Welsh prospect Bryn Bradley backed to step up and rise to the occasion

Harlequins head coach Jason Gilmore believes that inside centre Bryn Bradley is ready for the international stage and has backed his claims to win a first Wales cap this summer.

The London-born, former Wales under-20 international, whose mother comes from Newport, Gwent, was named earlier this month as one of six uncapped players in an extended 48-strong squad by Steve Tandy.

Gilmore says that Bradley, 23, is the type of player who plays better the higher the level and that he would have no qualms about playing him in any of Wales’ three Nations Championship matches against Fiji, Argentina and South Africa.

“It’ll be interesting because he’s played a lot of minutes for us over the last four months. He’s really carried our centre group. He’ll be up against (Fraser) Dingwall this week, obviously, or other good centres from Northampton,” Gilmore told RugbyPass this week.

“So, to me, every time he steps up against an international centre, it’s a measure. If he can handle himself and go well against Dingwall this week, then he’s in a position where he can play international rugby.

“He’s just got to make sure he keeps his consistency on both sides of the ball. Not that he’s not doing it, but you can’t float in and out at a national level. But if he gets his chance, and I hope he does, look, we’ll be fully behind him.

“Bryn had a chat with some of the coaches the other day. He’s one of those players I reckon who plays to the level. So if I watched him play at London Scottish, it goes solid. When he plays Prem Cup is solid.

“But as soon as he stepped up to Europe and Prem, I think he’s played the best he’s played at Quins since I’ve seen him. So he seems to be a guy who flourishes at the next level when he steps up.

“If he gets the call-up to Wales, which I hope he does, I’ll be really interested to see what the growth in him is at that next level.”

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Bradley, who stands at 6ft 4in and weighs 16 st 9lb, has scored six tries in 19 games for Quins in what has been a breakout season for him, and Gilmore says that the challenge for other members of his squad is to wrestle the shirt off his back in pre-season.

“He’s probably been a little bit frustrated the last few years that he’s just got snippets here and there, and he hasn’t been able to get that regular start. He was really unlucky at the start of the year and would have started at 12, but picked up an injury,” he added.

“That really frustrated the hell out of him. He went back into our second team and worked really hard. Obviously, he and Waggy (Ben Waghorn) were going head to head for that 12 jersey for a period.

“But Waggy getting injured opened the door for Bryn to really grab hold of the jersey. He’s the incumbent now; it’s up to the other boys when we turn around, and in pre-season, they’ve got to get the 12 jersey off Bryn.”