Charvis concerned by Popham injury

Wales captain Colin Charvis spoke of his concern for team-mate Alix Popham after he was stretchered off the field during Wales’ 53-18 loss to the South Africa at Loftus Versfeld.

Popham, who came off second best after a tackle by opposite number Jacques Cronje, was finally put out of any lasting danger about an hour after the game when it was revealed that he simply was concussed.

But Popham will spend the night in a Pretoria hospital as a precaution after the game was stopped for nearly seven minutes to enable him to receive treatment.

Charvis immediately feared the worst, saying: “They carried him off with his tongue out. He was really in a bad way when I got there and we were scared he was going to swallow his tongue.

“But the medical staff were brilliant and were there in a flash. They had the neck brace out rather quickly and looked after him well.

“It’s the kind of thing that can shake a team up quite badly to see that and I’m glad to hear that he will be fine now.

“It could have been a lot worse, he played very well and it was very disappointing to lose him in the manner that we did.”

Popham, who replaced the injured Michael Owen on Friday after the latter lost his fitness battle to back spasms, was out for a while but “came around okay” according to Ruddock.

“He played his heart out and he put in a lot of big hits around the park. He was taking a hammering out there and he really did well,” said Ruddock.

Three other players were injured as well in the game, with Charvis pulling his hamstring in the final moments, while lock Deiniol Jones and fly-half Nicky Robinson both pulled muscles as well.