Rugby World Cup: Wales number eight Taulupe Faletau ruled out of tournament with injury

Taulupe Faletau had started all four of Wales' World Cup matches in FranceHuw Evans picture agency

Taulupe Faletau had started all four of Wales' World Cup matches in France

By Gareth Griffiths
BBC Sport Wales in Nantes

Wales number eight Taulupe Faletau has been ruled out of the rest of the World Cup after suffering a broken arm during their 43-19 win against Georgia.

Faletau went off in the second half of Saturday's victory, and head coach Warren Gatland confirmed after the game that he was out of the tournament.

Fly-half Gareth Anscombe will be assessed after suffering a groin injury in the warm-up.

Full-back Liam Williams is also an injury concern.

Williams left the stadium on crutches after injuring a knee and will be a doubt for next weekend's quarter-final, though Gatland was more cautiously optimistic about his fitness.

Gatland confirmed Wales would call up a replacement for Faletau but were waiting to see the extent of Anscombe's injury.

"Toby [Faletau] has broken his arm so he'll be out," said Gatland.

"We're just going to assess Gareth over the next 72 hours. He's pulled his groin very high up. Talking to the medics, he's got a bit of power still in his leg which is a positive.

"It means he's not pulled it off the bone. We'll probably know in the next 48-72 hours what we need to do with him. Whether we've got time for him to recover or replace him directly.

"We've got to look at a replacement for Faletau, whether that's directly as a loose-forward replacement or whether we look at another position."

Wales' win set up a last-eight tie in Marseille on Saturday, 14 October, against the winner of Sunday's Argentina versus Japan match.

"We've got a few sore players, particularly in the backs, after today's game," Gatland added.

"If you see Liam Williams on crutches, it's not that he's done anything significantly bad. He got a whack on the knee and the medics, from a comfort perspective, have put him on crutches to save him walking around a bit.

"He's got a knock and probably won't take a huge part in training in the early part of next week. But hopefully he'll be fit for the quarter-final."

Faletau missed Wales' three pre-season warm-up games after injuring a calf but started all four World Cup warm-up games.

"It's tough for him because he pulled his calf and didn't take a huge part in the camps and pre-season work," said Gatland.

"That's why we continued to play him because we felt he gets better game-by-game. We felt he was back to his best.

"He was excellent against Australia with his footwork and carrying, taking kick-offs and giving us go-forward.

"It's a big loss for us. We'll just have to make a decision on his replacement and the balance of the back row going forward, starting with next week."

Flanker Aaron Wainwright is expected to slot into the number eight position, with flanker Tommy Reffell in contention to line up in the same back row as co-captain Jac Morgan. Reffell was named player of the match in the win against Georgia.

Anscombe suffered a groin problem while kicking in the warm-up and left the field in distress.

Sam Costelow replaced Anscombe in the starting XV, with Dan Biggar coming on to the replacements' bench. Biggar himself was not initially selected for the Georgia game after suffering a pectoral injury against Australia.

Anscombe had replaced Biggar in the early stages of the win over the Wallabies 13 days ago and produced a man-of-the-match performance by kicking 23 points.

"We've got two other 10s here," said Gatland.

"We did contemplate to put Gareth Davies on and put Tomos Williams at 10. He's trained there on a couple of occasions.

"That's one of the things we had. We had Dan Biggar on the bench as a precautionary back-up if we needed to bring him on.

"We didn't need to do that. At this stage, we probably won't bring another 10 out unless Gareth is completely ruled out.

"Then it's about trying to find what's the best possible fit for players carrying knocks and injuries as a replacement. We're not looking at another 10 at this stage."

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