Here are your rugby evening headlines for Wednesday, 8 February.
'Police have enough to make arrest now' - detective
The private detective leading the search for missing rugby player Levi Davis believes an arrest should be imminent on the back of a report he is sending to Spanish police.
Gavin Burrows claims to have created a dossier containing evidence that the former Bath player, who was last seen leaving a pub in Barcelona on October 29, had been blackmailed by criminals and threatened over a Somali mafia debt.
Mr Burrows’ private investigation firm Line of Inquiry has offered up a £10,000 reward for any information that leads to Levi being found.
The Mirror reports Mr Burrows saying: "I believe Spanish police will have enough to make an arrest when they see what our own investigation has thrown up.
"At the very least it should give them enough to haul someone in for questioning.
"I'm not at liberty at the moment to go public with any names but there is one person in particular that I have grave suspicions about and believe can shed light on what has happened to Levi.
"That person is someone who while pretending to help has in my view been nothing but an obstacle in trying to prevent our investigations from moving forward."
It comes after the emergence of a deleted video by Davis in which he stated that he was being blackmailed by criminals.
Burrows claims to have managed to retrieve the 15-minute deleted social media video, which was taken four days prior to his disappearance, before releasing it with consent from Davis’ family and friends in the hope that more information might be unearthed.
In this video, the former Bath rugby union player states: “Hello my name is Levi Davis and my life is in danger.”
He then goes on to claim that he was filmed performing a number of sexual acts after being drugged, before blackmailers then used that footage to manipulate him.
He adds: “I was told by them in ways which are not direct but are absolutely true that they were going to attempt - if I said anything - they were going to attempt to kill me, threaten my family. And they also were trying to frame me.”
Hawkins fronts up in Wales training
Wales centre Joe Hawkins has spoken about stepping up as a vocal leader amid his rapid rise from the U20s to starting Test matches.
Last summer, Hawkins was captaining the age-grade side in their U20s Six Nations Summer Series, but just months later, he is making an impression as inside centre for the senior side.
After making his debut against Australia at the end of the autumn, he retained his place for the Six Nations opener against Ireland - being one of the few positives during a miserable defeat. And he's now opened up about making as much of an impact as possible - not just with his playmaking skills, but vocally as well.
“I have always tried to be as rounded as possible. The way the game is going, you can’t be too one-dimensional,” Hawkins said.
“I like the ball-play, but you have got to be able to bash it up a little bit as well. On the field, it would probably be quite easy to go within yourself a little bit, but if you want to compete with the players in camp you have got to try and be bold and be vocal.
“When you come in with big characters, if you want to impact the game and training, you can’t go into your shell. They would rather it if you are vocal and demanding on the field, so that is what you have got to try and do.
“When you are in the under-20s, you see the senior team playing and you have always got ambitions of going on and playing for the senior team. I probably didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it has done.
“It is a bit surreal being out there on the training field. I guess it’s just trying to take in all the experience they (senior players) have, and then put it into your game.
“All you can do is take care of business back at your region and hope you get a bit of recognition internationally. I wasn’t expecting it to happen as quickly as this. I just focus on playing for the Ospreys, and then whatever happens, happens.”
Ntamack believes Ireland are 'comfortable favourites'
France fly-half Romain Ntamack believes Ireland are "comfortable favourites" for Saturday's Six Nations clash with Ireland in Dublin.
This weekend's hosts are top of the World Rugby rankings with reigning champions France currently second. Both sides won their opening games of the tournament, with Ireland easing past Wales before France edged past Italy the following day.
"They are world number one, it's not for nothing, they are comfortably favourites," 33-Test playmaker Ntamack told AFP on Tuesday.
"There's no debate. They showed and proved that in round one against Wales.
"They're good in all areas. They have very few weaknesses, if any. It's going to be an arm wrestle for 80 minutes," he added.
Wales U20s name team to face Scotland
Wales U20s head coach Byron Hayward has named his squad to face Scotland at Scotstoun Stadium on Friday (KO 7.15pm).
Captain Ryan Woodman switches from the back-row to the second-row with Jonny Green unavailable. Cardiff’s Mackenzie Martin gets a first start of the campaign at blindside flanker after impressing as a substitute against Ireland with Ospreys’ Morgan Morse replacing Luca Giannini on the openside.
Ospreys’ Ellis Fackrell starts at tighthead prop with Tom Pritchard dropping to the bench while the only change in the back-line sees Dragons winger Oli Andrew come in for Harri Houston.
Wales lost 44-27 to Ireland in Colwyn Bay last Friday in their opening encounter of the campaign but Hayward was encouraged by what he saw form his young side.
“There were lots of positives to take out of the game, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “I think we showed how much potential this side has, particularly in the first half. The boys are disappointed because it is a game we could have won, I’m not saying we should have, but we could have.
“We probably should have had more points with the entries we had in their 22 in the first half and that is something we have been working on. It has been a big priority for us that when we work hard to get close to the try-line we make sure we tighten our game up.”
Wales U20: Cameron Winnett (Cardiff Rugby); Llien Morgan (Ospreys), Louie Hennessey (Bath Rugby), Harri Ackerman (Newport), Oli Andrew (Dragons); Dan Edwards (Ospreys), Archie Hughes (Scarlets); Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths (Dragons), Sam Scarfe (Dragons), Ellis Fackrell (Ospreys), Liam Edwards (Ospreys), Ryan Woodman (Dragons - capt), Mackenzie Martin (Cardiff Rugby), Morgan Morse (Ospreys), Huw Davies (Sale Sharks).
Replacements: Lewis Lloyd (Ospreys), Freddie Chapman (Ospreys), Tom Pritchard (Scarlets), Owain Evans (RGC), Luca Giannini (Scarlets), Harri Williams (Scarlets), Harrison James (Cardiff Rugby), Tom Florence (Ospreys)
Scotland aren't contenders until they back it up
Huw Jones insists Scotland cannot be considered Six Nations title contenders until they prove they can string big victories together - starting with Wales this weekend.
Scotland have beaten England in their opening match of the Six Nations in the past two years, only to lose to Wales the following week to curb their title chances. However, after another Calcutta Cup triumph, Scotland will be confident of finally getting past a lowly Wales side this time around.
“The biggest thing for us is building momentum,” said centre Jones when asked about Scotland's title chances. “We come in every year and we like to think we’ve got a chance, but we haven’t proved that, really. We have had some big wins but we’ve never strung them together consistently. For us, building momentum is the key now.
“Winning the first two games would be huge and that would give us confidence, but not too much that we will get over-confident. If we can win this weekend it will put us in a good place going forward and we know there is more on the line. If we do that, it wouldn’t just be a case of trying to finish as high as we can, we’d have a chance to do something special.”
On finally backing up an England victory with a win over Wales, Jones added: “It’s something we spoke about in the first week when we came in here, about how historically we have had some big wins but we have not always managed to back them up,” said Jones. “We will get to the end of a championship and we will always be disappointed with how we have done, thinking we could have done a lot better with the guys we’ve got in the room.
“There was a massive emphasis from everyone saying, ‘We can’t have that again’. We know we are good enough to beat the teams in this competition, but the main thing is stringing together good performances and being able to build some momentum.”
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