Wales’ Jac Morgan set for spell on sidelines with suspected dislocated shoulder

Wales captain Jac Morgan is expected to miss the rest of the autumn campaign after suffering a suspected dislocated shoulder in the 52-28 defeat to Argentina.

The British and Irish Lions flanker was injured in the act of scoring Wales’ third try after taking a quick tap penalty, and watched the closing stages from the bench with his left arm in a sling.

It is huge blow for new Wales head coach Steve Tandy, whose first game in charge saw his side concede seven tries in a record defeat to Argentina.

“It’s probably a dislocated shoulder, so it’s not looking good for Jac and the rest of the autumn,” said Tandy.

“He’s a world-class player, he’s huge for us and we know how much he loves playing for Wales and how he leads the team.

“It is massive blow, but ultimately it’s someone else’s opportunity.”

Hooker Dewi Lake will take over the captaincy for the rest of Wales’ November programme against Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.

Tandy also confirmed that he will call up back-row cover for the stricken Morgan, with Leicester’s Tommy Reffell and Harri Deaves, of Ospreys, in contention.

“The day ended in disappointment, but there’s lots to like around the group,” said Tandy.

“What we’ve done in the last two weeks has come out, to score four tries is really positive and we left a couple out there.

“There is disappointment as well to concede 50 points and a couple of those tries are probably avoidable.

“We are 12th in the world for a reason, but you could see where we want to go and there’s loads of areas for us to grow.”

Wales, who had fought back to level after conceding 14 points in the opening 10 minutes, had two yellow cards either side of half-time with Ben Thomas and Tomos Williams both sent to the sin bin.

Thomas headed to the sidelines after kicking out at Pablo Matera when having his leg held on the ground.

The fact Thomas did not make contact with Matera probably spared him a red card upon review, but Argentina took advantage of their numerical advantage to establish a 24-14 lead with the Wales centre off the pitch.

Tandy said: “There’s not a real angle from what I’ve seen that is conclusive to what it is.

“There’s lots going on, but if it is lashing out you can’t do that in a game.

“There’s a lot of holding (by Matera) on the floor and we’ll probably get a better angle sometime that I can assess it better.”

Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi said Los Pumas were delighted with a victory that eclipsed their previous best against Wales – a 33-11 win in 2021.

“You could see Wales is a new team, but they had very good things,” said Contepomi, whose side are sixth in the world rankings and beat Australia and New Zealand in the recent Rugby Championship.

“We were a bit more mature in the sense that we were more cohesive because we have been playing together for a longer time.”