owens in the sin-bin after a reckless tackle on Viliame Mata, the first of four yellow cards in the match given out by Jerome Garces.
Wales rallied, Adams scoring twice to give them a 14-10 half-time lead. But a penalty try to Fiji, after Wales illegally collapsed a maul short of the line, put the pressure back on the Six Nations champions.
After a Patchell penalty levelled the scores, Jonathan Davies produced a moment of class to turn the