The former Arsenal football manager Arsene Wenger never did enjoy international windows during his time with the Gunners.
“I feel like a man who has given the double of his key to a mate,” he once said. “The guy comes, takes your car, uses it for 10 days and leaves it in the middle of a field without any petrol.”
Players burnt out or even injured. Wenger ought to have tried his luck as a regional rugby coach.
What of players who see little action during Test blocks? Some can go a couple of months without taking the field during the Six Nations. For them, the tournament everyone else relishes can turn into an endless round of training, holding tackle bags and applauding teammates onto pitches. For them there is no risk of burnout, but it can be a challenge to stay motivated and sitting around on Saturdays doesn’t do much for development.
Excluding Dewi Lake, who picked up an injury before the squad had even met up, there are nine Wales squad unfortunates who have yet to feature for a single minute in this Six Nations.
We look at their prospects.
Louis Rees-Zammit
This guy isn’t going to be sitting around for much longer, assuming the latest update on his health proves accurate. He was injured playing for Gloucester on Christmas Eve with his coach George Skivington later saying he could be out for between "two weeks and six months".
But it looks as if we are not going to have to wait until the deckchairs are out and suncream is being slapped on before seeing him again. Warren Gatland says he’ll be available to face England. If he is, it’ll be a plus for Wales.
He seemed to play within himself the last time he featured in a Test, operating at full-back against Georgia in November and making little impact on a game that was lit up by his opposite number, Davit Niniashvili, a free-spirited runner who treated the match as if it were a training run for the Barbarians, offloading here, sidestepping there, running from everywhere.
But in the mood and with the shackles lifted, Rees-Zammit can do dash with the best of ’em.
For evidence, we need only rewind to Wales’ previous game in the autumn, against Argentina, when the youngster had his first Test outing at No. 15. Might he be a shade tentative? It took seconds to dispel such a notion as he collected the ball, declined to lump it upfield and, instead glided through a gap and touched on the accelerator, making 30 metres before the Argentine defence properly knew what was happening.
One man is not going to fix an attack that has been firing countless blanks of late. But Rees-Zammit’s impending return — if Gatland’s fitness bulletin proves accurate — will lift Welsh confidence wherever he plays in the back three.
Select your Wales team to face England below:
Nick Tompkins
Send out a search party to locate this bloke? There are worse ideas. It’s an odd one, for sure.
Tompkins is a mainstay in one of Europe’s top-performing club teams in Saracens and commands huge respect from his team-mates and coaches. He is industrious, tough and versatile.
OK, he doesn’t have a great kicking game and isn’t as big as some of the behemoth midfielders that can be seen in modern-day Test rugby. But he is a reliable player who has experience and barely 15 months ago it was reported he’d been playing so well for Saracens that rivals at other clubs were cursing him. So it’s a surprise he is yet to make a matchday squad in this tournament.
Mason Grady
“If George North isn't fit, do we have a look at Mason Grady? He's an incredible talent." So said James Hook after the Scotland game.
Grady is only 20 and Wales will presumably be mindful about the perils of taking too much experience out of their side, but the Cardiff player is a talent who makes things happen.
At 6ft 5in and 17st 5lb he would have been directed to the second row had been playing in the 1970s, but he operates in the centre and has a winger’s pace. Whether he breaks through in this Six Nations or not, he is a player who has the potential to do well in Test rugby.
Keiran Williams
The mood music has been positive over the Osprey. Gatland reported before the Scotland game that Williams and fellow centre Grady had been “training the house down”. But so far there has been no sign of either player getting a game.
Williams was one of Welsh rugby’s form players heading into the championship — his display against Leinster last month was one of the top individual displays of the season — and offers something different with his low centre of gravity and bulldozing running. It would be good to see him feature at some point.
Leigh Halfpenny
He is on Gatland’s radar after being picked for the first-round match against Ireland. But an injury forced him out.
Gatland enjoys the calm and stability Halfpenny brings — not to mention his world-class goalkicking.
He may lack Liam Williams’ attacking gifts but he reads play superbly and is someone the coach knows he can bank on. When he’s fit, he will be there or thereabouts.
Bradley Roberts
The Dragon is a buzz-bomb of a hooker who makes impacts all over the field. He is another one who was in form before the squad met up. He then found himself overtaken in the pecking order by Scott Baldwin after the Osprey was summoned as a replacement for Dewi Lake.
The assumption is training performances have dictated selection here. With Ken Owens as captain, the other hookers were always going to be playing for a bench spot.
Teddy Williams
The bad news is that Williams has yet to be involved. The good news is that he has been noticed, with the Cardiff youngster named as a travelling reserve for the Scotland trip last weekend.
The lock won his place in the squad for the Six Nations after Gatland watched him pile up 22 tackles against Newcastle Falcons at the Arms Park. Williams also contributed some useful running and caught the eye at the lineout, prompting one long-standing Cardiff watcher to observe: “I haven’t seen a player for a long time attack an opposition lineout like Teddy did against Newcastle.”
At 6ft 6in and 18st 9lb, he is a unit and Cardiff have been trying to add to his physicality. Daf Jenkins and Rhys Davies have been capped ahead of him, but the expectation is Williams’ time will come.
Aaron Wainwright
He’s an old Gatland favourite, but that hasn’t been enough to swing him a game of late.
The hot competition for back-row places is the problem. Indeed, so hot is it that two world-class players in Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric were downgraded for the Scotland game — Tipuric not even making the matchday 23.
Development of youngsters appears to be the name of the game. Whether more experience will be summoned for the England game remains to be seen. Wainwright can only keep trying to catch the eye in training.
Kieran Hardy
It hasn’t been easy for the Wales scrum-halves with a pack that hasn’t been dominating. But, still, sometimes that can be a test of a No. 9’s true calibre.
Turn back the clock and Terry Holmes operated behind any number of beaten Welsh packs, yet he almost unfailingly delivered huge performances. In fact, he carried Wales over a period of years.
As with all on this page, Hardy can only hope for a chance. He did well for Wales in the summer but it’s now that counts and it’s up to the Scarlet to put his stamp on opportunities in practice.
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