There was a time when Taulupe Faletau gave a cast-iron impression of indestructibility, blasting through the proverbial brickwall every weekend as if made of unbreakable stuff.
Along the way, he battered the catch phrase popularised by the pool player Minnesota Fats about being ‘behind the eight ball’. Faletau turned it on its head by making sure he stood in front of the eight ball, no matter how many pile-drivers the opposition lined up in his path.
The Welsh colossus kept making the hardest of yards without appearing to suffer much more than the occasional scratch. Season in, season out, he hardly missed a match for the Dragons or for Wales in becoming the most automatic of automatic choices for both.
Then, in the summer of 2016 after the Dragons had made valiant attempts to keep their highest paid player, he went to Bath and everything changed. At a time when Faletau approached the zenith of his powers, it was as if nothing could stop his becoming the youngest Test centurion of all time.
He was already more than halfway there at 25 with 61 Tests to his name, all stacked up over five years unbroken service. The bad breaks began during his Bath debut in September 2016, a knee ligament injury against Northampton putting him out for three months.
Since then it must have felt almost as if he was being hit by recurring metal fatigue. An eye problem, more knee trouble and successive broken arms conspired to restrict his Premiership starts to 28 out of 66.
And just when he was on the verge of resuming normal business with Wales last summer, a fractured collarbone in training put him out of the World Cup. Yet another long lay-off has left Faletau lumbered with two alarming facts of rugby life.
He has not played for Wales for more than 18 months, since the Six Nations finale against France in March 2018. He has not been seen in Premiership action for Bath since the opening weeks of last season, more than 14 months ago.
Even after all this time, Faletau’s employers still don’t know when they expect their prize asset to be back. Director of rugby Stuart Hooper goes no further than a cautious ‘he’s getting there’ which points to sometime in the New Year.
When is anyone’s guess. If there has been no sighting of the Lions No.8 within the next month, Wales will be resigned to taking the Six Nations plunge without him.
Kayser’s king of the TV
Benjamin Kayser’s command of English rather exposes less articulate pundits, some of whom sound as though they might have graduated from the Robbie Savage school of mangled grammar.
The Parisian’s enlightening analysis of Clermont’s multi-cultural ethos enhanced BT Sport’s televising of the Champions Cup tie at Bath.
On the overcrowded stage of ex-players hired to give their expertise, room ought to be made more often for Kayser’s unique sound, impeccable English delivered in an unmistakably French voice. His distinction extends beyond being the only player to appear in five Heineken Cup finals and lose every one: Stade Francais (2005), Leicester (2009), Clermont (2013, 2015, 2017).
