CORY Hill is confident Dragons teammate Ross Moriarty will take the responsibility of being Wales' World Cup number eight in his stride after Taulupe Faletau's injury blow.

Moriarty has become an even more important figure for head coach Warren Gatland after the loss of Faletau to a broken collarbone suffered at the training camp in Switzerland.

Wales are blessed with back row options but can ill afford more misfortune in the double-headers against England and Ireland before they head to Japan.

If they come through unscathed then Gatland will be able to field the Grand Slam trio of Moriarty and flankers Justin Tipuric and Josh Navidi with Aaron Wainwright and Aaron Shingler likely to be their back-up.

Wales have coped admirably without the unlucky Faletau since the 2017 Six Nations and Hill, while acknowledging the blow of losing his former Dragons teammate, is confident they will do the same at the World Cup.

"Toby is a massive loss, he would be for any side. I am gutted for him, he had a difficult season with a few injuries," said the lock.

"He is a quality player who does pretty much everything, so we are really disappointed for him – after doing all the hard work a freak injury like that is pretty hard to take.

"But Ross is a great player and a tough, physical specimen. He will take it in his stride and had a pretty good autumn and Six Nations, so we will expect him to have a pretty good World Cup as well."

Hill knows all about injury misery after suffering an ankle injury when scoring a try in the Six Nations win against England that meant he sat out the Grand Slam clinching successes against Scotland and Ireland.

He has played a full part in training and is likely to feature in the first tune-up at Twickenham on Sunday.

Despite seeing Faletau suffer World Cup woe, Hill is happy to be getting back out in the middle.

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"It's rugby and you get injuries – I had one in the Six Nations and it's part and parcel of the game," said Hill, who has won 24 caps.

"It's a tough, physical sport and there will be injuries but we are looking forward to four tough Test matches to get ourselves ready for the World Cup.

"The southern hemisphere sides have the Rugby Championship and will definitely be game fit and ready to go. These tough Tests will get us game-fit as well."

Hill is battling with Adam Beard, Jake Ball and Bradley Davies to join captain Alun Wyn Jones as lock options at the World Cup.

In the Dragons' skipper's favour is his ability to also slot in at blindside, as he did for the Rodney Parade region against Clermont Auvergne and in the three festive derbies last season.

"Versatility is never a bad thing, although some boys over the years have been bench players because they can play a few positions," he said.

"I am a second row who played six at the Dragons because we wanted to get a bigger pack on the park at the time, and it worked for us and went well.

"It's a string to my bow I suppose and I will play anywhere as long as I have got the three feathers on my chest. As long as I am doing my bit for the team I am happy."

Wales name their team to face England tomorrow at 11am.