Wales’ fly-half crisis deepens after talented playmaker is injured against Barbarians

Wales and the Scarlets were dealt a major setback after young fly-half Sam Costelow was injured during his country’s clash with the Barbarians in Cardiff on Saturday.

The 22-year-old impressed during the opening half of the match at the Principality Stadium but is now set to spend significant time on the sidelines after injuring both his shoulder and his hamstring.

Replaced at half-time against the Barbarians

Costelow was eventually replaced at half-time shortly after crossing the whitewash in Wales’ 49-26 triumph. His injury means both country and club are now scrambling for fly-half replacements.

“I am concerned about Sam because he’s one of our key players. He’s been excellent and grown into a leader for us,” Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel told the BBC.

“I had a text off him to say he was pretty sore. He has both shoulder and hamstring [injuries] so it never rains but it pours on the injury front for us. We have to wait for the scan results.”

Before Costelow’s injury, Wales were already without the services of six contenders for the fly-half position and head coach Warren Gatland is even considering the prospect of converting scrum-half Tomos Williams to the position.

Costelow was picked to start at fly-half against the Baa-baas after Dan Biggar retired from international rugby after the recent World Cup in France and Gareth Anscombe’s move to a Japanese club.

Adding to that, Rhys Patchell, Joe Hawkins and Jarrod Evans also became ineligible for Test selection after joining clubs outside of Wales.

“We trained against Scarlets and Tomos played at 10 and he really impressed us,” said Gatland.

“It was out of necessity because we had injuries but he looked really comfortable there and we talked about his potentially being an option as a replacement.

Impressed by Tomos Williams

“We saw [against Barbarians] how comfortable he is on the ball and his decision-making, passing and spatial awareness are all excellent. Apart from a brain freeze in terms of a lineout dropout, I thought he was good.

“It’s a potential opportunity for us to have a bit more depth and cover in certain positions. I’m not saying we’re definitely going to do that, but it’ll be part of our discussions.”

Gatland vowed to continue his search for “more options” at fly-half, including watching Bristol Bears’ Callum Sheedy, who has already made 16 Test appearances, and Dragons youngster Will Reed, while he will also push for Cardiff to move centre Ben Thomas to fly-half.

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