'Tough' Roberts plays on with fractured skull

The Wales centre Jamie Roberts is more used to doing the rounds in hospital as a student doctor but was on the treatment table himself after playing 15 minutes against Australia with a fractured skull.

Roberts, 22, is facing a six-week lay-off after cracking his skull around his right eye in a collision with Stirling Mortlock that also ended the Wallabies captain's match. Yet, remarkably, the Cardiff Blues centre stayed on the pitch for a further 15 minutes, even playing a part in the game's opening try, before succumbing to the pain.

The student doctor, who has completed three years of a medical degree, was kept in hospital overnight for observation before he was discharged yesterday and is expected to recover in time for the Six Nations.

The Wales team doctor, Professor John Williams, said: "He [Jamie] is a very tough guy and it's an unusual injury. It happened because the collision happened at a certain angle. That's what has caused the crack."