Wales: Louis Rees-Zammit could miss the Six Nations through injury

Jared Wright
Louis Rees-Zammit is in serious doubt for Wales' opening Six Nations match, Gloucester head coach Goerge Skivington has confirmed.  Rees-Zammit suffered an injury in Gloucester's Premiership defeat to Leicester Tigers last week and could not recover in time for the Six Nations clash with Ireland on February 4.

Louis Rees-Zammit is in serious doubt for Wales’ opening Six Nations match, Gloucester head coach George Skivington has confirmed.

Rees-Zammit suffered an injury in Gloucester’s Premiership defeat to Leicester Tigers last week and is a major doubt to recover in time for the Six Nations clash with Ireland on February 4.

Going under the knife

He is unlikely to need an operation, but his ankle is in a boot with the prognosis not forthcoming because we haven’t been able to receive the scans this week because of hospital delays,” Skivington said after Gloucester’s 8-6 defeat of London Irish.

“He will certainly be out for a spell, it could range from two weeks to six months, and on that basis, he could be joining the Six Nations late.”

It is a further blow for returning head coach Warren Gatland with lock Will Rowlands already ruled out of the Championship through injury while prop Dillon Lewis and centre Johnny Williams are struggling too.

Carreras kicks Gloucester to victory

Argentina fly-half Santiago Carreras kicked a 45-metre penalty in front of a sell-out crowd to see Gloucester clinch a victory over London Irish and earned praise from Skivington.

“Santi (Carreras) is a world-class player, and he delivered under pressure. He made a hash of the conversion attempt, but by then kicking the match-winner, he went from zero to hero,” the Gloucester boss said.

The Cherry and Whites have a growing injury list, with forwards Santiago Socino (knee) and Alex Craig (wrist) leaving the field before the interval.

Skivington said: “We had to make a lot of changes through injuries and illness, so I’m really pleased that we stuck to our simple game plan as last week at Leicester, we became very loose by changing what we set out to do.

“Our maul didn’t function at times as we would have expected to get a couple of them over the line.

Exiles fall short

London Irish have only won twice at Kingsholm in the Premiership, the last time coming in 2016, falling agonisingly short on Saturday. 

Director of rugby Declan Kidney said: “We will have to look at the first 20 minutes as we were lucky to be only 5-0 down as we were trying to play Gloucester’s way and not our own.

“It was a massive defensive effort from us, so it’s very emotional to lose in the last play.

“We know we are on an upward trajectory, so it’s frustrating that we came so close as we worked incredibly hard.

“We were minus a few players, but victories in the league are won with squads, so we had enough players with capabilities out there for us to win.”

READ MORE: Owen Farrell: Joe Shaw hails Saracens playmaker after superb performance against Exeter Chiefs