Gatland confident about Gareth Anscombe's Wales future

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has expressed confidence in Gloucester’s first five Gareth Anscombe’s future for Wales, even after the 33-year-old was left out of the 2025 Six Nations squad.

Anscombe has been left out of the 34-man squad named by Gatland, but the Wales head coach is certain he will need Anscombe’s experience in the future.

“We will pick up injuries at some stage and we know we’ve got that experience to come in,” said Gatland.

Anscombe has made 38 caps for Wales and will be 36 when the next Rugby World Cup is hosted in Australia.

Gatland was honest about Anscombe’s hopes in 2027, saying Wales needs to develop in the ten position during the lead-up to the next World Cup.

“We’ve spoken about 10 as being the position to develop some strength in depth over the next couple of years, looking short term and long term,” said Gatland.

“We know Gareth has a lot of experience. One of the things we talked about is he’ll be 36 by the next World Cup, so will he be around? We need to develop some options and experience.

“It’s definitely a position of concern and losing someone like Sam Costelow as well probably didn’t help.”

As Sam Costelow was ruled out due to a collarbone injury, Gatland was able to name uncapped players Ben Thomas from Cardiff and Dan Edwards from Ospreys as the options in the number 10 jersey for the Six Nations.

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Gatland was happy to give the uncapped first five Edwards the chance, saying they would support him through his first opportunity for Wales.

“Someone like Dan gets that opportunity to put his hand up and hopefully we can support him and he can go and make the most of it.”

Anscombe joined Gloucester in 2024 after recovering from a groin injury that had previously kept him out of action.

“He hasn’t been doing the kicking duties at Gloucester in terms of kick-offs, kicking for touch or taking goals,” said Gatland.

“Over the last couple of campaigns, he hasn’t been able to handle that load with the kicking stuff.

“I’m sure he would have been able to do that and we know how experienced he is.”