Rugby World Cup: Wales call up scrum-half Kieran Hardy as replacement for Taulupe Faletau
- Published
Scarlets scrum-half Kieran Hardy has played 18 internationals for Wales
Scarlets scrum-half Kieran Hardy has replaced injured number eight Taulupe Faletau in Wales' World Cup squad.
Faletau suffered a broken arm during Saturday's 43-19 victory against Georgia in Nantes which has ruled him out of the tournament.
Head coach Warren Gatland has opted to call up a scrum-half with only Tomos Williams and Gareth Davies in his original 33-man squad.
"We feel we have a number of options in the back row at the moment," he said.
"We've decided to call up Kieran to give us extra cover at scrum-half and to take some pressure off from a training perspective."
Wales face Argentina in a World Cup quarter-final in Marseille on Saturday, 14 October.
Aaron Wainwright will probably be moved to number eight from blind-side flanker to replace Faletau.
This would leave Taine Basham, Dan Lydiate, Tommy Reffell and Christ Tshiunza as candidates to join Wainwright and co-captain Jac Morgan in the back row.
Hardy, 27, will join up with Wales in Versailles on Sunday to join preparations for the Argentina game.
Wales also have injury concerns over fly-halves Dan Biggar (chest) and Gareth Anscombe (groin) and full-back Liam Williams (knee) going into the last-eight encounter against the Pumas.
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