Andy Farrell issues British and Irish Lions injury update as ‘concerns’ raised over two-try star
British & Irish Lions scrum-half Tomos Williams and head coach Andy Farrell.
British and Irish Lions scrum-half Tomos Williams is an injury concern for the famous touring side after he was forced off the field in Saturday’s victory over the Western Force in Perth.
The 30-year-old produced an outstanding display as he scored two well-taken tries and impressed with his distribution skills during a 47-minute stint on the field.
Forced off due to a hamstring injury
The Gloucester and Wales star’s match came to a premature end when he injured his hamstring while crossing for his second five-pointer and Lions head coach Andy Farrell is still in the dark on how serious Williams‘ injury is.
Williams is one of three scrum-halves in the Lions’ 38-man touring squad, along with Alex Mitchell and Jamison Gibson-Park, who is close to a return to action after missing the first two matches against Argentina and the Force.
“He has come off holding his hamstring,” said Farrell after his side’s 54-7 triumph against the Force. “There was plenty of cramp last week, lets hope it is one of those.
“Jamison is fit and has been training fully for the best part of a week. We are happy with that but you don’t know until you know and we will only know in the morning.
“I haven’t got a clue. There is always something that is going to happen you are not quite sure about, that is the nature of the tour.
I don’t what the timings are but you have to let these things settle down and give it a little bit of space.
‘There is a bit of concern’
“He was playing well and I am sure there is a bit of concern there so fingers crossed.”
If Williams was forced to withdraw from the rest of the Lions tour, England’s Jack van Poortvliet, who trained with the squad in Dublin last week, and Scotland’s Ben White will be amongst the favourites to replace him.
Meanwhile, Lions hooker Dan Sheehan, who captained the side against the Force, was happy with the overall performance in his first match on tour.
“It’s all sinking in. All week I’ve been focused on the game and making sure I don’t lose the plot in the head,” he said.
“I’ve grown up wanting to play in this jersey, nevermind captaining, and there was a lot of lads wearing the jersey for the first time so we need to enjoy this.
“I thought we started really well but we were then on the back foot because of ill-discipline and some inaccuracy, especially at restart.
“I think it’s improvement on the scoreline and especially how we closed out the game…but there’s still things to work on, especially with our discipline.”
