How many minutes Wales' Six Nations players have actually had since the autumn as startling situation emerges

Never before has a Wales coach been faced with a situation like it heading into a Six Nations campaign.

Yes, you’ve had injury crises in the past which has left the national side short of key, experienced men.

But you’ve never before had that combined with so many of the squad being so short of game-time.

That latter aspect is, of course, the legacy of the extraordinary nature of this season, amid the ongoing effects of the Covid pandemic.

We’ve had two of the regions hit by extended stays in hotel quarantine following ill-fated trips to South Africa, ruling players out for a lengthy period.

Then there have been the glut of postponements and cancellations for Covid-related reasons, leaving teams kicking their heels.

Add in the injuries which have further limited the game-time of some squad members and it’s a pretty concerning situation.

How concerning? Well, we’ve done the maths and the figures are startling.

Out of the 36-man squad selected by Wayne Pivac, no fewer than 23 of them have had less than 250 minutes of rugby since the autumn internationals.

Of those, 10 have had less than 150 minutes in those nine weeks.

Ross Moriarty hasn’t played at all due to the shoulder damage he sustained in the autumn opener against New Zealand, while injuries have contributed to Exeter back-five forward Christ Tshiunza and Ulster hooker Bradley Roberts having just 10 and 40 minutes of rugby respectively.

The 20-year-old Tshiunza made his first appearance for his Devon club in two months last weekend, with a brief outing off the bench against Montpellier, and now he has been sidelined after testing positive for Covid.

Given the number of players who have had limited action, Pivac has opted to release five of them back to the regions