Dai Young has full faith that Cardiff’s promising youngsters are capable of stepping up to the plate if called upon.
A number of youngsters were included in the travelling party to South Africa this month, including academy quartet Rhys Barratt, Theo Cabango, Jacob Beetham and Rhys Anstey.
With focus now turning to the next United Rugby Championship task - taking on DHL Stormers in Cape Town on Sunday - Young has backed his young guns to make their mark if the doors open, having been pleased with their development over the course of the campaign.
Young said: “The initial thing for us was to bring these guys out, not necessarily for experience. We knew, with one or two injuries, that these guys could figure.
“We are really pleased with their development and they’re playing weekly with the RFC, which is important.
“They train with us as part of the week, and then get their rugby with the RFC. You can see, week-on-week, that they’re developing and getting more experience.
“They’re playing at that level, and they don’t look out of place at all at our level. We’re determined, between now and the end of the season, to give them some game-time.
“The difficulty is that there’s never a right time. These games are all important.
“But I wouldn’t lose sleep if any of these guys were playing. They’ll do a job for us and kick on with more experience.
“In my experience, you can have all the best-laid plans but half the time it takes care of itself.
“Players pick up bumps and bruises and that’s how things take care of themselves. Certainly, we will be needing the squad over the next couple of weeks.”
The director of rugby provided a fitness update following Sunday’s defeat to Emirates Lions, revealing that four players are departing South Africa today.
Young added: “We’ve actually got four of the players flying home today. Rey and Aled were permanent replacements on the day.
“They’re ok now and are feeling fine but there’s no point in them hanging around here. It’s better for them to get home, settle back in with their families and start the return-to-play protocols after that.
“There was no way they were going to be fit for this week.
“There were two other nasty bumps. Owen Lane has damaged his shoulder and is going home as well. We’re hoping the extent of it isn’t as bad and will only keep him out for three or four weeks.
“But it’s still significant in terms of not being out for days but definitely weeks, but not much longer than that.
“Shane Lewis-Hughes had a real nasty rib injury, fracturing a few ribs there. So he’s obviously going home and looking at a minimum of six weeks there.
“They’re two significant injuries for Shane and Owen, who will be out for at least a month or so.
“We’ve got a so-called back row curse here at Cardiff. Everyone keeps telling me that I can’t keep all of them, we’ve got far too many back rows and how are we going to pick them all.
“We never seem to have many weeks where everyone is available.
“It’s a nasty injury just as Shane was coming into form, because he’d been out for a while. Like all players, it takes one or two games to get back up and running, but he was starting to show some real good form.
“Laney was obviously disappointed not to be in the Wales squad initially. But he was determined to keep on playing well and keep pushing his case.
“Injuries happen and they’re both tough guys and will get back as soon as possible.”