Rugby-Gatland faces anxious wait over Anscombe injury

Wales coach Warren Gatland was pleased to see his side come through a tough examination from Georgia in a 43-19 victory on Saturday that sealed top spot in Rugby World Cup Pool C, but will sweat over an injury to Gareth Anscombe.

Wales coach Warren Gatland was pleased to see his side come through a tough examination from Georgia in a 43-19 victory on Saturday that sealed top spot in Rugby World Cup Pool C, but will sweat over an injury to Gareth Anscombe. The flyhalf was due to start but was forced out after a problem with his groin and he was visibly upset as he left the pitch having sustained the injury practising his kicks at goal.

"He's just got a bit of a tight groin, high on the groin, maybe just a little tweak so we will have to get that checked out. We're not sure about that yet," Gatland said. Should Anscombe, who did not play in any of Wales' warm-up matches due to injury, have a spell on the sidelines, it could leave Gatland short of options at flyhalf with Dan Biggar injured against Australia.

Biggar was on the bench against Georgia following Anscombe's injury, but did not come on as Gatland opted to play Sam Costelow for the full match. "We did talk about bringing Dan on but he was under a bit of an injury cloud as well so it was good for young Sam Costelow to play 80 minutes and get through that having been thrown in the deep end right at the start of the game," Gatland said.

Wales will always have had a knockout place in mind despite poor form coming into the tournament, but four wins from four and a likely quarter-final against Argentina or Japan is as good as it gets for Gatland. "They (the players) have worked incredibly hard in the off season building up to this World Cup," Gatland said. "You get a lot of confidence from the work you put in and it is a great atmosphere within the group.

"We probably struggled a bit today, Georgia aren't a bad side. They put us under pressure but we got the job done and we can now focus on next week."