By Rob Cole
Ospreys head coach Allen Clarke hasn’t ruled out recruiting another outside-half to help plug the gap left by Luke Price’s broken leg that will keep him out until the New Year.
Having caused considerable furore by giving the 22-year-old former Wales Under 20 player first shot at filling Dan Biggar’s No. 10 jersey ahead of the more experienced and established Sam Davies, Clarke now risks alienating one of the region’s home grown assets with talk of looking for emergency cover
Davies came off the bench to help steer the Ospreys to an opening 17-13 win over Edinburgh at the Liberty Stadium and will presumably start in this weekend’s home clash with the Cheetahs.
With Price out of action until the New Year it means the Ospreys will still have three options at No. 10 – Davies, the veteran James Hook and Wales Under 20 star Cai Evans.
“If we bring in someone from the outside it has to be the right person and the right quality of player. We will concentrate on the boys we have at the moment, but it is something we need to monitor,” revealed Clarke.
“Sam and James are quality players and you could see at the weekend how Sam marshalled us around the field against Edinburgh. We were delighted with the cohesion he showed and James has trained fantastically well during the summer.
“Luke is a fine young man, he has youth on his side and he has shown resilience before and he will come back and it will be this season, which is great.
“It is still hugely disappointing. I suppose in situations like this you think the absolute worst and then you hope for the best as well – it is somewhere in between in that it could have been a lot worse.”
What should have been the biggest day in Price’s fledgling professional career turned into one of his shortest on a rugby field as he fractured his tibia 38 minutes into the first-half last weekend.
He has been ruled out of action for the remainder of 2018.
“Although the injury doesn’t require surgery, Luke faces a period of rehabilitation and is looking at a best case scenario of four months out of action,” said an Ospreys medical bulletin.
While Davies stayed calm and was thoroughly professional after being forced to start on the bench against Edinburgh, the 2013 World Rugby Junior Player of the Year must have been seething at not being given first shot at Biggar’s position.
With more than a century of appearances behind him, he was everyone’s top tip to finally make the breakthrough this season, but even with eight full Welsh caps behind him Clarke didn’t give him the thumbs up against Edinburgh.
What the Ospreys and Welsh rugby can ill afford is to lose one of the brightest talents in the game by pushing him out.
At 24, Davies’s best years are ahead of him and he remains a candidate for next year’s World Cup campaign in Japan.
But if he doesn’t get a regular start at the Liberty Stadium his confidence will ebb away and so, too, could he at the end of the season.
