'I think his reaction to not being selected has been terrific'
Josh Adams has lavished praise on his fellow wing Louis Rees-Zammit as the Gloucester speedster prepares for a return to Wales’ starting line-up.
Rees-Zammit burst on to the Six Nations scene with four tries during Wales’ title-winning campaign last season.
This year, though, has proved a totally different experience, suffering an ankle knock during the warm-up against Ireland, playing in Wales’ first two games and then being omitted from the match-day 23 for a Twickenham appointment with England.
The 21-year-old featured as a second-half replacement in last week’s narrow loss to Grand Slam-chasing France, and he will now start against Principality Stadium opponents Italy on Saturday.
“I think his reaction to not being selected for the England game has been terrific,” said Adams, who lines up in Wales’ back-three alongside Rees-Zammit and Johnny McNicholl this weekend.
“He went back to his club at Gloucester and came off the bench to score a wonderful try. I think he did everything asked of him.
“He came on against France and made a great impact and that is what you want. He had a couple of really nice touches and looked dangerous.
“I said at the beginning of the campaign that he is a massive weapon for us. He’s only 21, which is crazy.
“We want and expect the best from him and I think he’s going to be a huge, huge player for Wales for many years to come.”
Despite losing three Six Nations games out of four, Wales could still finish third if they see off Italy with a bonus-point and results involving England and Scotland work in their favour.
Wales captain Dan Biggar, who wins his 100th cap on Saturday, believes that last season’s Six Nations champions have shown attacking glimpses, despite collecting just five tries in four games, whereas they claimed 20 touchdowns last year.
“I thought we moved the ball quite well against France, England and Scotland, but we haven’t just quite got that final pass or final bit of movement,” Biggar said.
“We also know that 12 months ago when we won the title, we scored the most tries we have ever scored going to a championship success.
“I know it is all about the here and now, but people have also got short memories. We scored a lot of tries and points from moving the ball 12 months ago, and we haven’t quite got it how we want it.
“We are frustrated with that as well. Hopefully, that is something we can really work on and produce it on Saturday.”
And Adams added: “It’s clear to see we haven’t been as ruthless in attack this year. There are a lot of nuts and bolts around it in terms of why.
“For whatever reason, it hasn’t quite been there. I would like to think that in patches we have been really good and put teams under a lot of pressure.
“We have created some clear-cut chances as well where everyone is probably thinking ‘how did they not score that?’ These are the frustrating things for us when we look at it back.”
If Wales can click, then it could help produce a carnival atmosphere in the predicted Cardiff sunshine, with the mood set by milestone men Biggar and Alun Wyn Jones.
Jones returns to the starting line-up more than four months after suffering a shoulder injury that required two operations, and he will collect Wales cap number 150, creating history as the first player for any country to reach that figure.
Paying tribute to them, Wales scrum-half Gareth Davies said: “They are probably the two most professional players I have ever met on and off the field.
“The amount of work that they do on the pitch after training – ‘Biggs’ is always doing his kicking and is down there a while after the majority of boys have left, and Alun Wyn is always doing something.
“They thoroughly deserve the achievements they are going to get on the weekend, and I think they have both got plenty more in the tank.”
Comments on RugbyPass
first no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to comments