Welsh Rugby: Cardiff's Wales internationals to miss South Africa trip
- Published
Wales wing Josh Adams has played in three Cardiff games since returning from the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa
Cardiff's frontline Wales stars are set to miss their trip to South Africa in late November and early December.
Cardiff play the Lions on 28 November and Stormers six days later.
"If any of our players are playing for Wales that Saturday (against Australia, 20 November), I don't see them coming with us," said director of rugby Dai Young.
Scarlets also head south to face Sharks and Bulls in the first Welsh fixtures away to the tournament newcomers.
It will be the first time the former Super Rugby teams from South Africa host European opposition in the United Rugby Championship (URC).
Both Cardiff and Scarlets also have testing European Champions Cup matches on their return, against Toulouse and Bristol respectively.
Cardiff have 10 players in the Wales squad, with the likes of Josh Adams, Uilisi Halaholo, Tomos Williams and Ellis Jenkins among the frontrunners for regular national involvement.
"It's a big ask to try to get them on the plane having had four or five weeks away from their families and so on [with Wales]. I don't think that's a clever thing to do and they deserve that break," Young told BBC Sport Wales.
"But any guys that haven't played [for Wales] and had those minutes, that's a bit different.
"It's an option [to fly players out for the second game], but we come back and we're straight into Europe as well.
"Every case is different, the squad [that faced Dragons] is definitely going and if we get some of our internationals back then great. If not, we'll crack on."
Dwayne Peel faces similar headaches at Scarlets, who also have 10 players on Wales duty and will have one less day to prepare in South Africa.
"It's difficult because we need to get some continuity as well, and we travel back from South Africa straight into an away trip to Bristol so we'll see how the Wales internationals go and how much time they get," said Scarlets head coach Peel.
"But it's a couple of weeks before we have to decide who's boarding the plane."
The issues over availability of leading players come despite efforts to minimise clashes between fixtures for Wales' four professional teams and the national side.
There were 16 players missing from Cardiff's absorbing URC derby win over Dragons because of Wales' preparations to face New Zealand in the extra autumn international outside the official window.
"A derby of that magnitude, you want to play fully-loaded," said Young.
"But the league will tell you it was choice to put a fourth international in, and we recognise that the internationals fund the game and without that money we're all struggling."
The Welsh professional sides now have four weekends off because of the reduced league programme, which has three fewer fixtures.