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WRU 'blocked' Rhys Priestland's Wales recall

By PA
(Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

Wales boss Wayne Pivac has revealed he was blocked from selecting Rhys Priestland for his 2021 Guinness Six Nations squad. Head coach Pivac asked his Welsh Rugby Union bosses for special dispensation to select Bath fly-half Priestland, who does not meet the 60-cap threshold for a player based outside Wales.

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The 34-year-old is expected to return to Wales with Cardiff Blues next term, but Pivac was barred from including the 50-cap playmaker despite those circumstances. Pivac admitted he posed the question given the long-term injuries to Rhys Patchell and Gareth Anscombe, with the Blues’ Jarrod Evans winning selection alongside Dan Biggar and Callum Sheedy.

“In terms of Rhys Priestland, we have asked the question along the lines of the Rhys Webb question when that was done at the time,” said Pivac. “We have injuries. In Rhys Patchell, who is coming back from a well-documented head knock and is now in a reconditioning programme, he has been out of the game for a while. And obviously, Gareth Anscombe is still out.

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“So for us, it’s about can we select Rhys if we need to call upon him. And that question has been asked. And so we have selected what we have on the basis that they are available. So we now know whether or not we can use Rhys should we get a further injury – and no, we can’t.

“Jarrod’s been brought in. He was left out of the autumn series and he has been given parts of his game to work on, the kicking side of his game. So Neil Jenkins and Stephen Jones have been working hard with him on that, solidly behind the scenes. So we are interested to see how that has been developing, and we know about his running game and that he is a gutsy defender.”

Priestland has not played Test rugby since 2017, but not even a pending return to Wales has proved enough to sway Pivac’s WRU bosses over a potential recall. Cardiff playmaker Evans is the only fly-half in Pivac’s squad based in Wales, with Biggar at Northampton and Sheedy at Bristol.

Pivac has admitted to pushing to have his England-based players released for the entirety of the Six Nations to protect the Wales squad amid continued coronavirus concerns. Wales will aim to test their players twice a week in camp and limit the players’ time with families in a bid to avoid any positive Covid-19 cases.

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“It’s an ongoing discussion, it’s very topical and one everyone is looking for some clarification over and I believe we will get that,” said Pivac. “I believe it would be sensible for everyone in the current climate that we don’t, and we certainly don’t want to have players coming and going because in the community at the moment the new variant is transferred very quickly.

“So we certainly would like it if we can to have any players selected based outside of Wales to have them full-time. We’re just waiting for an answer on that. We had 700-odd tests through the autumn, all coming back negative. So we think we did a pretty good job in relation to Covid in making sure we gave ourselves every opportunity to have everybody available, not only in the playing group but also the management group.

“This time around we will be carrying out an extra layer of testing, so twice a week rather than once, and we will be staying in a bubble a lot longer than previously.”

Wales have overlooked Ospreys scrum-half Rhys Webb, with emerging talent Kieran Hardy retaining his place from the autumn. Pivac admitted pulling no punches when telling the 32-year-old Webb where he must improve in order to fight back into the Test equation.

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“Rhys Webb and I had a good chat this morning around the accuracy of his passing game, he just needs to get those numbers back up,” said Pivac. “And we just question his pace at the top end of the game. “The other three all just bring electric pace, we know that, and that is something that is in question at the moment with Rhys. But he is not out of the loop in terms of playing for Wales in the future – he is just not going to be selected for this tournament at this stage.”

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Jon 7 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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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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Adrian 12 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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