Ireland and Wales emerged relatively unscathed from a bruising battle on Saturday, although the home side’s Keith Earls suffered concussion and visiting center Jamie Roberts sustained a minor rib problem.
Wales won 16-10 as both coaches fielded near full-strength teams while crossing their fingers that the added intensity did not cost them any key players ahead of next month’s Rugby World Cup.
“It is something Joe Schmidt and I talked about before the game. Our biggest fear about today was picking up serious injury,” Wales coach Warren Gatland said, referring to his opposite number. “Jamie got a knock on the ribs, but it is just bumps and bruises at the moment. Hopefully we are relatively unscathed.”
On the players recovering from injury, Gatland said prop Samson Lee was making “brilliant progress” and involved in a lot of scrummaging, while Liam Williams was ahead of expectations, but is likely to miss the first game or two of the World Cup.
Gareth Anscombe’s ankle injury appears the most concerning and is still being assessed by the medical team.
Gatland said he could take one or two recovering players to the tournament, but would have to make a couple of tough calls on others.
With 31-man squads due to be named by today, the Wales coach added that 24 or 25 players were nailed down and that the backroom staff were due to discuss the rest later on Saturday.
Ireland coach Schmidt arguably has some tougher calls, particularly among the outside backs.
He said winger Earls, who received treatment for several minutes on the field, was totally lucid afterward, while center Luke Fitzgerald would be okay in a few days after suffering some bruising.
Schmidt praised the performance of a number of fringe players who were handed the chance to impress.
“Dave [Kearney] went really well [on the wing], a couple of balls in the air that he took were as good as you get,” Schmidt said. Elsewhere, Scotland thrashed Italy at home, winning 48-7, while the Barbarians registered a 27-24 victory over Samoa.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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