On Saturday Wales centre Jonathan Davies injured his anterior cruciate ligament (his knee to the likes of you and me). I wonder how this will affect Wales in the World Cup later this year?
Jonathan Davies hurt himself playing his hard, quick and very intelligent brand of rugby for Cleremont Auvergne. He is a worldly player who has built a great reputation for himself internationally and like a lot of the Welsh players, has traveled to France for the money and better competition.
Davies influence on the Wales team cannot be underestimated. He is a British and Irish Lions starter as well as having 48 International Caps. It is fair to say that Wales are losing out on a lot of experience at the heart of their midfield. Luckily, they have Jamie Roberts, the new Harlequins centre and main stay of the Welsh team – a player every Wales coach has liked to build a team around. However, like all centre partnerships, the two come as a very well balanced pair. It is crucial in the game of Rugby that your two centres complement each other. These two do just that in the same way that Greenwood and Tindall or Ma’a Nonu and Smith lead their respective teams to World Cup glory. So losing Davies, due to his cruciate injury, from this partnership could wreck the Welsh team apart in September. I believe that as a pair these two are good enough to be compared to the great centre partnerships but sadly we will have to wait until 2019 to find out.
Davies’ replacement is likely to be Scott Williams. He is a very capable replacement: He has 29 Caps for Wales and we all remember his wonderful try against England in 2012 which secured their Grand Slam in the Six Nations – but what he doesn’t have is that rapport with Roberts. Yet…
There are still a few months to get it going for the pair of them, however when you are under the pressure of Twickenham and the pressure of a Rugby World Cup where everyone expects Wales to do some damage will a very new relationship between the centres stand up to the onslaught of the likes of Billy Vunipola and other beasts from around the globe that just love damaging fragile back lines. Can Scott refrain himself from getting drawn into being the crash ball runner… will Roberts over compensate and try and be the flair guy… can the pair of them trust each other enough to stick to the roles they are most suited too?
We will all find out on the 20th September 2015 when Wales take on Uruaguay. But the real test will be six days later when they match up to England at Twickenham. It goes without saying we all wish Jonathan Davies the speediest of recoveries and hopefully we will see him performing again soon.
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