Wales have revealed their 36-man squad for the upcoming Six Nations Championship.
Head coach Wayne Pivac has named Dan Biggar as captain with Alun Wyn Jones missing the tournament with a shoulder injury.
Adam Beard has been selected as vice captain and there are three uncapped players - Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and James Ratti - in the squad.
Here's what Pivac had to say about it at his press conference on Tuesday afternoon...
Question: Ellis Jenkins had some wins as captain in the autumn, can you explain the decision with Dan Biggar taking over?
Wayne Pivac: It’s a number of things that we look at. We’ve lost 680 caps [to injury] and that’s a lot of experience gone. Dan brings a wealth of experience, a wealth of experience in this competition.
Also, we’re looking at form, at players who are competing in different positions and the captain has to have a guaranteed position in the team bolted on.
Dan, at the moment is the form 10, and there’s a lot of competition in the other positions.
We’ve gone with Dan, he brings that experience.
Q: Dan’s always been a talkative presence on the field, will he have to tone it down?
WP: I think it’ll add to Dan’s game.
It’s well-documented that Dan is a highly-motivated player, he’s very competitive and he speaks his mind. We don’t want to change him as a competitive player. We want him to take on the role as a captain and the duties that go with that with referees.
Q: Three uncapped players in the forwards, can you talk us through their attributes?
WP: Dewi Lake, you’ll recall, was one of four youngsters that we had join our group for learning purposes in 2019.
He’s been earmarked from a young age as part of the pathway system. He’s captained Wales under-20s.
I just think he brings a physical presence, he’s 112 kilos, he’s the biggest hooker running around in Wales. He’s going to be a very destructive player as time goes by.
He’s very good over the ball, he’s a strong ball-carrier and we need big ball-carriers because we’ve lost a lot of experience and some of our better ball-carriers through injury.
What he brings will make up for the absences that we do have.
People talk about his throwing but when he was in camp with us in the 2020 Six Nations and 2019, he improved out of sight.
We’d expect that, with a concentrated effort over and above what he’s doing with his club, he will improve.
We think it’s a good time to get him in there.
Q: What about James Ratti and Jac Morgan?
WP: Jac comes in a position where we have a lot of competition. We discussed Jac in the autumn series when he was left out of the squad.
We put our money behind Taine Basham and I think you saw the results of that selection. He played very well and he still has lots to improve in his game. Taine will be working hard again in this competition.
But Jac gets an opportunity and we know he’s very good over the ball and has a high work rate. We’ll look to add to his game and see if we can develop him further throughout this competition.
James Ratti is in a position where we don’t have a lot of No.8s in this country. He’s converted from the second row, so he has got good size.
We want to add to his game again in terms of his attacking and defensive game but we think he brings raw ingredients.
With a bit of time and work, we can keep improving him as a player. With the World Cup around the corner, I think we need to be looking ahead as well as the here and now.
Those selections are about, not only the here and now, but looking ahead as well.
Q: How close is Ross Moriarty to fitness and are any other big names expected back later in the tournament?
WP: We’re hopeful. We’re in close contact with the clubs and their medical teams.
Ross is on track to play, not this weekend as the Dragons don’t play, but the following weekend.
He’ll be released from camp to get a game under his belt and if he comes through that then obviously he’ll be available for selection for Ireland.
That’s a welcome return for Ross.
Q: It’s been a difficult time for Welsh regions, how concerned are you about players’ lack of action?
WP: Preparing this squad is going to be the most challenging for us to date. Just selecting the squad was an interesting exercise.
It’s well documented with the Covid cases in clubs and being stuck in South Africa – it hasn’t been ideal for a lot of players.
Wyn Jones I think has had one game, Jonathan Davies the same since the autumn. That’s not ideal preparation for any player.
I know they’ve been doing a lot of hard work behind the scenes and we’ll be doing our best over the first few weeks to put as much volume into them as we can without breaking them. It’s a fine balance.
We’ve got to get them up to playing Test rugby and we know that takes a bit of work. Those players, through no fault of their own, have been put in that situation.
So it’s working together with the clubs, making sure we’ve got the right information about them in terms of the selection we’ve made and we’ll see where we go from there.
Q: You’re defending champions but, in light of the injuries, can you take that underdog tag?
WP: When you read the bottom two lines of the press release with the players injured, there’s about eight or nine players there with 680 Test caps.
I’d challenge any side to lose that amount of experience and to come out over-confident. We’re confident in the squad. The first two weeks are going to be critical in terms of how much work we can get into the boys.
It’s going to be a great challenge but it’s certainly about starting the competition well and building, as we did last year.
It’s the usual cliché but the Ireland game becomes paramount for us, getting off to a good start.
We know the challenge that awaits us there because history will tell you it’s not an easy place to go.
Q: Is it helpful that Biggar is now the only one who can speak to referees?
WP: All 10s are part of the group of players who manage the game for us. They’re working closely with coaches about strategies.
He’s a very big part of the leadership group, whether he’s captain or not, a part of the decision-making process on the field and being the goal kicker.
There’s not a lot of change for Dan, except he gets a little bit more leeway to speak to referees than he normally does.
What we’ve got to do is make sure we use that to our advantage and the relationships are the ones that we need.
Q: What have you made of Ireland?
WP: Watching them in the autumn, they were very good. Both Ireland and France were exceptional against the All Blacks, who are a quality side obviously and we saw what they did to a team like Argentina.
We’re going to have to prepare very well to perform the way we’d like to against Ireland.
They’re a team who can strangle you with the ball, they hold the ball for long periods of time so your defence has got to be up to speed and you’ve got to take your scoring opportunities when they come.
It’s going to be one where we really prepare well.
Q: Will we see a different approach from Dan Biggar towards officials?
WP: I’ve been very supportive of Dan because we’ve selected him in pretty much most games since we came in in 2019, so clearly we like him as a player.
We like the competitive nature that he brings. You’re talking about one part of the game where we focus on one or two discussions with the match official.
It’s something Dan has worked hard on with his club coach at Northampton, Chris Boyd, and the communication we’ve had there is that Dan is an excellent role model.
We expect him to represent himself and the team very well. He’s relishing the opportunity so I know he’ll do a very good job.
Q: You dropped Adam Beard in 2020 and now he’s vice-captain, what have you made of his resurgence?
WP: The good thing is he has got plenty of room for improvement, and he knows that. There are parts of his game he is working on to improve, so that’s exciting.
He is a player who has gone away and taken the setback very well. He has gone and done everything we have asked him to do, and he shows to other players that if you get disappointment, so long as you go away and take it in the right way - any constructive criticism coming your way and work on it - then there is no reason why you can’t come back and do very well at the top level of the game.
I am very pleased with the effort he has put in. He has deserved all those selections along the way.
Q: Owen Lane and James Botham have been in good form for Cardiff, how close were they?
WP: They’ve had a couple of games of rugby at this level. James has picked up an injury, so he is unavailable at the moment, and we’ve decided, along with a lot of other players, to leave them out at this stage.
Should they come right and their form is good in club rugby, then hopefully some of those guys will join us before the end of the competition, because we do know we will pick up injuries along the way.
Owen Lane – I guess we’ve gone with Alex Cuthbert in that position. We don’t just look at club form, obviously, we look at form at the top level. 48 Test caps, and a fantastic performance I thought against Fiji, that’s got Alex the nod.
We’ve had a conversation with Owen. Stephen [Jones] spoke to him this morning around things he needs to keep working on. He’s probably one injury away from joining the group.
Q: How relieved were you to see the Welsh Government easing restrictions to allow crowds in stadiums?
WP: Very pleased and very happy, not only for ourselves. We would have been desperately disappointed not to have crowds.
I know the public are very excited, the people that I bump into, and I think there will be a rush now to pick up the last few tickets that are left for the home games.
It’s every kid’s dream to play for his country, and to play in front of 75,000 Welsh supporters in that stadium – you have to be there to experience it, and to be fortunate enough to be in the squad, whether as a player or a member of management, it’s like a drug.
You are on a high, and it’s something that you want to get more and more of, and these boys are no different.
It certainly helps. However, we did win the competition without crowds.
Q: Did the vaccination status of players come into your selections at all and how many of your squad are fully vaccinated?
WP: No, it didn’t really come into it because we are playing France and Italy at home, and away to Ireland and England, so it wasn’t really on our radar, to be honest.
I don’t know the exact numbers, but I think we are not too far off being a full squad of players and management vaccinated.
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