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Assistant coach Gareth Williams to leave Wales for Scarlets
By Steffan Thomas
Wales assistant coach Gareth Williams is set to leave Wayne Pivac’s backroom team to become the Scarlets’ new defence guru.
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Williams has been Wales’ contact area coaching specialist for the past year but looks likely to jump ship just over a year out from the Rugby World Cup in France. He has previously been Wales under 20s head coach, while Williams has also been in charge of Wales Sevens.
And the 43-year-old is close to leaving the national set-up to become Dwayne Peel’s assistant at the Scarlets subject to final approval from Wales boss Pivac. Peel will be hoping Williams can help shore up the Scarlets’ defence after the west Walians finished in 10th spot in the United Rugby Championship table, missing out on a place in next seasons Heineken Champions Cup.
The Scarlets are one of the most potent attacking sides in the URC, scoring 65 tries, but they also conceded 73 tries, and a total of 534 points. Current defence coach, Hugh Hogan, will leave the Scarlets at the end of the season, and the Llanelli based club are close to appointing Williams. The hope is if Williams can tighten up their defence, they will become URC play-off contenders due to the amount of tries they score.
Should the deal get rubberstamped Williams will join Peel, forwards coach Ben Franks, and scrum coach Emyr Phillips as part of a revamped back-room team in Llanelli. The Scarlets may also be on the lookout for another addition to their coaching team with Dai Flanagan expected to join the Dragons to work underneath Dean Ryan, while head analyst Joe Lewis has re-joined the England set-up.
It is unclear whether Pivac will look to replace Williams in the Wales set-up given Gethin Jenkins’ speciality as a defence and contact area coach.
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Ultimately it is the entire NZR board who should be sacked. Foster wants to be the ABs coach, you can't blame him for that. NZR appointed him in what was a terrible process for actually finding the right candidate, more of a coronation based on the false assumption of "continuity" - it was clear from the BIL tour in 2017 which direction the ABs were heading, continuing that seemed crazy by they decided to do it anyway. They then reappointed him before he had faced a true test before the NH tour of 2021 which was a disaster. They could have sacked him then. They could have sacked him after the Ireland series where it was clear the ABs were well of the pace. They could have done it after the tests in SA which despite being 1-1 were not in the least bit convincing. Basically they have backed the guy every year, but now in the lead up to the world cup they have decided he's definitely not the right guy, yet he remains the coach.
Go to comments"taking the land they felt had been stolen from them during the colonial era" the land had been stolen, and the requisitions were entirely justified. I'm very sorry that Negri's family were hurt but this article is basically just propaganda for apartheid.
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