Shane Williams’ column: Injuries like these can hit spirit of entire squad

It’s fair to say that was Warren Gatland‘s worst nightmare. What we hoped would be a huge send-off for the lads before the World Cup turned into something more like a horror show. Losing a player to a serious injury in the build-up to the World Cup is bad luck.
But to watch two of your best performers being carried off on stretchers leaves you wondering who you’ve upset.
It was horrendous.
If those two players are ruled out, especially on the back of that, performance against Italy, I worry for, Wales.
To make matters worse, it came just hours after England had beaten Ireland and their captain Chris Robshaw reckons they were still disappointed with their display.
The only thing that could possibly have made it worse was losing – but it was still a poor performance. Warren said he was picking a strong side and apart from a few extras such as Alun-Wyn Jones, Jamie Roberts and Dan Lydiate, that was close to a full-strength Wales team.
On top of that you then lose your firstchoice scrum-half in Rhys Webb and a world superstar like Leigh Halfpenny.
I was involved four years ago when Morgan Stoddart broke his leg at Twickenham and Richard Hibbard was injured in the final warm-up game and there’s no doubt it jolts the rest of the squad.
You have worked so closely and for so long with those guys that it is absolutely gutting to see them ruled out. At this stage, it’s just cruel and it takes its toll on their team-mates.
The problem with Wales is that we just don’t have the same strength in depth as England or Australia.
We are now relying on Liam Williams being match-fit after injury despite not being involved in any of the training camps in Switzerland or Qatar.
And with the way the scrum went against Italy – though you have to give the Italians credit – we are also reliant on Samson Lee. And he hasn’t even stepped on a pitch since March!
If the news is bad for Webb and Halfpenny then, of course, it opens the door for others.
As far as scrum-half goes, there’s simply only one answer and that’s Mike Phillips.
When Mike was cut from the original squad I thought it was a mistake that could come back to bite Gatland.
You never want to see players injured but getting Phillips back into the squad would be a good thing.
For a start, Wales are now in desperate need of experience. Lloyd Williams has been around for a while and was involved in the last World Cup but has rarely started for Wales.
As for Gareth Davies, he has never kicked-off a Test match on the pitch.
So it is a real luxury for Gatland to now be able to call on the service of a player with close to 100 caps, a British Lion, Grand Slam winner and a genuine character.
He still offers something different and has the personality that he would want to come into the squad and really prove a few people wrong.
As far as replacing Halfpenny goes, that’s a different ball-game.
He is a world-class goal-kicker and just like his mentor at Toulon – Jonny Wilkinson – he’s the sort of guy you just assume is going to slot the ball between the posts whenever he steps up to kick. Half the time you don’t even bother to look.
Dan Biggar is an excellent kicker as well but has thrived for Wales by not having that extra burden.
James Hook should be considered, as he can play full-back and kick, but it must be getting terribly tiresome for him to always be reliant on the misfortune of others to get in the squad.
Clearly Gatland likes Gareth Anscombe given that he brought him half way across the world from New Zealand and handed him a central contract.
The question remains, however, is he fit?
He missed out on the final selection because Wales didn’t want to have too many injured players on their books. Perhaps now they will have to.