Having spent much of the past two months carrying tackle bags, James Ratti is now back doing a very different type of carrying and sending out a reminder of just why he made the Welsh squad in the first place.
The uncapped 24-year-old became something of a forgotten man during the Six Nations campaign, not featuring in any of Wales’ five matches. In fact, you hardly saw him on a rugby field for the best part of ten weeks, as he was limited to just 22 minutes for Cardiff in the whole of that period, only once being released from Wayne Pivac’s squad to play for his region.
The rest of the time he would have been involved in training duties, no doubt taking on the bibbed role of opposition, complete with tackle bag, as Wales prepared for their Championship outings. He will have clearly learned a lot from the experience of being in the international environment for the first time and would have been pleased to be on board at all, having been something of a bolter selection. You can read more about his unusual rugby journey here.
