Wales International Rugby Summer 23 onwards.

As the pages were going over 20 shortly, I’ve had to start a new thread. This is still the place to discuss the U20s, the women and everything else internationally. Updated RWC 23 squad below.

Forwards (25)

Corey Domachowski (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd– uncapped)
Kemsley Mathias (Scarlets – uncapped)
Nicky Smith (Ospreys / Gweilch– 42 caps)
Gareth Thomas (Ospreys /Gweilch – 21 caps)
Elliot Dee (Dragons / Dregiau– 41 caps)
Ryan Elias (Scarlets – 33 caps)
Dewi Lake (Ospreys / Gweilch – 8 caps)
Sam Parry (Ospreys / Gweilch – 5 caps)
Keiron Assiratti (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd– uncapped)
Tomas Francis (Ospreys / Gweilch – 71 caps)
Dillon Lewis (Harlequins – 50 caps)
Henry Thomas (Montpellier – uncapped)
Adam Beard (Ospreys / Gweilch– 46 caps)
Ben Carter (Dragons / Dregiau– 9 caps)
Rhys Davies (Ospreys / Gweilch – 2 caps)
Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs / Caerwysg – 6 caps)
Will Rowlands (Dragons / Dregiau – 23 caps)
Christ Tshiunza (Exeter Chiefs / Caerwysg – 5 caps)
Teddy Williams (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd– uncapped)
Taine Basham (Dragons / Dregiau – 11 caps)
Taulupe Faletau (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 100 caps)
Dan Lydiate (Dragons / Dregiau – 68 caps)
Jac Morgan (Ospreys / Gweilch – 9 caps)
Tommy Reffell (Leicester Tigers / Caerlŷr– 9 caps)
Aaron Wainwright (Dragons / Dregiau – 37 caps)

Backs (22)

Gareth Davies (Scarlets – 67 caps)
Kieran Hardy (Scarlets – 17 caps)
Tomos Williams (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 45 caps)
Gareth Anscombe (unattached – 35 caps)
Dan Biggar (Toulon – 107 caps)
Sam Costelow (Scarlets – 2 caps)
Owen Williams (Ospreys / Gweilch – 7 caps)
Mason Grady (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 2 caps)
Max Llewellyn (Gloucester Rugby / Caerloyw – uncapped)
George North (Ospreys / Gweilch – 113 caps)
Joe Roberts (Scarlets – uncapped)
Nick Tompkins (Saracens – 27 caps)
Johnny Williams (Scarlets – 5 caps)
Keiran Williams (Ospreys / Gweilch – uncapped)
Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 49 caps)
Alex Cuthbert (Ospreys / Gweilch – 57 caps)
Rio Dyer (Dragons / Dregiau – 7 caps)
Cai Evans (Ospreys/ Gweilch – uncapped)
Leigh Halfpenny (unattached – 99 caps)
Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester Rugby / Caerloyw– 25 caps)
Tom Rogers (Scarlets – 2 caps)
Liam Williams (Cardiff Rugby/ Caerdydd – 84 caps)

Taine Plumtree, new Scarlets signing, has travelled with the squad to Switzerland.

Oakdene wrote:Taine Plumtree, new Scarlets signing, has travelled with the squad to Switzerland.

Thought that was more bluff. Interested to see what he can do, but yeah, Thomas Young and Morgan Morris aren’t going to like it.

mikey_dragon wrote:

Oakdene wrote:Taine Plumtree, new Scarlets signing, has travelled with the squad to Switzerland.

Thought that was more bluff. Interested to see what he can do, but yeah, Thomas Young and Morgan Morris aren’t going to like it.

Only travelling, don't think he will be anywhere near the actual squad come the RWC.

If he’s there I he is in with a shout. If he’s got a good bench press then he’s a sure thing.

I am sure he will get a cap in the warm ups, if he is eligible for other nations too. Wouldn't expect him to make the RWC squad either, but I am not surprised to see him in the training squad now.

Congrats Wales U20s for the win v Georgia. There was a bit of hype that they would follow the same result as the last senior one, but they didn’t. I didn’t get to watch it, but it seems like they were 6-0 down or so and kept turning penalty shots at goal down, that would’ve given them the lead. That said, they did win so fair play. Really happy for the Westwood family with Joe starting and scoring.

Have to say I was caught up a bit in the hype on Georgia and thought they'd beat us. So kudos to our U20s for sticking 40 points on them. After seeing us struggle a little against Japan (until they went to 14 men), get beasted by France (until they went to 14 men and that slowed up their score rate a little), I thought Georgia would be a real issue. After all, they'd run SA close, walloped Argentina and beaten Italy. So not too shabby.

Wales v Aus on Friday in a 5th place playoff.

Yeah good professional performance by Wales really when you look at it. Pitch was very heavy & was good to see out front row staying on for an hour.

Congrats to Wales U20 for winning. I think they showed true grit, sorry that's the best compliment I can come out with. It's not professional to keep making basic errors, you'll note Mark Jones talked about this again during a post-match interview. Westwood was one I thought wasn't making the most of his opportunity, but he got much better as the game went on in what wasn't really a day for end-to-end running rugby. Our front-row were demolished by the opposition again, it's been every match so far. Georgian front-row and back-row are big boys but one of their locks looked the same size as our centre. I think our two leading centre's are very good players.
Admittedly Georgia are a good team and were never going to be easy, but it looks as though there aren't any whipping boys in the comp this year anyway, even Japan have looked good at times.

On other forums and social media it's a little comical but also very sad seeing 'fans' jump on someone like a pack of rabid dogs because they dared to say something other than "Great game boys highly impressive!", etc. You would have to be someone of extremely low intelligence if you think another person posting their view which includes some of the teams' flaws, and some constructive criticism is classed as "slagging off the team" and "not supporting the boys". Gee wiz, and I really hoped we had less village idiots among the fanbase these days.

Not sure if true but the discussion was running costs and I've read that the WRU and IRFU turnover is similar, but the Irish employ 82 people to run the show and the WRU employ 320 - folks can't be far wrong when they say the 'blazer brigade' has been bathing in a gravy train for too long. Ieuan is stepping down soon and the new boys (not boyo's) are coming in, I hope they have thick skin.

The 5th place play-off;
Wales U20s: Harri Houston (Ospreys); Tom Florence (Ospreys), Louie Hennessey (Bath), Bryn Bradley (Harlequins), Llien Morgan (Ospreys); Dan Edwards (Ospreys), Archie Hughes (Scarlets); Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths (Dragons), Lewis Lloyd (Ospreys), Kian Hire (Ospreys), Evan Hill (Ospreys), Jonny Green (Harlequins), Ryan Woodman (capt, Dragons), Lucas De La Rua (Cardiff Rugby), Morgan Morse (Ospreys).
Replacements: Lewis Morgan (Scarlets), Louis Fletcher (Ospreys), Tom Pritchard (Cardiff Met), Mackenzie Martin (Cardiff Rugby), Gwilym Evans (Cardiff Rugby), Joe Westwood (Dragons RFC), Harri Wilde (Cardiff Rugby), Harri Williams (Ampthill).

Australia U20s: Harry McLaughlin-Phillips; Tim Ryan, Henry O'Donnell, David Vaihu, Darby Lancaster; Jack Bowen, Teddy Wilson (capt); Jack Barrett, Liam Bowron, Nick Bloomfield, Toby Macpherson, Daniel Maiava, Lachlan Hooper, Ned Slack-Smith, Leafi Talataina.
Replacements: Marley Pearce, Harrison Usher, Trevor King, Ollie McCrea, John Bryant, Klayton Thorn, Mason Gordon, Jackson Ropata


Wales should be blessed with centre's for a few years. Big guys too. A few big centre's seem to come out of Cardiff.

Johnny Williams out for about 8 weeks....real shame that, felt he was very close to being a starter at the RWC.

Ah never. That's a shame. I think he would definitely have had more of a chance than some of the youngsters, though I can't get past the fact that I think Gatland will go Tompkins and North.

That isn't being reported anywhere though. I might have opted for Johnny at 12 with North at 13, but the former is too injury prone so there's no point in him being in the squad. Still not sold on Tompkins at international level as he still can't defend.

I love the away kit. The home kit is nice but I’m not a big fan of collars.

I don’t like the collars either, although the anthem being in the home one is quite cool.

Looks like everyone is collared this year though. Whilst I like the kit, I don't like the price that much.

I really like your away kit.  Looks a little like La Rochelle, the black and yellow looks pretty slick.  Unfortunately, it doesn't scream out Wales.  I can't see Wales without at least a bit of red.  

On the other hand, the home red kit looks fine but not exciting.

Quite an experimental side to face England.

Wales side to face England: Leigh Halfpenny; Louis Rees-Zammit, George North, Max Llewellyn, Rio Dyer; Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies; Corey Domachowski, Ryan Elias, Keiron Assiratti, Dafydd Jenkins, Will Rowlands, Christ Tshiunza, Jac Morgan (capt), Aaron Wainwright.

Replacements: Elliot Dee, Nicky Smith, Henry Thomas, Ben Carter, Taine Plumtree, Tomos Williams, Dan Biggar, Mason Grady.

Is that former England player Henry Thomas?

Yes it is.

Surprised not to see Lake in the mix, but overall happy.

I quite like the team. Was hoping for a bit of pace out wide. Looking forward to seeing big Max at 12 and pretty happy everywhere, to be honest.

Geordie wrote:Is that former England player Henry Thomas?

Yep.

Nice mix of experience and youth for Wales there. Don't know much about the front row but otherwise looks an interesting team.

Yeah looking forward to seeing how the two props go, understand they were very strong last season. Be good to see Plumtree off the bench too. Would love to see Costelow have a stormer.

Normally the first to defend Rio Dyer when he gets criticised on Twitter etc, but it looks like Josh Adams is certainly going to be first choice 11 now (it was likely anyway). Seems like Faletau is really struggling with his injury, so good to see Wainwright stand up.

I didn’t expect a lot yesterday, so nice to pick up a win even though England were pretty poor. Bit mad that we only seemed to have around four entries into their 22 and scored 2.5 times. I did think that we could’ve been a bit quicker off the base and things were on a bit if we had a bit of awareness. But anyway, as I said it was an unexpected win. Both replacement props did well, which was a huge positive.

Think we have to be happy with a win, any win, given the state of stuff in welsh rugby prior to these warm up games. Getting away from it all and bonding over a good Swiss beasting probably helped galvanise the team. But losing a number of top players to reasons unknown to us (probably politics) must have unsettled the squad a little, especially as we’ve lost so much expertise and leadership from the group. So nice to see them winning and seeming to gel well as a team.

Thought the Cardiff props struggled a little, but great to see them getting some game time at this level. In fairness to them I’m not sure they’re even first choice at their region are they? Carre, Dillon Lewis and Arhip might be? If that’s the case then not unreasonable that they might struggle a bit first cap. And Dee isn’t the biggest of hookers so they were weakened a bit in the front row from 6 mins in. Dee isn’t even first choice at his region either! Thought the sub props improved things. Nicky Smith seemed to win a few pens. And generally 2nd half the scrum decisions were going our way more.

I wasn’t happy with our kicking game. Gareth Davies, possibly my favourite player a few years back, was over using the box kick. But he’s been down the pecking order for Wales for a while and has lost a lot of his sharpness. Probably under instruction to kick this way in fairness. But it just allowed England to run it straight back. Luckily they weren’t great as they were given possession non stop by us. Were they worried about Costelow’s boot from hand? Didn’t seem to use him to clear much from memory.

Thought LZR struggled to get into the game until right at the end with the (fine but) disallowed try! Couldn’t remember him getting his hands on the ball much. Dyer did, but was not great. And caught out in defence a number of times I think.

Jac Morgan was very good I thought. Solid, tough, industrious. Great one for the future.

Apart from that it was a win but a bit meh! Thought the way England were smashing us at the start they would score a load of tries and we’d be in for a hiding. But they seemed to ease up or get bored or something. And then that try to put us in the lead, after all of England’s domination, must have been a bit demoralising perhaps. They certainly went off the boil after that. Don’t think we played particularly well 2nd half but got the possession, got the breaks and racked up the points.

What happened with the Mason Grady sub? Sure then said he came on for a forward, and then North was in the scrums on the flank? Why? Had we run out of forwards?! And where did Grady line up/play?! Was a bit odd. But funny to see us winning some scrums and getting a shove on with North at flanker!

Must’ve had two second row injuries. As plumtree had to cover lock by the sounds.

I don’t think Tshiunza will go to the World Cup, he’s played for Wales a few times and looked a bit lost quite often. The Cardiff props were getting done by the ref to start off with but when they got going they were good. Good to get the win, I think another loss would be a disaster. We have to get better for the next game, I expect England will change their team and be a lot better.

RiscaGame wrote:Must’ve had two second row injuries. As plumtree had to cover lock by the sounds.

And he rolled his ankle during the game but couldn't come off as we didn't have any replacements left.

He played really well I felt.

mikey_dragon wrote:I don’t think Tshiunza will go to the World Cup, he’s played for Wales a few times and looked a bit lost quite often. The Cardiff props were getting done by the ref to start off with but when they got going they were good. Good to get the win, I think another loss would be a disaster. We have to get better for the next game, I expect England will change their team and be a lot better.

I agree, I'll be honest when I have seen him play for Wales he hasn't really stood out for me.

The 2 props were unlucky when they were pinged for hinging/taking a knee as on both occasions the flanker behind them looked as if he was too high in his body position.

Agree 100% on Tshiunza, every time I've seen him play I've thought I must be missing something.

Aaron Wainwright had a great game, he's very underrated.

He's a good player but isn't quite there yet. Hopefully in the near future. Jenkins on the other hand looks better than previously.

mikey_dragon wrote:He's a good player but isn't quite there yet. Hopefully in the near future. Jenkins on the other hand looks better than previously.

100% both second rows looked really good, very industrious - I have them both ahead of Beard really.

Beard is probably the other captain .

mikey_dragon wrote:Beard is probably the other captain .

I thought that but then I also thought Lake would be one & I can't see Gatland not using Biggar as one.

Tbh I'm not sure Biggar should be first choice but they may feel it's too soon for Costelow, and Anscombe will get injured at some point.

Oakdene wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Beard is probably the other captain .

I thought that but then I also thought Lake would be one & I can't see Gatland not using Biggar as one.

I saw Dewi Lake in Newport by Friars Walk on Sunday morning. God knows why he was there, but it was definitely him.

mikey_dragon wrote:Tbh I'm not sure Biggar should be first choice but they may feel it's too soon for Costelow, and Anscombe will get injured at some point.

The only real blemish on Costelow on Saturday was he dropped a couple under the high ball but I agree this may be one RWC too soon for him.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

Oakdene wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Beard is probably the other captain .

I thought that but then I also thought Lake would be one & I can't see Gatland not using Biggar as one.

I saw Dewi Lake in Newport by Friars Walk on Sunday morning. God knows why he was there, but it was definitely him.

Signing for Dragons...

Oakdene wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Tbh I'm not sure Biggar should be first choice but they may feel it's too soon for Costelow, and Anscombe will get injured at some point.

The only real blemish on Costelow on Saturday was he dropped a couple under the high ball but I agree this may be one RWC too soon for him.

A slight blemish but apart from that he was good. Anscombe is already injured btw…

mikey_dragon wrote:

Oakdene wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Tbh I'm not sure Biggar should be first choice but they may feel it's too soon for Costelow, and Anscombe will get injured at some point.

The only real blemish on Costelow on Saturday was he dropped a couple under the high ball but I agree this may be one RWC too soon for him.

A slight blemish but apart from that he was good. Anscombe is already injured btw…

I'll admit i was surprised at how well he played. Am hoping for more of the same from Joe Roberts if he starts this weekend, which he is rumoured to.

Didn't realise Anscombe was injured, the press release yesterday seemed to say he was available.

Lake captains a more experienced line-up. I am a bit concerned about going up against England's best scrum with Gareth Thomas starting though, and no Nicky Smith to save the day.

Wales side to face England: L Williams; Adams, Roberts, Tompkins, Rogers; O Williams, T Williams; G Thomas, Lake (capt), Francis, Beard, R Davies, Lydiate, Reffell, Plumtree.

Replacements: Parry, Mathias, Lewis, Tshiunza, Basham, Hardy, Biggar, K Williams.

Interesting, it's definitely a more experienced lineup than last weekend but I'm not sure it's better. The backline last weekend worked well and the pack were tackle machines. Costelow really did look the obvious future for the Welsh team (as did Morgan as captain).

Front 5 should go well for me, the Ospreys scrum & maul was a strong aspect of their game last season.

Back 3 probably has a bit more pace & illusive running than the 3 that started last week. Biggar on the bench leads me to think he will start & be the 3rd captain when we play the Bokke next week.

I still don't think Tom Rogers is anywhere near Test level. I'd love him to change my mind on Saturday!

I hope Keiran Williams gets a decent amount of game time, I love watching him play.

I don’t really get why Adams has been named right wing.  Get they want to look at Rogers, but I would’ve started Adams on his preferred wing. Guess that’ll happen next week. Quite like the team again. Be interesting to see how Beard goes, as they’ve talked up his training performance. I do like Rhys Davies too.

Rhys Davies was a revelation for me last season.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:I still don't think Tom Rogers is anywhere near Test level. I'd love him to change my mind on Saturday!

I hope Keiran Williams gets a decent amount of game time, I love watching him play.

He has been unlucky with injury but has looked good at regional level, I'm hoping he proves a few of the doubters wrong.

Id have preferred to see Williams start over Tompkins, so like you hope he gets at least half an hour.