WALES need no more disruptions through injury this season, having endured more than their fair share during the autumn, so they will cross their fingers that Gareth Thomas will be fit for the start of next month’s RBS Six Nations Championship. Thomas, the Wales captain, left the field shortly after the interval during Toulouse’s Heineken Cup win over London Wasps on Saturday, but it is hoped that he has suffered no more than soft-tissue damage to his knee.
Wales and Ireland are scheduled to name their squads today for the Six Nations, with Wales knowing that they will be without Ryan Jones, Brent Cockbain, Chris Horsman and Tom Shanklin through injury and Gavin Henson and Ian Evans through suspension. The good news for Jones, the young forward, so prominent for the Lions on tour in New Zealand last year, is that yesterday he extended his contract with the Ospreys until 2009.
Thomas required a scan to his damaged knee on Sunday evening, 24 hours before being recognised as player of the year by the Rugby Union Writers’ Club in London.
Perpignan and Biarritz, are preparing to cross the border into Spain if they can clinch home ties in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup. Perpignan plan a ground-breaking appearance at the lesser of Barcelona’s stadiums, the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc, while Biarritz will return to San Sebastián, where they played Munster last season.
Perpignan should complete their pool matches with a win over Calvisano this weekend, but the Italian club have yet to discover when, or if, their postponed tie with Leeds Tykes will be played.
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European Rugby Cup Ltd is keen to have the game played after it was frozen off twice last weekend, Leeds declining to play on Sunday even though the referee, George Clancy, believed the playing surface to be fit. Daryl Powell, the Leeds coach, suggested that Calvisano might have done more to cover the pitch, which, he said, remained frozen down one side; the Tykes players returned home yesterday and are scheduled to play Cardiff Blues on Sunday, so squeezing in another game between now and then seems unlikely.
Brian O’Driscoll, the Ireland captain, and Paul O’Connell have had sufficient games to prove their fitness for the Six Nations after missing Ireland’s autumn programme, but Alan Quinlan and Frankie Sheahan are ruled out by injury.