{"id":243970,"date":"2025-10-27T11:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T11:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243970\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T11:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T11:12:10","slug":"wales-lose-world-class-faletau-with-uncapped-prem-star-called-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243970\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales lose ‘world-class’ Faletau with uncapped PREM star called up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wales<\/a> No.8 Taulupe Faletau<\/a> has been forced to withdraw from the Wales squad ahead of the Autumn Nations Series<\/a> after picking up a knee injury.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old has been replaced in the squad by Leicester<\/a> Tigers\u2019 uncapped back-row Olly Cracknell<\/a>, who is fresh from starting at No.8 in the Tigers\u2019 Gallagher PREM victory over Sale<\/a> Sharks.<\/p>\n

Faletau was forced from the field in the opening five minutes of Cardiff\u2019s victory over Edinburgh<\/a> in the United Rugby Championship<\/a> at the weekend, sparking fears that his autumn campaign could be over.<\/p>\n

The six-cap British & Irish Lion has been dogged by injuries in recent years, and missed the start to Cardiff\u2019s URC campaign.<\/p>\n

The Leeds-born Former Wales U20<\/a> international Cracknell, 31, has been involved in Wales camps before, but is yet to earn his first Test cap.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wales <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Argentina <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Steve Tandy\u2019s side face a tough November campaign, which will begin with a visit from Argentina<\/a> on November 9, followed by contests against Japan, the All Blacks<\/a> and South Africa.<\/p>\n

Tandy said: \u201cIt\u2019s obviously hugely disappointing to lose Toby to injury as he\u2019s a world-class player. But Olly\u2019s been playing really well for Leicester and we\u2019re excited to add him to the squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Updated Wales squad
Forwards (22)
Keiron Assiratti (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 15 caps)
Adam Beard (Montpellier \u2013 58 caps)
Liam Belcher (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 2 caps)
Rhys Carre (Saracens \u2013 20 caps)
Ben Carter (Dragons \u2013 13 caps)
Brodie Coghlan (Dragons \u2013 uncapped)
Christian Coleman (Dragons \u2013 1 cap)
Olly Cracknell (Leicester Tigers \u2013 uncapped)
Rhys Davies (Ospreys \u2013 3 caps)
James Fender (Ospreys \u2013 uncapped)
Archie Griffin (Bath<\/a> Rugby \u2013 8 caps)
Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs \u2013 23 caps)
Dewi Lake (Ospreys \u2013 22 caps)
Alex Mann (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 7 caps)
Jac Morgan (Ospreys \u2013 23 caps) Captain
Morgan Morse (Ospreys \u2013 uncapped)
Taine Plumtree (Scarlets \u2013 8 caps)
Nicky Smith (Leicester Tigers \u2013 56 caps)
Danny Southworth (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 uncapped)
Gareth Thomas (Ospreys \u2013 42 caps)
Freddie Thomas (Gloucester<\/a> Rugby \u2013 4 caps)
Aaron Wainwright (Dragons \u2013 59 caps)<\/p>\n

Backs (17)
Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 63 caps)
Jacob Beetham (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 1 cap)
Rio Dyer (Dragons \u2013 23 caps)
Dan Edwards (Ospreys \u2013 4 caps)
Jarrod Evans (Harlequins \u2013 11 caps)
Kieran Hardy (Ospreys \u2013 25 caps)
Joe Hawkins (Scarlets \u2013 5 caps)
Louie Hennessey (Bath Rugby \u2013 uncapped)
Max Llewellyn (Gloucester Rugby \u2013 8 caps)
Reuben Morgan-Williams (Ospreys \u2013 1 cap)
Blair Murray (Scarlets \u2013 10 caps)
Louis Rees-Zammit (Bristol<\/a> Bears \u2013 32 caps)
Tom Rogers (Scarlets \u2013 11 caps)
Callum Sheedy (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 16 caps)
Ben Thomas (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 14 caps)
Nick Tompkins (Saracens \u2013 41 caps)
Tomos Williams (Gloucester Rugby \u2013 64 caps)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales No.8 Taulupe Faletau has been forced to withdraw from the Wales squad ahead of the Autumn Nations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-243970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}