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
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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