Warren Gatland has revealed Ross Moriarty ruled himself out of contention for this year's World Cup for personal reasons as he explained why another Lions star, prop Wyn Jones, was overlooked.
The Wales coach named an extended 54-man squad on Monday ahead of a lengthy summer of preparation for the tournament in France. While attention was naturally drawn to the 10 uncapped players called up by Wales, there were naturally a host of overlooked players who could consider themselves unfortunate to miss out.
Perhaps that was more obvious in the back-row, where Wales' strength in depth meant the likes of James Botham, Thomas Young, Morgan Morris and Moriarty all missed out. The full squad is here.
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However, when asked about why those names hadn't made the cut, Gatland revealed 2017 Lions tourist Moriarty, who recently left the Dragons to jump head-first into a Top14 relegation battle with Brive, had withdrawn himself from consideration for the tournament in the country where he is currently employed.
"There was a huge amount of debate on that," Gatland said when asked about the omissions of Botham, Young and Morris. "We left Ross Moriarty out as well.
"Ross actually made himself unavailable for personal reasons so he wasn’t considered for the squad. Probably the hardest thing at the moment with our loose forwards is we’ve got a lot of quality but a lot of like for like.
"We’ve got a lot of players who are around the 100kg mark who have a lot of really positive attributes about their game. That makes it tough in terms of making a final decision.
"We went with someone like Taine Basham because we like how explosive he is. We think someone like Aaron Wainwright can potentially fill the No 8 position. Morgan Morris has had a really good year. Someone like Carwyn Tuipulotu we talked about as someone for the future.
"There was a lot of discussion. We’ve spoken a lot about the six position in terms of can Lydiate give us the physicality we need? We’ve tried Christ Tshiunza there too. Thomas Young has had some outstanding games. We know how good he is with ball in hand.
"But it’s probably an area with our loose forwards where we’re looking for physicality at the breakdown, turnovers, competing, and counter-rucking – those sorts of things. We’ve got really good ball players and we’ve got to get the balance right."
Gatland also revealed why Scarlets prop Jones wasn't part of the squad. Jones toured with the 2021 Lions under Gatland, being named as a Test starter against South Africa.
However, when the extended squad was announced on Monday, five loose-heads were named and Jones wasn't one of them. Instead, it was the uncapped pairing of Corey Domachowski and Kemsley Mathias who joined the established Gareth Thomas, Rhys Carre and Nicky Smith in the squad.
It begged the question if Jones, who hasn't been in the greatest of form it must be said, was injured.
"No, no," said Gatland, ruling out any issues with fitness. "It was a tough call.
"Like I said, the biggest thing for us is making sure we have an emphasis on the mobility of our front five. It definitely needs to improve in terms of getting around the park and winning collisions and ball carrying and stuff.
"There is no doubt he has had some injuries. Leading up to 2021 he was in outstanding form and playing well, we are just looking for some competition and a little bit more mobility in that position. We are looking for guys winning collisions and having that work rate around the field that we think is important at this level.
"There is no doubt that the game has changed. The number of scrums is nowhere near as many as they used to be so you have got to have a front five, particularly front rowers, that can scrummage but can get around the park.
"They have got to contribute a huge amount in terms of their mobility. That’s a big part we need to improve and was an area when we reflected back and reviewed the Six Nations was probably our biggest work on in terms of moving forward."
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