Rugby Union: Waterloo’s injury crisis

Feb 6 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

FEW teams face a tougher task than Waterloo this Saturday, when they travel to Redruth in Cornwall without several key players.

Not only is star fly-half and goal-kicker Alex Davies a doubt, but winger Dan Loader is also sidelined with five leading prop forwards doubts too.

Rob O’Donnell, John Jones, Bruno Pani and Aled Cravelle are all recovering from injury, so it will be remarkable if the side manage to turn out an effective scrum at all.

To make matters worse Redruth have a powerful scrum and they have a great need for victory lying 13 points below Waterloo after their 10-point deduction earlier in the season. It is a cruel blow for Waterloo, because a journey that distance is hardly the ideal approach to a match in any event, but happily they have shown plenty of fighting spirit on occasion.

At least their tackling has improved by leaps and bounds throughout the season, so let’s hope they do manage to hold out and in so doing, boost their reputation.