LONDON // Wales are mulling over whether to call in the citing commissioner following Tom Wood’s contact with Liam Williams’s head in their 28-25 victory over England at Twickenham on Saturday.
Late in the second half Williams attempted to dive on a loose ball, at which Wood appeared to take aim with his foot. The England flanker’s boot missed the ball but then clearly connected with the Welsh fullback’s head.
Wales coach Warren Gatland subsequently revealed that Williams was undergoing the concussion protocols. Wood apologised to the Welsh player on Saturday night via his Twitter account.
“There was definitely contact between part of Tom Wood’s body and Liam’s head,” Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards said at a news conference on Sunday. “It is something we are going to look at, with regards to citing. But we will make a comment on that later on. It is clearly obvious there was some contact with the head.
“The decision will be made by our manager after discussions with Warren but, as I say, we did lose one of our best players in a position where we are quite short at the moment. But we will look at it later.”
Williams was replaced by scrum-half Lloyd Williams, who played on the wing, as part of an extensive reshuffle to the back line due to further injuries in the 67th minute.
Scott Williams suffered a serious knee injury that Gatland suggested might prevent the outside centre from taking any further part in the tournament, while wing Hallam Amos has a shoulder problem. Wales expect to be in a position to know a definitive prognosis on both players on Monday.
The latest injuries are in addition to those suffered by Leigh Halfpenny, Rhys Webb and Jonathan Davies before the tournament started and centre Cory Allen, who scored a hat-trick of tries in the 54-9 win over Uruguay last Sunday and tore a hamstring. It could be a distinctly patched-up side that takes to the field against Fiji at the Millennium Stadium on Thursday.
George North moved in to the centres in the back line reshuffle on Saturday and could line-up in midfield in Cardiff.
The Northampton wing played in the centres against France in last season’s Six Nations and then again against Australia in the autumn internationals.
If Wales beat the Pacific islanders, and with a bonus point, it would place significant pressure on England ahead of their Pool A match at Twickenham on Saturday against Australia, who thrashed Uruguay 65-3 in Birmingham on Sunday.
“Rob Howley will look at that as our backs coach, but if you are talking about George North playing in the centre, it’s not really out of position,” Edwards said. “He has played some breathtaking rugby at 13, so that is one of our options. Another option is to bring another wing in.
“I don’t think we will be resting too many players.
“We do have quite a long turnaround between the Fiji game and the Australia game” on October 10, “so the boys will get rested next weekend. So, we will be putting out a pretty strong team against Fiji, showing them the respect they deserve after they have played so well so far in the competition.”
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Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
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The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
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Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.
A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.
Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.
A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.
On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.
The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.
Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.
The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.
MATCH INFO
First Test at Barbados
West Indies won by 381 runs
Second Test at Antigua
West Indies won by 10 wickets
Third Test at St Lucia
February 9-13
Business Insights
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Off-roading in the UAE: How to checklist
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.