Wales suffer blow as Jonathan Davies is ruled out of World Cup

Wales’s World Cup plans suffered a significant blow before next month’s announcement of the training squad when the Lions centre Jonathan Davies was ruled out by a knee ligament injury he suffered playing for Clermont Auvergne last weekend.

The 48-cap Davies is one of the mainstays of the Wales side and his midfield partnership with Jamie Roberts has been an important factor in their success but he will have surgery this week and has been ruled out for up to seven months, leaving him with a battle to be fit for the start of next year’s Six Nations.

“It is a major disappointment for Jonathan and for us,” said Warren Gatland and the head coach also has concerns about George North, who has not played since the end of March after the Northampton wing suffered a third concussion in less than five months. “Our focus is his long-term career and we will be working closely with him during his recovery looking towards the 2016 Six Nations.”

Davies will be replaced in the squad, which will be announced on 8 June, by the 19-year-old Tyler Morgan, who has been pulled out of the Under-20s squad who are preparing for the World Rugby Championship. Davies’s place in the starting lineup will cause more problems for Gatland, with no obvious replacement.

Scott Williams covered centre from the bench during the Six Nations but, like Roberts, he prefers to play at 12 rather than 13. They partnered each other during November’s 17-13 win against Fiji, who are in their World Cup group along with England, Australia and Uruguay, but North had played at outside-centre the previous week against the Wallabies and was deployed there against France in the 2014 Six Nations when Williams and Davies were injured.

Roberts was a 13 before being converted into an inside-centre by Ian McGeechan during the Lions tour to South Africa in 2009. He has since been reluctant to move from 12 and leads the Wales defence from there. Otherwise Gatland’s options are limited, with Cory Allen, who started in Davies’s position against Argentina in November 2013, last used as a substitute against Australia in November 2014.

James Hook has played at 13 for Wales but he was not involved in the Six Nations and said last month he was not sanguine about his prospects of being named in the training squad, which is expected to be 50-strong. One of the reason’s for Gatland’s contention earlier this year that Wales should be regarded as serious World Cup contenders was the proven experience they had in a number of positions, but they have less depth than their main rivals.

England lost one of their 13s from the World Cup earlier this month when their head coach, Stuart Lancaster, said Manu Tuilagi would not be considered until January next year after the centre was convicted of assaulting a taxi driver and two police officers, but their midfield options are greater than Wales’s.

Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell, meanwhile, are “very close to getting a recall” for Australia’s World Cup campaign, according to the flanker George Smith, a sometime international team-mate.

The veteran Smith, 34 and with 111 caps, will move from Lyon to Wasps this summer. He is unlikely to get back into the Wallabies squad himself even though they will consider overseas-based players for the first time, as long as they have 60 caps or more. But Giteau and Mitchell may well be primed to end their exiles.

Giteau has not featured for Australia since being dropped by Robbie Deans for the 2011 World Cup. That move prompted his Toulon switch but after four years in the wilderness the selection goalposts have now moved sufficiently for the current Australia head coach, Michael Cheika, to bring him back into the fold.

The winger Mitchell joined Toulon in 2013, well aware his Test career would be up in smoke, but now he too is back in consideration.

Smith retired from Test rugby in 2010 and signed for Toulon before embarking on a two-year stint in Japan. The Brumbies signed Smith back on a short-term contract in 2013, however, and later that year the combative loose-forward Smith returned to Australia’s Test team to face the touring British and Irish Lions.

While Smith is ready to champion the cause of his former Wallabies team-mates for a Test recall, he was less forthcoming on his own situation.

“Look I think it’s great for players like Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell who qualify,” said Smith.

“They’ve played particularly well for Toulon this year, highlighted in the fact they won the Champions Cup against Clermont. So I think those two are very close.

“As I said earlier it’s a good opportunity for those two who meet the requirements and the criteria.”

Nathan Hines replaced the injured George Whitelock on the Barbarians’ bench on Wednesday, with the All Blacks star Joe Rokocoko leading a stellar cast in the world-famous invitational team.

Ulster’s Ruan Pienaar claimed the scrum-half shirt, while Leinster’s retiring flanker Shane Jennings would pack down at blindside.

Buoyed to be on Barbarians duty once more, Smith said he was also excited about his impending move to Wasps. “It is a short build-up with the Baa-Baas, but communication within the group and latching on to mannerisms in play is key,” said Smith.

“The boys have had a good experience so far and we’re hoping to cap that off with a strong performance. It will be a new experience for me playing in the Premiership.

“I’m looking forward to that, playing a different style, and being managed by Dai Young and to work with players of the calibre of Nathan Hughes, Ashley Jones, James Haskell, Jimmy Gopperth and more.

“There are some fantastic names there, so I want to be available to help. Wasps have big ambitions for the next few years and that’s very appealing.”