Tonight's rugby news as Wales players 'trained too hard' and coach warned Shaun Edwards could take his place

These are your evening rugby headlines on Thursday, November 14.

Wales players 'trained too hard'

Alex Cuthbert has revealed that some of Wales' players felt they trained 'too hard' ahead of their 24-19 defeat to Fiji.

Hosting the latest episode of the SportIn Wales podcast, the 57-cap international gave his reflections on Wales' performance and said he believed Warren Gatland's side were on their way to breaking their dismal winning run when Ellis Bevan crossed for a try with 15 minutes left.

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However, Cuthbert noted that in the final quarter of an hour, Wales looked a bit heavy-legged and claimed that the players thought they had been pushed too hard in the days leading up to the game.

"I spoke to a lot of the boys," he told Australia international Nic White and rugby writer Alex Bywater. "They thought they might have trained a bit too hard in the week.

"You know what Gats is like, he does push the boys quite hard. I just thought it would be a game where (you) keep the boys fresh and really go after these Fijians."

Gatland is now under immense pressure to win against Australia this weekend, with questions raised around his future in the role.

Coach warned Shaun Edwards could take his place

Former England hooker Brian Moore has suggested that a poor performance against South Africa could put Steve Borthwick's position as head coach in jeopardy.

Borthwick, 45, took over the reins following Eddie Jones' departure in 2022 and led the team to the Rugby World Cup semi-final just 10 months later, narrowly losing 16-15 to the Springboks.

Despite the limited preparation time, this was seen as a significant achievement, but the team has struggled to build on this success. Although they triumphed over Ireland in the subsequent Six Nations, they have since suffered painful losses to France, New Zealand (three times) and Australia.

The defeat to an underperforming Wallabies side was labelled "unforgivable" by England captain Jamie George, piling further pressure on Borthwick. While Moore has not explicitly called for Borthwick's dismissal should England lose to South Africa, he insists that concerns will intensify both within and outside the RFU, with viable candidates like ex-Wales defence guru Shaun Edwards available.

In his Telegraph column, Moore wrote: "England head coach Steve Borthwick might not like it but the current thinking around sports managers and coaches is short-term. Taking a long-term view has long gone and, as with its football equivalent, England’s top rugby job is subject to the full force of social, digital and traditional media speculation."

He added: "It is also a question of timing. We are into the second year after a World Cup and that mandates progress is made and, just as importantly, is seen to be made.

"What any union wants to avoid is having to make changes to the head coach less than two years before a World Cup. If that happens, as it has with England in the past, you have to give a new coach a contract that spans two World Cups because nobody who is any good will take the risk of being out of a job when they have had too short a time to effect necessary change.

"Borthwick’s position is also not made any more secure by the fact both Andy Farrell and Shaun Edwards have long appealed to England supporters after significant success with other nations," Moore continued. "There is no guarantee that a Farrell-Edwards combination would be available before their contracts expire in 2027, nor that it would be a world-beating one for that matter, but you cannot deny its attraction to most England fans."

New World Rugby boss named

By PA Sport Staff

Australia's Dr Brett Robinson has been elected as the new chair of World Rugby.

The 54-year-old, who succeeds Sir Bill Beaumont after the end of the former England captain's eight-year term, is the first chair of the international federation from the southern hemisphere.

Robinson was chosen in two rounds of voting ahead of France's Abdelatif Benazzi and Italy's Andrea Rinaldo.

"It is an immense privilege and honour to have been elected World Rugby chair by my council colleagues today," Robinson said.

"During the course of the process I have had many conversations with my colleagues around the world and am heartened by our shared ambition to continue to build on the strength of our game."

Robinson will serve a four-year term and can stand for re-election in 2028.

Ireland determined to bounce back

By Ed Elliot, PA, Dublin

Head coach Andy Farrell says Ireland are determined to continue their enviable track record of immediately bouncing back from defeats as they prepare to host Argentina.

Los Pumas are due at the Aviva Stadium on Friday evening, with the hosts seeking a response to a dispiriting 23-13 loss to New Zealand in their Autumn Nations Series opener.

Only once during the Farrell era, which spans 51 games, have his side been beaten twice in a row - defeats to Wales and France at the start of the 2021 Guinness Six Nations. The Englishman feels the pain of previous setbacks has been eased by instantly returning to winning ways and has spoken with his players about maintaining the trend.

"That's certainly been addressed," said Farrell. "We've talked about that, our story this week, quite a bit. Lessons learned from those defeats have been really good for us actually in our development. It makes a loss that hurts a little bit easier to take. There's a determination to make sure the same thing happens this week."

Argentina, who sit fifth in the Test rankings, have never won in Dublin but have already beaten New Zealand, France, Australia and world champions South Africa this year. Farrell has made just one change to the team which began against the All Blacks but admitted some of his players were fortunate to be retained.

"You've heard me say before that sometimes you drop people and after a conversation five minutes later you wish you had picked them because they get another chance," he said. "So there's a bit of that, a bit of hurt and a reaction and that will come as well but at the same time we haven't got thousands of players anyway.

"We know where our bread's buttered and we've got to act according to that and make the group stronger the whole time by giving them an opportunity either to right some wrongs or take an opportunity that's in front of them."