Scotland hand Italy a record loss in World Cup warm-up
Ireland and Wales emerged relatively unscathed from a bruising match yesterday, although the home side’s Keith Earls suffered concussion and visiting centre Jamie Roberts sustained a minor rib problem.
Wales won 16-10 as both coaches fielded near full-strength teams while hoping that the added intensity did not cost them any key players ahead of next month’s Rugby World Cup.
“It’s something Joe Schmidt and I talked about before the game. Our biggest fear about today was picking up serious injury,” said Wales coach Warren Gatland, referring to his opposite number.
“Jamie got a knock on the ribs, but it’s just bumps and bruises at the moment. Hopefully we’re relatively unscathed,” Gatland told a news conference.
On the players recovering from injury, the Wales coach said prop Samson Lee was making “brilliant progress” and involved in a lot of scrummaging while Liam Williams was ahead of expectations but is likely to miss the first couple games of the World Cup.
Gareth Anscombe’s ankle injury appears the most concerning and is still being assessed by the medical team.
Gatland said he could take one or two recovering players to the tournament but would have to make a couple of tough calls on others.
With 31-man squads due to be named by tomorrow, the Wales coach added that 24 or 25 players were nailed down and that the backroom staff would discuss the rest later yesterday.
Schmidt arguably has some tougher calls, particularly among the outside backs.
He said wing Earls, who received treatment for several minutes on the field, was lucid afterwards, while centre Luke Fitzgerald would be fine after a few days after suffering some bruising.
Schmidt praised the performance of several fringe players who were handed the chance to impress.
“Dave (Kearney) went really well (on the wing), a couple of balls in the air that he took were as good as you get,” the coach said.
“He looked dangerous with the ball, and when you’re marking an absolute world-class operator like George North, to show up pretty well is not a bad achievement.
“I thought Nathan White was really good and Keith looked pretty good, too.”
Elsewhere, Scotland wings Sean Lamont and Tim Visser each plundered two tries as Vern Cotter’s side coasted to a record 48-7 win over Italy at Murrayfield in their only warm-up match on home soil before the start of next month’s World Cup.
The rout surpassed both the points score and margin of victory Scotland achieved in a 47-15 home win over Italy in a warm-up match prior to the 2003 World Cup.
Flanker John Barclay, starting his first international for two years, and centre Mark Bennett also crossed the Italian try-line for the Scots, who followed up their 16-12 win against a shadow Italian side in Turin last week with a highly impressive step-up in performance.
“We have a great set of backs and we have to give them an opportunity to show their skills and I think the front five did that,” Scotland loosehead prop Alasdair Dickinson said.
And with Scotland coach Vern Cotter due to name his final 31-man squad for the World Cup tomorrow, front-row forward Dickinson added: “Now we play the waiting game to see who is selected.”
* Agencies
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RESULT
Everton 2 Huddersfield Town 0
Everton: Sigurdsson (47'), Calvert-Lewin (73')
Man of the Match: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton)
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Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Azerbaijan 0
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE Premiership
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