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Louis Rees-Zammit benched by Wales with ex-England U20 star set for debut

Wales' Louis Rees-Zammit during the 2026 Nations Championship match between Fiji and Wales at Cardiff City Stadium on July 4, 2026 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Ian Cook - CameraSport via Getty Images)
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Louis Rees-Zammit will start on the bench this week for Wales against Argentina in round two of the Nations Championship in San Juan.

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Having started on the wing last week against Fiji, the 25-year-old is one of three changes to the starting XV for the match against the Pumas. Ellis Mee, who started on the bench last week, will swap roles with Rees-Zammit.

The further two changes made to the starting XV by Steve Tandy are James Botham starting at blindside flanker instead of Alex Mann, and Sam Costelow starting at fly-half instead of Dan Edwards. Both Mann and Edwards are out of the squad entirely.

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Botham’s place on the bench last week will be filled by former England U20 back-row Kane James, who will make his Wales debut from the bench.

Tandy said: “There are three changes this week. I think it’s a great opportunity for those boys coming in. An exciting challenge.

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Argentina
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“This weekend we’re just looking forward to building on last week’s performance.

“It’s going to be an amazing opportunity for us playing away from home, which is always exciting. I think it’s a really good test for us to see where we’re at. We know that Argentina are a really passionate and skilful team.”

Wales XV: 15 Blair Murray (Scarlets); 14 Ellis Mee (Scarlets), 13 Eddie James (Scarlets), 12 Joe Hawkins (Scarlets), 11 Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby); 10 Sam Costelow (Scarlets), 9 Tomos Williams (Saracens); 1 Rhys Carre (Saracens), 2 Dewi Lake (Gloucester Rugby, captain), 3 Dillon Lewis (Dragons), 4 Ben Carter (Dragons), 5 Adam Beard (Montpellier), 6 James Botham (Cardiff Rugby), 7 Jac Morgan (Gloucester Rugby), 8 Aaron Wainwright (Leicester Tigers)

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Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias (Scarlets), 17 Nicky Smith (Sale Sharks), 18 Ben Warren (Ospreys), 19 Teddy Williams (Cardiff Rugby), 20 Kane James (Exeter Chiefs), 21 Kieran Hardy (Ospreys), 22 Max Llewellyn (Gloucester Rugby), 23 Louis Rees-Zammit (Bristol Bears)

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Red and White Dynamight 1 hour ago
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“kicked out”. Safas clutch so desperately to their string of victim pearls that excuses are always at the ready to explain away their own poor management decisions. SARU threatened their SANZAR partners for years that ‘because of viewership numbers’ that they were owed a bigger slice of the broadcasting rights pie. Aus and NZ quite rightly told them to FO, SANZAR was an equal partnership. Notwithstanding that each partner brought their own strengths and weaknesses, certainly a winning record completely escaped SA teams as part of their ‘package’. OFS were chopped, and early, despite being 1 of the more attractive SA teams to watch. Still the concentration of SA players from 5 teams to 4 had little discernible improvement on teams performance. In fact, SA teams were - by far - the least successful partner. Only 1 Champion SA club whereas all 3 origin Aus teams won and all 5 NZ teams have won. SA teams had a 22% win rate in NZ - so noone was turning up to watch them - whilst NZ teams had a 50% win rate in SA. When Covid pandemic hit the entire World and, NZ for 1 closed borders in and out, obviously this impacted an International competition and whilst a trans-Tasman lite-Super comp returned eventually, SARU used this opportunity to scream “we’ve been kicked out”. The reality was a temporary solution that would have soon corrected itself. Of course everyone knows the Safas innately clutch desperately to being a victim - ‘noone likes us, we dont care’ - and everyone outside of SA knows that the truth is found elsewhere. After only a few seasons of turning up to matches with teams full of development players in the URC/Champions Cup, those partner nations and their fans are already sick of the moaning and whinging that inherently accompanies all things Sth African. SARU are probably still kidding themselves that they will enter the 6Nations and that they will be “kicked out” of the Rugby Championship. What a bunch of big babies.

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