Wales are set to take uncapped Taine Plumtree to their World Cup training camp in Switzerland.
The Swansea-born back-rower arrived in Wales last week from New Zealand, having joined the Scarlets from Super Rugby outfit Blues.
And he is set to be immediately thrown straight into the Wales squad, having not been named in the original 54-man squad in May. WalesOnline understands he joined up with the squad on Saturday, ahead of their flight to Switzerland on Monday.
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The 23-year-old is the son of former Swansea head coach John Plumtree, who also served as All Blacks and Ireland assistant coach.
Plumtree Jr, who made his Super Rugby debut in 2021, had played for New Zealand U20s against Wales in the 2019 World Rugby U20 Championship, but had not been capped at senior level.
As such, he's available to play for Wales, with Warren Gatland set to waste little time in taking a look at the former Wellington player.
The Wales coach is set to fly out Plumtree with the rest of his 47-man squad on Monday when they head to Fiesch for a two-week training camp.
The Scarlets' new signing is capable of playing lock, blindside, and No 8 - which marked him out as someone that Gatland might be interested in once it became apparent he would be heading to Llanelli.
However, that interest has seemingly materialised sooner than expected following a series of withdrawals and retirements.
Plumtree would provide an extra option in the back-row with Justin Tipuric and Josh Navidi having retired from international rugby and Ross Moriarty and Josh Macleod also both unavailable.
The back-row options in Gatland's squad right now are Taine Basham, Dan Lydiate, Jac Morgan, Tommy Reffell, Aaron Wainwright, Taulupe Faletau and Christ Tshiunza - with Faletau set to travel out to Switzerland late for the second half of the camp.
