How Wales aim to cope without ‘irreplaceable’ Morgan

Autumn Nations Series: Wales v Japan

Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff Date: Saturday, 15 November Kick-off: 17:40 GMT

Wales will adopt a different approach in their second autumn Test against Japan after the loss of ‘irreplaceable’ Jac Morgan.

When Steve Tandy named his first squad last month it looked like he would start with a back-row trio of Aaron Wainwright, Morgan and Taulupe Faletau.

That was swiftly scuppered by Faletau suffering a knee injury with Cardiff and then captain Morgan joined him on the sidelines in the 54th minute of the autumn opener against Argentina.

The loss of British and Irish Lions forward Morgan to a dislocated left shoulder is a hammer blow.

“I don’t think you can replace Jac Morgan for a minute,” admitted Tandy.

“Jac is an unbelievable player and if anyone loses big players it’s hard to replace them. That’s when you look at what you have got.

“You’re not going to replace him like-for-like, but ultimately we’ve got to find a way to balance that off.”

All-action Ospreys forward Morgan plays in arguably the most perilous position on the field, putting himself at risk with explosive carries and jackals, so Wales must be prepared.

Athletic Wainwright burst on to the scene in 2017 as a blind-side flanker who could also play open-side.

The 28-year-old has settled at number eight for Dragons in recent years and his last club start as a flanker was in March 2022 when he moved for Ross Moriarty.

However, shifting to blind-side at Test level is nothing new for Wainwright because of the presence of the legendary Faletau.

Physical Cracknell, who made his Test debut off the bench last week, has also specialised at number eight for Leicester after previously being versatile for Ospreys and London Irish.

The pair will be tasked with dovetailing against a Japan side who like to play at high speed.

“That’s the challenge of international coaching from club coaching,” admitted Matt Sherratt, who left Cardiff for the job as Wales attack coach.

“It’s ultimately not really about how I want to play, my job is to get the best out of the players we have got.

Mann started the United Rugby Championship (URC) impressively for Cardiff after starting both summer Tests in Japan at blind-side.

Now he moves across for a first international start at open-side after playing there just twice in the URC last season.

There are question marks over Mann’s suitability to play at blind-side against the heavy-hitters but the 6ft 3ins, 16st 2lb forward undoubtedly has attractive attributes.

“He’s got flexibility in how he plays,” said Tandy, a combative flanker in his playing days.

“He has athletic ability, ball-playing skills but also his energy levels with how he gets off the line in defence.

“He gets people to the floor, he’s a jackal threat and has line-out ability. He is an all-round player who can play across the back row.”

Mann has worn six on his back six times in international rugby to go along with a pair of appearances off the bench.

“It’s just a number, whatever the coaches ask of me I make sure I give 100% so it doesn’t matter to me,” said the 23-year-old from Aberdare.