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Rhys Webb’s hopes of a Wales recall against France have received a setback. The scrum-half has not played for Wales since suffering a foot ligament injury during a World Cup warm-up game against Italy in September.
Webb, Welsh rugby’s player of the year, returned from injury on Sunday as the Ospreys beat Munster 20-17 in Cork. The 27-year-old, suffered a head injury and is extremely doubtful for Edinburgh’s Pro12 visit to the Liberty Stadium on Friday.
“It’s disappointing for us but more importantly it’s about Rhys,” the coach, Steve Tandy, said. “I don’t think it’ll keep him out for too long but with these head injury assessments you’ve got to make sure players are at the forefront of these decisions. Rhys is extremely doubtful [for the Edinburgh game].”
The Scarlets scrum-half Gareth Davies has made a considerable impact in Webb’s absence. Davies scored a try in Wales’ World Cup win over England at Twickenham and claimed another stunning solo score during the Six Nations victory over Scotland in Cardiff on Saturday.
Webb had been hoping to impress the Wales coaching staff this weekend before France’s visit to the Principality Stadium on 26 February.
Having edged out Scotland 27-23 on the back of a draw with Ireland in Dublin, Wales know victory over France should set up a title decider with England at Twickenham on 12 March. Wales’ final Six Nations game is at home to Italy on 19 March.
“Someone asked how we felt after the Ireland game,” said the Wales hooker Scott Baldwin. “The reality was then if we went on to win our remaining games we’d win the championship. Ireland have since lost, but we have two massive games coming up – against France and England – before finishing off against Italy. If we keep creating chances and finishing them off, we should be in a good place in two or three weeks’ time.”
Wales’ attacking creativity has been criticised in the opening two games but Baldwin believes they are on the right track after scoring three tries against Scotland.
"We improved this week and finished one or two off, but there are still opportunities we are creating that we are not taking,” he said. “It’s about nailing the little moments. When we start nailing those, we’ll start scoring a lot more tries.”
