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'I think his reaction to not being selected has been terrific'

By PA
Louis Rees-Zammit of Wales looks dejected at full time after the Guinness Six Nations Rugby match between Wales and France (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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Louis Rees-Zammit
Louis Rees-Zammit (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

“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.”

Josh Adams
Josh Adams/ PA

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.

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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.”

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This 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”?

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