Six Nations news: injuries and quotes
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France have made two changes to their squad for Round 2 where they will face Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
Georges Henri-Colombe and Jean-Baptiste Gros will be replaced by Uini Atonio and Hassane Kollingar respectively.
In the Welsh camp, the joy after victory against Ireland in Round 1 will be tempered by the fact that Wayne Pivac will be forced to make four changes for Scotland in Round 2 as winger Hallam Amos, centre Johnny Williams, scrum-half Tomos Williams and flanker Dan Lydiate are all ruled out through injury.
It is likely that Lydiate will be sidelined for the remainder of the tournament with an ACL injury. Johnny Williams and Amos both suffered head injuries while Tomos Williams damaged his hamstring.
Regarding the loss of Lydiate, Wales assistant coach Gethin Jenkins said: “We watched him a lot over the Christmas period and he’s been the in-form six in Wales,” said Jenkins as the Wales defence coach spoke to media on Tuesday.
“To see that happen so innocently, the first thing you do is look at the clock and it’s probably 10 minutes gone and you knew he was going off.
“I was really gutted for him, obviously I have played with him, and you hope he gets well soon. It’s a tough pill to swallow for him and for us as a squad.”
Italian centre Marco Zanon will not be involved in his side’s Round 2 clash with England after the 23 year-old Benetton representative sustained an injury to his right leg in Italy’s disappointing 50-10 loss to the French last Saturday.
Meanwhile, in the Ireland camp, number 8 CJ Stander is confident his side can turn things around against the French on Sunday. The men in green had the misfortune of having to play most of the game with 14 men, but still managed to put up an admirable performance.
“We knew that we were going to have to work a little bit harder and the good thing is we trained like that during the week just in case something like that happened,” Stander said.
“We just had to work harder and make sure we got first-time tackles.
“It was a massive fight, we didn’t get the win which is disappointing we’ve got some work ons and we know what we’ve got to do.
“The jersey means a lot to the players and the team and to the coaching staff as well. Ten percent more when we had the man down, we really had to dig deep and went out in the second half.”
As the dust settles from Scotland’s momentous victory over England on Saturday, head coach Gregor Townsend has called up three youngsters into the squad.
George Taylor, Charlie Shiel & D'arcy Rae come in while Ewan Ashman, Blair Kinghorn, Jamie Dobie & Rufus McLean will return to their clubs.
Scotland captain Stuart Hogg while still enjoying the winning feeling, insists that his men are taking the next game against Wales seriously.
“We are not going to get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “We will enjoy this one, no doubt, but then it is on to Wales next week.
“We’ll get back on the horse and ready to go because next week is another challenge for us and one we’re really excited about.”
Finally, in the England set-up, prop duo Mako Vunipola and Kyle Sinckler have been summoned by head coach Eddie Jones.
Vunipola is over his Achilles trouble while Sinckler has completed his ban.