He beat the best young English rugby players to win the Land Rover Discovery of the Season award last term.
Alfie Barbery, Ollie Hassell-Collins, Bevan Rodd, Will Evans and Freddie Steward were all on the shortlist for the coveted gong.
But it went the way of Bristol Bears’ young Welsh utility back Ioan Lloyd.
Yet despite Wales being shy on creativity, the 20-year-old is on the outside looking in during this Six Nations, playing club rugby after missing out on selection for Wayne Pivac’s squad.
Now Sean Holley has admitted to being taken aback at the omission of the gifted player who has played full-back, wing, centre and fly-half for Bristol, with the Ospreys coach noting that Wayne Pivac currently doesn’t have individuals in his squad who can play the creative, fluent game that the New Zealander oversaw during his time in charge at the Scarlets.
“He (Pivac) has set his stall out and that’s the way he wants to go. He has a blueprint and a philosophy where he has to live and die by the sword,” said Holley on the latest Scrum V podcast.
“But it’s about finding square pegs for square holes.
“There’s not much in the well there at the moment.
“So we have a bit more pain to come and then we have to go to South Africa.
“I’m surprised young Ioan Lloyd isn’t in the squad.
“He can play multiple positions and is a real playmaker who’s quick.
“Ben Thomas is another one for me.
“He’s one for the future, a playmaker — a 10 or 12, the type of guy I like, a James Hook, those sort of guys.
“We need to be looking for these guys.
“What I’m trying to say is you can’t be half pregnant.
“You either (say): ‘We’ll pick Owen Watkin and Jonathan Davies and we’ll go direct — Jonathan Davies at 12 and somebody else at 13 and go direct and physical and back our front five.
“Or we find some playmakers and creativity and back the philosophy and style that he (Pivac) is trying to get to.”
Lloyd hasn’t played for Wales since winning two caps off the bench as a 19-year-old in 2020.
His defence didn’t look up to Test standard back then, but 15 months on he has been a regular in Bristol’s side and when he played against the Scarlets in the Heineken Champions Cup he looked beyond dangerous in attack before leaving the fray with an injury.
It was an all-too-brief cameo, but in the 32 minutes he spent on the pitch Lloyd had ripped open the Scarlets defence to set up a try for Semi Radradra and scored one himself. The post-match stats revealed he’d made 70 metres with ball in hand, beaten five defenders, put in four tackles, come up with one offload and flicked out four passes. Little wonder Pivac himself joined in the applause when the youngster left the pitch prematurely.
The issue for Wales is when to give him a run in international rugby.
He has qualities suited to Pivac’s rugby philosophy, but so far the coach is hesitant about using him. Lloyd has time on his side and the odds are a player once called 'one of the most talented of his generation' will become a Wales regular at some point.
But, right now, the selectors evidently see him as a work in progress.
For those who’d like to see him drafted back into the set-up sooner rather than later, patience will just have to be the watchword.
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