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Wales name squad for Six Nations

By Online Editors
Wales name Six Nations squad (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Wales have named a 39-man squad for the forthcoming Guinness Six Nations.

The experienced squad, led by captain Alun Wyn Jones, kick off the 2019 tournament in Paris against France on Friday February 1.

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The same ten front-row forwards who featured in Wales’ 2018 Under Armour Series squad are again named.

Scarlets pair Rob Evans and Wyn Jones along with Nicky Smith are named as the loose-head props with Elliot Dee, Ryan Elias and Ken Owens the hookers in the squad. Leon Brown, Tomas Francis, Samson Lee and Dillon Lewis provide the tight-head options.

Captain Jones, who has amassed 120 Wales caps and 48 Six Nations appearances to date, is joined by Jake Ball, Adam Beard, Seb Davies and Cory Hill as the second-rows.

Ross Moriarty, Aaron Wainwright and Justin Tipuric who all featured for Wales in the autumn are again named. Josh Navidi returns from injury to be included in the squad alongside call-ups for the versatile Josh Turnbull and Thomas Young.

Taulupe Faletau misses out after his club Bath confirmed this morning that he had fractured his arm again. The back row only returned to action on Saturday against Wasps in the Champions Cup.

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Wales have selected the same three scrum-halves that featured last November in Gareth Davies, Aled Davies and Tomos Williams.

Gareth Anscombe, Dan Biggar, Rhys Patchell and Jarrod Evans, who made his international debut in 2018, are named as the fly-halves.

Jonathan Davies, Hadleigh Parkes, Owen Watkin and Scott Williams are the four centres named.

Josh Adams, Hallam Amos, Steffan Evans, Leigh Halfpenny, Jonah Holmes, George North and Liam Williams provide Wales’ back-three options.

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Halfpenny is included despite dealing with ongoing concussion symptoms, which has meant he hasn’t played since November.

“We are incredibly excited heading into the 2019 Guinness Six Nations and we are looking forward to kicking the tournament off in Paris against France,” said Wales Head Coach Warren Gatland.

“We have a really experienced squad of players, who have been around a number of campaigns together and we feel we are in a pretty good place going into this huge year.

“We have got a few injuries and have selected a larger squad because of that.

“We initially selected 40 players but that was reduced to 39 on Monday with Taulupe’s injury ruling him out.

“Six Nations rugby is an important time of year for rugby fans, players and coaches alike and we are all looking forward to meeting up and preparing for this year’s championship.”

WALES SQUAD – 2019 GUINNESS SIX NATIONS
FORWARDS:
Rob Evans (Scarlets) (31 Caps)
Wyn Jones (Scarlets) (10 Caps)
Nicky Smith (Ospreys) (24 Caps)
Elliot Dee (Dragons) (13 Caps)
Ryan Elias (Scarlets) (6 Caps)
Ken Owens (Scarlets) (60 Caps)
Leon Brown (Dragons) (5 Caps)
Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs) (36 Caps)
Samson Lee (Scarlets) (38 Caps)
Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Blues) (8 Caps)
Jake Ball (Scarlets) (29 Caps)
Adam Beard (Ospreys) (8 Caps)
Seb Davies (Cardiff Blues) (7 Caps)
Cory Hill (Dragons) (22 Caps)
Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys) (120 Caps) (CAPT)
Ross Moriarty (Dragons) (26 Caps)
Josh Navidi (Cardiff Blues) (11 Caps)
Justin Tipuric (Ospreys) (60 Caps)
Josh Turnbull (Cardiff Blues) (10 Caps)
Aaron Wainwright (Dragons) (3 Caps)
Thomas Young (Wasps) (2 Caps)

BACKS:
Aled Davies (Ospreys) (12 Caps)
Gareth Davies (Scarlets) (36 Caps)
Tomos Williams (Cardiff Blues) (6 Caps)
Gareth Anscombe (Cardiff Blues) (21 Caps)
Dan Biggar (Northampton) (65 Caps)
Jarrod Evans (Cardiff Blues) (1 Cap)
Rhys Patchell (Scarlets) (11 Caps)
Jonathan Davies (Scarlets) (67 Caps)
Hadleigh Parkes (Scarlets) (10 Caps)
Owen Watkin (Ospreys) (8 Caps)
Scott Williams (Ospreys) (57 Caps)
Josh Adams (Worcester) (6 Caps)
Hallam Amos (Dragons) (18 Caps)
Steffan Evans (Scarlets) (12 Caps)
Leigh Halfpenny (Scarlets) (80 Caps)
Jonah Holmes (Leicester) (1 Cap)
George North (Ospreys) (79 Caps)
Liam Williams (Saracens) (51 Caps)

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Jon 8 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 10 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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