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Six Welsh players that have a fight on their hands to make the Rugby World Cup

By Martyn Thomas
Keelan Giles and Dan Biggar

Clouds might be gathering up and down the UK as a once-glorious summer fades, but with the 2018-19 domestic season set to kick off on Friday night there is one corner of the island that continues to bask in bright, blue skies.

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The airspace above Welsh rugby HQ is anything but grey as Warren Gatland plots a course for the 2019 Rugby World Cup having built on an encouraging Six Nations campaign with a clean sweep summer tour.

Wales took an experimental squad to the United States and Argentina in June, and returned not only victorious but also with shoots of genuine, and in some positions frightening, squad depth. Those noises you can hear from the west of the River Severn are the unmistakable rumblings of optimism.

So, with just over 12 months until the World Cup kicks off, RugbyPass picked out six Welshman who face varying challenges this season as they look to book a seat on the flight to Japan.

Josh Adams (Worcester Warriors)

Worcester wing Josh Adams will attempt to follow up the success of his breakthrough international season while contemplating the biggest decision of his fledgling career.

Adams has entered the final year of his contract at Sixways and must make the journey back across the Severn Bridge if he is to continue his Wales career.

He insists his sole focus is scoring tries for the Warriors. If he continues to do so in such volume during the 2018-19 campaign then not only will the regions be beating down his door, but it will be hard for Gatland to leave him out of his World Cup squad.

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Josh Adams

His Worcester team-mate Chris Pennell is certain there is more to come from a player who has impressed ever since arriving in the West Midlands three years ago.

“Josh is obviously very physically gifted but he’s a smart, smart player, he’s very intelligent, he’s rugby smart and that’s stands him head and shoulders above a lot of the Welsh wingers that are currently around,” Adams’ Worcester team-mate Chris Pennell told RugbyPass.

“I think one of the reasons he’s scored so many tries is because he’s in the right place and he reads the game so well. There’s definitely a huge amount to come from him as well, he’s very much not the finished article by his own admission so it’s exciting, it’s really exciting.”

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Dan Biggar (Northampton Saints)

If ever there was a time over the last five years that Dan Biggar’s standing as Wales’ undisputed No. 10 was under threat, it is now.

As he took a well-earned break and prepared for his new life in Northampton, Rhys Patchell laid claim to the fly-half berth with an impressive tour of Argentina.

The Scarlets playmaker has emerged as an exciting option for Gatland since his move to west Wales, and the fact his regional team-mate Gareth Davies is now first-choice scrum-half will do his hopes of starting the autumn series no harm.

Biggar has done nothing wrong, and remains an excellent fly-half but with Gareth Anscombe, Rhys Priestland, Sam Davies and Jarrod Evans all vying for contention the competition for the No. 10 jersey will be intense leading into the World Cup.

Biggar rejected the notion that moving to the Gallagher Premiership so close to the World Cup is not a brave call, and having settled quickly in Northampton he is determined to excel for a Saints team given licence under Chris Boyd and Sam Vesty.

“We’ve had a long summer in terms of pre-season, it’s been a tough summer,” Biggar told RugbyPass. “The boys have put a lot of work in and overall it’s been really positive.

“I’ve enjoyed getting to know different people, testing myself in a different environment and it’s been really good.”

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Seb Davies (Cardiff Blues)

The battle to partner Alun Wyn Jones, fitness permitting, at the World Cup is shaping up to be an intense one. Jake Ball is returning from injury, while Adam Beard and Bradley Davies both got 40 minutes under their belts against Saracens in London on Thursday.

Dragons captain Cory Hill is arguably the man in possession of the shirt, but Seb Davies has a real shot at starting in Japan should he replicate the form that helped the Blues lift the Challenge Cup in May.

Davies has won six Wales caps since making his debut against Tonga last summer, but only half of those have come in his favoured position. The other three have come in the back row, where he started both victories over Argentina in June.

Given the wealth of options available to Gatland in that area it is unlikely that he will hold onto the number six shirt into the autumn series, but a good start to the season in the Blues engine room – where he should feature alongside another Wales international, Rory Thornton – could thrust him into contention at lock.

Gatland clearly rates the 22-year-old having capped him after just four league appearances, as a replacement, for the Blues.

Keelan Giles (Ospreys)

It was a watching brief again for Keelan Giles and the other injured Ospreys in London last Thursday evening, and although the young wing is not expected back on the pitch until October he will be keen to make up for lost time once fit.

Giles’ 2017-18 campaign was ended after just seven games due to serious knee ligament damage which forced him to undergo reconstruction surgery. Should he return when planned the 20-year-old will have missed a full calendar year of rugby.

In that time Steff Evans has become a Test regular while the form of Josh Adams and Tom Prydie plus the emergence of Owen Lane have pushed him further down the Wales depth chart.

Giles was an unused replacement when Wales beat Japan in Cardiff in November 2016, but despite touring the southern hemisphere with his national squad in consecutive summers he is yet to win a senior Test cap.

He has spoken in the past about how much a Wales cap would mean to him, and should he rediscover his try-scoring touch then that dream would again edge closer to becoming reality.

The Ospreys speedster is supremely talented having scored 16 tries in just 23 appearances for his region. Giles’ out-and-out pace and agility could yet offer Wales something different in Japan.

Ellis Jenkins (Cardiff Blues)

Given the year Ellis Jenkins has had thus far, it would take a brave person to wager against him ending this season on the plane to Japan.

Having made his Six Nations debut, led the Blues to Challenge Cup glory, co-captained Wales on a perfect summer tour and gone viral due to a WhatsApp mix-up between his mum and sister, 2018 has certainly been one to remember for the flanker.

Yet those achievements all occurred in a world in which Jenkins was yet to be confirmed as the Blues’ full-time skipper and Sam Warburton was still a registered player, making his way back from injury.

Warburton will make one final appearance on the Arms Park turf at half-time of the Blues’ opening PRO14 clash against Leinster on Friday, and Jenkins has a crucial role to play to help club and country fill his talismanic void – especially with Josh Navidi currently injured.

It will be fascinating to see whether Jenkins, who assumed the Blues captaincy from namesake Gethin Jenkins in pre-season, rises to the challenge facing him. If recent history is anything to go by then the answer to that particular question will be a resounding ‘yes’.

And with competition in the back-row fierce for both the Blues and Wales, he knows that he cannot afford to take his place in either squad for granted despite his newly acquired status at the Cardiff Arms Park.

“Being captain you have to make sure, first and foremost, that your performances are excellent and that will warrant you getting picked,” he said. “Even if you are captain, I’ve always said, if someone is playing better then they deserve to play.”

Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Blues)

Blues tighthead and coffee entrepreneur Dillon Lewis took his opportunity with both hands on Wales’ summer tour, playing in all three Tests – starting the first two – and generally impressing with his all-round play as South Africa and Argentina were both seen off.

To international observers it looked as though Lewis had put down a serious claim to the Welsh number three shirt on the road to Japan 2019 and beyond. But while he has put real pressure on Samson Lee and Tomas Francis in the lead up to the World Cup, his most pressing challenge is nailing down a spot in the Blues front row.

Lewis started just one PRO14 game for his region last season, thanks to a mixture of injury and the form of the evergreen prop Taufa’ao Filise.

The good news for the 22-year-old Wales hopeful is that Filise, 41, hung up his boots at the end of the last campaign, following 12 years at the Arms Park and 255 Blues appearances. But Lewis will still face a battle for the number three shirt in the Tongan prop’s absence.

The Blues have supplemented tighthead stocks that also include Scott Andrews and Anton Peikrishvili with the signing of highly-rated Moldovan prop Dmitri Arhip from Ospreys. Lewis is well aware he faces a tough challenge.

“My biggest goal this season is just playing regularly for the Blues,” he told WalesOnline. “Getting in a position where I’m playing week-in, week-out and get selected and play well is my biggest aim this year.”

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Jon 2 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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j
john 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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T
Trevor 9 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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