Here is your rugby news for the evening of Sunday January 30
Scarlets ready for autumn date with New Zealand
The Scarlets are on the brink of finalising plans for a mouthwatering showdown with New Zealand at the end of October, claim The Rugby Paper.
They report Sunday October 30 has been agreed by the two parties as the date for a Parc-y-Scarlets clash which would celebrate the 50-year anniversary of Llanelli's famous win over the Blacks back in 1972.
According to legend, every bar in the town was drunk dry that day as a Roy Bergiers try helped ensure a momentous 9-3 Stradey Park victory.
The historic '72 game took place on October 31 that year and the Scarlets are said to have agreed on an anniversary re-run of the fixture as close as possible to the date.
Kiwi legend Sean Fitzpatrick, who is on the Scarlets board in an ambassadorial role, has played a key role in negotiations trying to secure the game.
It is reported by the paper that New Zealand rugby chief executive Mark Robinson has approved the game.
If so, it would represent the first game against a British club team in a generation for the three-times world champions. Coincidentally, that was also against Llanelli as New Zealand ran out overwhelming 81-3 victors back in 1997.
If a 2022 clash with the Scarlets is announced, it would be viewed by New Zealand as an opportunity to prepare for autumn Test matches in the northenr hemisphere.
They already have a November 19 date with England at Twickenham pencilled in, with more fixtures to come.
Shane's 'don't switch' Adams plea to Pivac
Shane Williams has cautioned Wales boss Wayne Pivac against switching Josh Adams to the centre for Wales' Six Nations opener with Ireland on Saturday.
Pivac is contemplating playing Adams in the midfield, after naming him in the 13 jersey for the autumn Test with Fiji.
Adams joins the centre mix in Pivac's eyes with Jonathan Davies, Owen Watkin, Nick Tompkins and Willis Halaholo.
If the Cardiff man is moved from the wing, it would likely see Johnny McNicholl come into a back three next to Louis Rees-Zammit and Liam Williams.
But Wales' record try scorer Shane is urging Pivac to keep Adams as part of what he feels can be a lethal Welsh back three mix during the tournament.
"He is a world class wing and he needs to stay where he is most comfortable and an make the most impact," wrote Williams in a newspaper column.
"You need your best players in their best positions at this level and that means Josh and Rees-Zammit play on the flanks. They will frighten any team if you can get the ball to them."
Pivac says of Adams: "It’s always been in the back of our minds, that he has the ability and the skill set to play in more than one position.
"When you can only take 33 to a World Cup, having guys who can play in multiple positions is important."
READ MORE: Shane's Wales team verdict in full
Undercooked Ireland insist they're raring to go
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has dismissed concerns about a lack of club action for some of his players going into the Six Nations opener with Wales.
Covid postponements at provincial level have hampered preparations for the showdown with Wayne Pivac's team.
But Farrell believes a strong autumn campaign - during which the in-form Irish swept aside Japan, New Zealand and Argentina to stretch their winning run to eight games - proves his players can perform on the back of limited game time.
And, with wings James Lowe and Jacob Stockdale the only major absentees for the championship, the Englishman is content just to be reasonably injury-free.
"If you asked me, 'Do you want most of your guys fit and raring to go and ready to play compared to, say, playing the last eight games and being injured?', we'd rather everyone on board," said Farrell.
"So it is what it is. We went through this in the autumn, didn't we? Everyone was talking about our lack of game time.
"There are no excuses, you've just got to get on with it and we'll be raring to go as a group."
Farrell's 37-man squad are currently fine-tuning preparations for the tournament at a camp in Portugal.
Captain Johnny Sexton also put a positive spin on potential rustiness within the group, while pointing out that the issue is not unique to Ireland.
"I think there are a lot of other countries in exactly the same position," said the fly-half, who has made only one start for Leinster since Ireland's autumn fixtures following injury and a coronavirus infection.
"And the good thing for us is we're in a very similar position to November. That was my concern coming into November that we hadn't played enough because normally when you come into November you've had two European games, which are obviously a higher quality and closer to international level.
"We didn't have that in November but the way we trained and prepared enabled us to hit the ground running and, to have a competitive environment like we do here, training can be as tough as a game sometimes.
"Like Andy said, no excuses. We've done it before and you can look at it two ways: you can say you're underdone or you can say you're really fresh and raring to go.
"I think we're in that bracket. We've had enough rugby, guys have been training hard, certainly in the environment I've been in."
Lowry ready to dazzle as a good little 'un
Ulster star Michael Lowry represents a "real beacon" for smaller players and has been backed to shine on the international stage with Ireland.
The uncapped full-back has forced his way into Andy Farrell's 37-man squad for the Six Nations following a number of electric performances for his province and could feature against Wales at the weekend.
Fleet-footed Lowry, who stands at 5ft 7in, was written off by some people earlier in his career because of his height.
Yet Ulster's head of operations Bryn Cunningham was "blown away" by the 23-year-old from the beginning, having first seen him perform for Royal Belfast Academical Institution in a schools' cup game around six years ago.
"If you had a checklist of things you would want in an ideal professional rugby player, Mikey pretty much ticks every single box," Cunningham told the PA news agency.
"What he has shown, which is a real beacon to smaller players, is that you can actually make it at this level if you have the skill level but also the commitment around how you organise yourself in defence and attack.
"His work-rate and his mindset around the physicality part of the game is just absolutely unbelievable. He hits harder than many guys twice his size.
"And then the big thing above that is his point of difference, which is his footwork and his acceleration, which is just exceptional and I think that's what everybody has been so excited about.
"We've been very aware of that internally for some time but for that outside world to start seeing that on a regular basis it's brilliant for the game.
"I think the vast majority want to see excitement in rugby and, if Mikey's on the pitch, there's a pretty good chance you're going to get that.
"The way he's progressed over the last couple of years and that X-factor that he has, it will be very, very hard to ignore if he continues to do that on such a regular basis."
McGeechan anticipates mouthwatering Six Nations
Rugby legend Sir Ian McGeechan believes the fly-half factor will guarantee a brilliant Six Nations tournament.
The sport is set for a huge shot in the arm with coaches who want to play an exciting brand of rugby, he reckons.
And McGeechan is already looking forward to a mouthwatering No.10 duel between England newcomer Marcus Smith, who has the rugby world at his feet, and Scotland playmaker Finn Russell, who finally brought a shining light to the Lions in the summer when he replaced Dan Biggar during the third Test with South Africa.
McGeechan says that with Smith involved, England proved in the autumn they are "following Scotland, France, Wales and Ireland in transitioning to a more expansive game."
"It was about time because if they had continued with the structured game that the Lions also played last summer, I do not think they would be able to win the next World Cup," he wrote in his Telegraph column.
"Make no mistake, Smith is a transformative player who has the ability to do for England what Finn Russell did for the Lions in that third Test, when he freed up other players and put the tourists on the front foot.
"Players such as Russell and Smith can single-handedly change the mindset of a team. They inject confidence, dynamism, ambition and persuade players to push the boundaries rather than sink back into their comfort zone.
"The presence of that duo, plus playmakers of the quality of Romain Ntamack, Johnny Sexton and the underrated Dan Biggar, allied to coaches whose default setting is attacking rugby, is one of the reasons I am looking forward to this tournament more than for many years."
Dupont back for France
France talisman Antoine Dupont has been passed fit for his team's Six Nations opener with Italy, one of 14 players who will join up with the squad this week.
The French scrum-half and captain was one of a number of players who withdrew from the squad after testing positive for Covid-19.
However, he returned for club action with Toulouse this weekend and rejoins the France squad to prepare for Sunday's game in Paris.
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