The Six Nations has been launched in London, but Wales’ own launch pad looks distinctly wobbly with injury worries weighing them down. Robin Davey takes the body count but suggests the Scarlets can come to the rescue.

 The mood around Wales’ Six Nations hopes matched the dismal weather on Wednesday when it was revealed that Liam Williams is set to miss next week’s opener against Scotland, and could even be out of the whole tournament.

He suffered a recurrence of the abdominal problem with his club Saracens at the weekend, one which had already kept him out for two months.

It is hoped the injury can be managed over the next week or two, but if that proves impossible he’ll need an operation which would end any hopes of playing in the Six Nations.

That would be a shame for Williams, who played such an exciting, daring brand of rugby for the Lions in New Zealand last summer.

And the announcement, made against the backdrop of the Six Nations launch in London, only added to the deep sense of irony.

Even worse, it followed a load of other grim injury news. For long since ruled out of the whole Six Nations are skipper Sam Warburton and Lions man-of-the-series Jonathan Davies.

In addition key pair, No.8 Taulupe Faletau and outside-half Dan Biggar, are both expected to miss the first three matches of the competition – arguably the most difficult against resurgent Scotland at the Principality Stadium and England and Ireland, both away.

Another on the sidelines is lock Jake Ball, so that means six first choice players missing from the Scotland game while there are question marks against three more.

George North and Ross Moriarty have only just resumed playing, North after another lengthy spell on the sidelines while Moriarty has been out even longer, ever since the Lions tour, in fact, with ongoing back trouble.

And yet another – Hallam Amos – is still out of action, making a total of nine either out of the Scotland match or with a question mark hanging over their fitness.

It means Wales’ resources, already quite thin and lacking real depth, will be stretched even further.

It could leave the Welsh team looking something like this: Rhys Patchell; Leigh Halfpenny, Hadleigh Parkes, Scott Williams, Steff Evans; Gareth Anscombe, Gareth Davies; Rob Evans, Ken Owens, Samson Lee, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones (captain), Aaron Shingler, Josh Navidi, Justin Tipuric.

That would mean an incredible ten Scarlets players in the Wales line-up, all bar one of the back division.

But that would probably be a fair reflection of the way Wales’ top region stormed into the quarter-finals of the European Champions Cup, commendable enough in itself but quite remarkable after they lost their opening two games in the pool stages.

Those (including me) who wrote them off then did so at their peril, and the way they won their last two matches away to Bath and against Toulon, in a nerve-shredding clash at Parc Y Scarlets, was quite incredible.

Playing with a style which swept some of the best Europe can offer off their feet, they demolished Bath in front of a shocked crowd at the Rec.

They turned it on once more against former champions, the star-studded Toulon side, in the first half before hanging on like grim death in a desperate finale, showing the other side of their character, a terrific defence.

It is not just Wales, however, who are suffering big injury problems going into the opening weekend of the Six Nations for opponents Scotland have similar issues.

They have been hard hit up front with talisman lock Richie Gray out and a whole series of front row problems which has robbed them of hookers Richie Ford and Fraser Brown, tight-head props Zander Fagerson and WP Nel, plus loose-heads Darryl Marfo, Allan Dell and Al Dickinson.

So, though it may go against the grain, especially given the way the Scarlets have been playing, the way to victory for Wales appears to lie up front, even more so as attacking Scottish full back Stuart Hogg is on fire and new coach Gregor Townsend is encouraging his charges to move the ball around.

The Six Nations is rarely less than exciting and even if Wales and Scotland are without a number of leading players both sides are sure to move the ball around instead of looking for collisions.

It could still be a cracker.