Thirteen players leave Wales squad as Biggar spots Steve Tandy’s big problem

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Thirteen players to leave Wales squad

Wales will see 13 players leave their autumn international squad following the heavy yet promising defeat to New Zealand on Saturday.

Wales still have one game to go in their Quilter Nations series – against world champions South Africa no less – but they will have to face the Springboks without their English and French-based players.

Saturday’s match falls outside World Rugby’s international window, meaning players contracted to clubs outside of Wales will have to return to their employers.

Steve Tandy will therefore see a baker’s dozen leave their Vale training base imminently, with Adam Beard (Montpellier), Rhys Carre and Nick Tompkins (Saracens), Olly Cracknell and Nicky Smith (Leicester Tigers), Archie Griffin and Louis Hennessey (Bath), Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs), Freddie Thomas, Max Llewelyn and Tomos Williams (Gloucester), Jarrod Evans (Harlequins) and Louis Rees-Zammit (Bristol Bears) all now off limits for the head coach.

Tandy confirmed in his post-match press conference following the All Blacks game that there would be further reinforcements brought into camp this coming week.

“We’ll call up a few,” he said. “We might have to get a few reinforcements.”

Biggar sees big problem

Wales legend Dan Biggar says size and power is a big concern for Steve Tandy and Wales going into their next three games. Tandy’s side put in a valiant performance against the All Blacks but were ultimately outmuscled by Scott Robertson’s team.

Wales often found themselves on the wrong side of the law on Saturday evening, with Hollie Davidson pinging Welsh players on a number of occasions for not rolling away at the breakdown. On commentary for TNT Sports, Welsh icon Sam Warburton explained that this was because New Zealand were winning every collision and is why they always ended up in a more favourable position post-contact.

In a team that featured the likes of 6ft 5in, 23 stone prop Tamaiti Williams, New Zealand were carrying a lot more muscle than Wales and Biggar says this is a concern.

“I think Sam (Warburton) summed it up really well,” he began. “I think you can walk away from whoever, whether you’re players, staff, supporters, you can walk away from the stadium and feel like there was more positives than negatives.

“And ultimately Wales have scored four tries. Never easy to do against an All Black team. They scored four tries against Argentina a couple of weeks ago.

“So they’ve shown lots of progress in their attacking shape. They dug in, they hung on in there. Ultimately, they’ve been undone against Argentina and New Zealand by just too much power.

“The All Blacks just had way, way too much power in terms of – they had to make 228 tackles, Wales. All Blacks made 1,361 metres. You just keep absorbing, absorbing, absorbing that pressure. The dam’s going to burst at one point.

“And I suppose that’s ultimately the most disappointing thing, I suppose, the concern for Steve Tandy moving forward. As you look at who their next three fixers are against, South Africa, England, France, probably the three most powerful teams out there.

“So they have to find a solution for that. Whether it’s in selection, whether it’s in tactics, however they find a solution, they have to sort of bridge that gap.”

Lake: I’m immensely proud

Wales captain Dewi Lake says he is “immensely proud” of the efforts they showed in the defeat to the All Blacks.

The Kiwis pulled away late in the second half but Wales produced a performance full of promise, with Scarlets winger Tom Rogers bagging a hat-trick of tries.

It has been a testing autumn so far for Tandy’s men, losing heavily against Argentina and only just squeezing past Japan by a point, with many fearing a massacre against the All Blacks.

But Wales fronted up and Lake says the players spoke post-match about it has shown them the levels they are capable of.

“I am immensely proud of the effort the boys put in. We spoke about not giving up and we didn’t and it shows the character in this group,” he said.

“Ultimately our discipline this campaign over the last couple of games. If you give the team the quality of the All Blacks that many entries into your 22 it’s tough to stop them time after time.

“We did very well in a couple of defence sets but when you have to back that up five or six times in a row it’s hard.

“A lot of what we want to do and what we have been working on shone through today. We were physical and our attacking shape shone through.

“For us [winning] it wasn’t a dream. We believe in our ability. We weren’t given a lot of hope from outside the group but inside that we back ourselves.

“We put expectations on us every week to go and prove a point to get the job done. We massively believed we could do that.

“The game was in the balance at half-time and discipline got us into tricky areas with two yellow cards.

“It is tough to keep a team of quality out. We made them work for it up until the very end so I am immensely proud.

“We spoke post-match that it shows the boys the level you can go to. You sometimes do not realise it until you are forced to go there.

“We are a tough group full of character and we will know we will push teams.

“We have built on what we said we going to and it’s now about pushing on. There is always motivation wearing the red jersey. When you have this badge on your chest you are giving it everything and you see that massively within this group.”

Turner: I could never imagine 50 caps

By Anthony Brown, PA

George Turner admitted he could never have imagined winning 50 caps for Scotland as the Harlequins hooker prepares for his landmark appearance against Tonga in the final Test of the autumn series on Sunday.

The 33-year-old appeared to have ended his international career when he left Glasgow to move to Japan for the 2024-25 campaign.

But Turner returned to the mix in the summer after moving back to the UK to sign for Harlequins and is now relishing his first Murrayfield start since March 2024 after substitute outings in the defeats by New Zealand and Argentina.

“I never really thought I’d get anywhere near something like this, I’m really looking forward to doing it,” the forward said in a Scottish Rugby interview.

“The last couple of weeks, a couple of other boys (Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe) have had their 50th cap and they’re huge big players.

“It’s really cool that I’ve also made that achievement. Initially, I never thought I’d get there, but in the last couple of years, it’s definitely been a goal and a target to hit, and seeing a lot of boys getting it and those special games and days have been really cool.

“Obviously, I missed a few games last season with being away, but then getting back on the summer tour and then watching the first game back here in Murrayfield (against the United States), watching that with my son was really special.

“I missed that feeling of coming out to play here and I’m really excited to be able to do that.”

Turner made his debut against Samoa in 2017 and counts his second cap against New Zealand as well as the 2021 victories away to England and France among his highlights.

He added: “I loved playing rugby growing up and I get a lot of people talk about how they dreamed of doing it (playing for Scotland), but I just never thought it would happen.

“Each camp and each time I got involved before I started playing, I was just so happy to be there learning and training and being in that environment. Then obviously getting those caps and getting involved, you just want more.

“You never sit back and think, ‘Oh, I’ll get loads of these’. Each one is really special and it’s really cool being involved.”

Turner will be joined in the front row on Sunday by his former Glasgow team-mate Zander Fagerson, who will make his first appearance since April following calf and knee problems.

“He’s trained two weeks now, so he seems ready,” said head coach Gregor Townsend. “We train pretty full-on, so he’s had scrums this week, we’ve had a lot of live tackling.

“He was good the previous week but obviously we didn’t want to take any risk with him on the back of one full week’s training, but now he’s had two weeks’ training, he should be good to go.”

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