Cardiff boss Dai Young says he is scratching his head over the omission of winger Owen Lane from Wales’ Six Nations squad.
The five-times capped Lane has been in red hot form, scoring three tries in his last two outings and producing a tremendous all-round display in last weekend’s Champions Cup thriller against Harlequins.
But there’s no place for him in the 36-man group coach Wayne Pivac has chosen to defend the Championship crown.
The back three men selected in the squad are Josh Adams, Liam Williams., Louis Rees-Zammit, Johnny McNicholl and Alex Cuthbert.
Giving his reaction to Lane missing out, Cardiff director of rugby Young said: “It’s difficult because Wayne can’t pick everybody.
“But I expected Owen to be in.
“He’s probably been picked in the squad when he hasn’t been playing as well as he is now.
“So it’s a bit of a head-scratcher to see why he’s not in the squad now.
“He’s got bags of confidence in himself and rightly so.
“He’s been really good for us in the last couple of games. He’s looked really exciting and really dangerous and scored some good tries as well, which is what it’s all about.
“But he’ll bounce back in the right way.
“I’ve had a chat with a couple of the players on the quiet and there are going to be injuries throughout the Six Nations.
“What our guys need to do is keep their heads up, keep on playing well and hopefully they will get their opportunity.
“They can’t do any more than that.”
Young was also full of praise for another Cardiff back overlooked by Wales in fly-half Jarrod Evans.
“We all talked about Marcus Smith last week after the Harlequins game and he deserved all the plaudits he got, but I thought Jarrod was excellent,” he said.
“I keep on saying to Jarrod, if people are not mentioning you after the match and we’ve had a good attacking game where we’ve scored tries, then you’ve played well because he’s the link between it all.
“Sometimes we all look for the eye-catching moments and the sidesteps and the line-breaks and so on, which is great, and he’s certainly capable of that.
“But as well as that, in terms of getting the back line functioning and getting our attack functioning and I thought he was excellent last week.
“He is another one who has been a bit disappointed, but they have just got to take it on the chin unfortunately, as hard as that sounds.
“It’s easier said than done, but the only way they can do it is out on the field and keep working hard.”
Lane and Evans will both have an opportunity to make a point in Saturday’s final Champions Cup group match away to Toulouse.
That’s if the game goes ahead with some doubt surrounding it due to positive Covid cases in the French club’s camp.
Cardiff are due to fly out on Friday lunchtime and are still working on the basis of the game going ahead until they hear otherwise.
Welsh international back row James Botham won't be making the trip as he is recovering from the heavy knock to the head he suffered against Edinburgh earlier this month.
But he’s hoped he will be back in the mix for next week’s United Rugby Championship clash with Leinster.
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