NANTES, France (AP) — The irreplaceable will have to be replaced by Wales after the major setback of losing No. 8 Taulupe Faletau to a broken arm at the Rugby World Cup.
Faletau was injured on Saturday, late in the 43-19 win over Georgia in Nantes that gave Wales a four-win sweep of Pool C.
Faletau was the only specialist No. 8 in the squad, although Aaron Wainwright, Taine Basham and co-captain Jac Morgan have played in that position for Wales.
Wales was still considering on Sunday an injury replacement, whether a back-rower or another position with the quarterfinals looming next weekend. Also injured in the squad were the leading flyhalves Dan Biggar and Gareth Anscombe, but Wales was still digesting the blow of losing its only world-class player.
“You can't replace what Toby (Faletau) gives, in terms of his intelligence and what he does, how he always turns up at the right place and makes the right decision at the right time,” Wales assistant coach David Humphreys said on Sunday. "There is a huge onus now on everybody else to bring more.
“There has been a huge amount of growth over this tournament in people like Aaron Wainwright. Aaron has been exceptional and I and he knows there's more in him. People like Taine, Tommy (Reffell), Jac and Christ (Tshiunza) can give more and want to give more. They will have to give more if we are going to progress past the quarterfinals.”
Faletau more often than not has been the one player who could often dig Wales out of a hole. He's considered the complete player who excels with carries, jackals and defense and goes hard the whole way. Faletau has been rarely subbed off in 104 tests for Wales and five more for the British and Irish Lions over the last 12 years.
Coach Warren Gatland was willing to let him miss their three warmup games in the summer, half of their altitude camp in Switzerland and the entire Turkey camp while rehabbing a calf injury. To get him up to speed, he was the only Wales forward to start every pool game. He made a scratchy win against Portugal look better with an 83rd-minute try from powering over three defenders.
After that game, Gatland said, “We know he's not a player like Richie McCaw who can be out for months and step back into test rugby. He needs a run of games. He did some really good things today and he'll continue to get better. He made some good decisions. Probably not many people would have been able to score that.”
Faletau's desire to play for as long as possible — he turns 33 next month - could mean he will continue his test career.
He's been hit hard by injuries. He missed two years of test rugby between the 2018 and 2020 Six Nations because of two broken arms and a collar bone injury that prevented him from going to the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
“We felt that he was starting to come back to his best,” Gatland said on Saturday. “He was excellent last week (against Australia) in terms of his footwork and carrying and stuff, taking kickoffs and giving us some go-forward as well. It's a big loss for us.”
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AP Rugby World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
