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Deflating revelation leaves Williams doubtful to face All Blacks
By Liam Heagney
Liam Williams is potentially set to miss Wales’ autumn series opener versus the All Blacks after Scarlets revealed that the recent Lions tourists has had an operation to remove his appendix and won’t feature for his club this month in the United Rugby Championship.
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The 30-year-old full-back was last in action when chosen to wear the No15 shirt in the Lions Test series decider versus the Springboks in Cape Town on August 7 and the expectation was that he would be involved in some URC matches for his club before linking up with Wayne Pivac’s squad for their autumn series.
Wales kick-off that four-game schedule with a sold-out October 30 match versus the All Blacks, recent winners of the 2021 Rugby Championship. However, it appears that Williams will unlikely be fit in time for that glamour clash.
Scarlets boss Dwayne Peel fronted the media on Tuesday ahead of his team’s URC match next weekend versus Munster and he delivered a downbeat assessment regarding Williams’ fitness, according to walesonline.co.uk.
“Liam, unfortunately, came down with appendicitis, so he has had an operation,” explained Peel, the new Scarlets boss who is just weeks into his first campaign at the club having assisted Ulster in recent years.
21 of the Lions' first Test matchday 23 were picked to play again this weekend, with Liam Williams and Hamish Watson the pair to lose out #LionsTour2021 #LionsRugby #RSAvBILhttps://t.co/I17G8TZ3Jc
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 29, 2021
“He won’t be available (to face Munster) because he has had his appendix removed. He is okay. He is back in the club but it’s just unfortunate timing for him and us really. He will be out for this period. It’s not clear yet (when he will be available) but I can’t imagine he will play for us in this block of games.” Williams will be hugely missed if he doesn’t play as Wales will be without the likes of the English-based Dan Biggar, Louis Rees-Zammit, Taulupe Faletau and Callum Sheedy due to the game taking place outside of the agreed Test window for player release.
After hosting the All Blacks, Wales will then stage three matches in November with the Springboks, Fiji and Australia all due at the Principality as Pivac’s team looks to build on their Six Nations title win earlier this year.
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"I don’t think I am going to be seeing all that money"
– It was last Friday when Nigel Wray called Mark McCall and all of his Saracens players into a meeting at the club #PremRugby #Saracenshttps://t.co/6JBef6IPGr
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 5, 2021
