These are your rugby headlines for Monday, September 19.
Sheriff 'in line for Baa-Baas offer'
Ken Owens is set to be offered the chance to feature for the Barbarians this autumn in their clash with the All Blacks at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Sheriff, as Owens is affectionately known, hasn't played for 11 months because of a career-threatening back injury.
It is hoped he will be available sooner rather than later with his region, the Scarlets, but he will need time to get back up to speed and re-adapt to the physical challenges of the sport.
Read more: Graham Price's beautiful tribute to Eddie Butler, the posh teen who won over Wales' hard men
An attractive offer could be coming his way, though. The Rugby Paper say he is wanted by the Baa-Baas for their date with New Zealand in London on November 13. The invitation, the publication continues, will be issued subject to Welsh Rugby Union approval.
Owens, a warrior for Wales and the Scarlets for beyond a decade, will presumably have as a long-term goal the aim of playing in a fourth World Cup. A place in Wayne Pivac's squad for the November Tests would be a step along that road.
But after such a serious injury, involving a prolapsed disc, the 35-year-old will not want to rush anything at this point in his long-haul recovery. The Barbarians are also said to be monitoring the progress of Leigh Halfpenny as they look ahead to their plum game with Ian Foster's side.
Wales international back on starting duty
Wales international Owen Williams returned to the Worcester Warriors starting line-up for the first time in 11 months after recovering from injury.
The three-cap Test centre spent an extended time on the sidelines with a hamstring injury, but he featured at fly-half for the Warriors in their home Gallagher Premiership clash with Exeter Chiefs at Sixways.
He and his team-mates couldn't stop the visitors claiming victory, however, with the Devonians finishing as 36-21 winners.
Turn back the clock five years and Williams was seen as a potential second playmaker for Wales after playing against Australia and New Zealand in that year's autumn series.
Injuries have followed him around since, while he also had a spell playing in Japan. But it was good to see him back on Warriors duty, even if the result wasn't the one he would have wanted.
Young: 'We'll manage Faletau'
Cardiff boss Dai Young has outlined his plans to "manage" showpiece new signing Taulupe Faletau to ensure he is fit and firing in big games for club and country this season.
The No. 8 warrior made a blockbusting blue and blacks debut in the win over Munster following his move back to Wales from English Premiership giants Bath.
Young says Faletau has already improved standards, during games and in training behind the scenes, and is devising a schedule which will suit the player himself, Wayne Pivac's Wales and Cardiff as games come thick and fast.
"I thought he was outstanding but he's been outstanding since he's come here," said Young after the opening day Arms Park victory. "You can't underestimate how good he was. Just having him in training, he has lifted the standards. The new signings have done that without me having to do or say anything. Just having these guys out on the park and seeing what they can do on a regular basis brings the standards right up.
"Obviously we're not going to overplay him as there are requirements from the Wales management and we want him playing in our big games. They're all big games, but you want him in the derbies and Europe so we'll have to mix and match.
"He's not coming in to us battered and bruised off the back of a tough season, but he's obviously got some miles on the clock. He doesn't shirk anything. The onus will probably be on me looking after him, rather than him wanting me to look after him."
McGeechan warns over safety
Sir Ian McGeechan has once again spoken of his concerns about the safety of modern-day rugby, revealing the area of the sport which makes him wince. The breakdown, contends the much-respected British and Irish Lions coach, and in particular the skill of stealing the ball from opponents, has become part of the game which needs to be looked at again by lawmakers.
He tells in his column in The Telegraph how a year ago he was part of a group of ex-players, including Sir Gareth Edwards and Barry John, as well as consultant surgeon Professor John Fairclough, who wrote an open letter to World Rugby, calling for drastic change to improve safety for players.
"We felt the sport urgently needed to return to the days when rugby was a 15-a-side game for 30 players; that the modern law allowing the use of up to eight replacements per team, many of whom are tactical ‘impact players’ or ‘finishers’, had created a monster," he writes.
"In the professional era, we argued, players had naturally become fitter, bigger and stronger than before. Injuries have risen commensurately. The issue of player welfare has never been more burning with more and more players coming forward to testify to the dangers of the modern game."
The rugby world was shocked earlier this year when former Wales captain Ryan Jones announced he was suffering from early-onset dementia, saying he felt rugby was “walking headlong with its eyes closed into a catastrophic situation” as it continues to battle the impact of head injuries to its players.
McGeechan doesn't go that far and relates how World Rugby chief Bill Beaumont has expressed genuine concern to him at the state of the game. But not much has actually happened in terms of action, stresses the former coach. Research had been commissioned but the inspiration behind the Lions tour successes of 1989 and 1997 wonders how long people will have to wait for the "data to tell you what you can see right in front of you".
He further says players are playing too many matches, with some contact situations out of control. "Jackalling - stealing the ball at the breakdown - is long overdue a law change," he writes. "The sight of opposition players charging in from 10m away and driving into the head and neck of a static defender who is bent over the tackle makes me wince at times.
"The laws on rucks and mauls need to be looked at and clarified as a whole. Let us see the ruck defined as ball on the ground at the tackle and maul as ball held up off the ground, irrespective of where the ball carrier's knees are. If the ball is held up then the side not taking the ball into the contact gets a free-kick. Jackalling couldn’t happen if players rucked over the ball and heeled it backwards. Allowing old-fashioned rucking would also have the benefit of committing players, opening up space elsewhere on the pitch."
Eales: Australia are closer to New Zealand — but must keep believing
Wallabies legend John Eales reckons the rugby gap between Australia and New Zealand is closing, but has stressed that a shift in mindset must take place for the Wallabies to make further progress.
Australia were within seconds of ending a 20-year Bledisloe Cup drought last week, only to see their neighbours pinch victory at 39-37 courtesy of a controversial try.
Eales, captain of the men in gold and green when they won the World Cup in 1999, told Newstalk ZB the Wallabies were beginning to feel they were good enough against the old foes from across the Tasman.
"A lot of the time you can be good, but if you don't believe you're good or good enough against a certain opposition, that can plague your mind," he said. "Going in with the mindset that if you do your best you're going to have a chance of winning this game is a very important mindset.
"You don't want to go in with a containment philosophy thinking 'we just want to minimise damage control here'. You want to go in thinking 'we can genuinely beat this team'.
"We've been up against some pretty good New Zealand teams, we've had a struggle with certain other issues in Australia, losing players younger. I think we are closer, but we've got to believe. We've got to keep some of these guys and we've got to work with them so they not only settle for this level of performance but say 'OK, how can we be better?'"
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