Wales coach finalises squad to face Fiji

The Wales rugby team in on track to face the Flying Fijians in Sunday’s (Fiji time) Nations Championship opener at Cardiff after their 33-31 win over the Barbarians in London yesterday.

Wales head coach Steve Tandy told Wales Online that he has a ‘nice idea’ of his squad for the Nations Championship as he prepares to trim it down in the coming days.

Having named a 48-man extended squad at the start of the summer, Tandy will now reduce as they prepare for Tests against Fiji, Argentina and South Africa next month.

Speaking after the win over the Baa-Baas at Allianz Stadium, Tandy confirmed his squad would likely be ‘between 32 and 34 players’.

“That’s what we’re looking at,” he said. “It’ll be done over the next few days.

“We’ll make sure we get everything through the physios now, see how the boys are and make sure everyone pulls up after the game.

“We get the English boys in, see how they are as well. I’ve got a nice idea, but again we’ll look back at the game as well, because there will be some tight calls to go on tour. So we’ll do that at the front-end of the week.”

Record

Both countries have played 15 Test matches since November 9, 1985- with Wales winning 12, Fiji taking out two while they played to a draw on November 19, 2010.

The Flying Fijians won 24-19 in the last Test match they played on November 10, 2024.

Since naming their mammoth squad for the summer, Wales have lost three players to injury.

Tighthead prop Keiron Assiratti, hooker Liam Belcher and centre Louie Hennessey have already been ruled out - with no replacements called up.

That does at least make the decision easier in a couple of positions, unless Tandy opts to change his mind on replacements.

Right now, Tandy only has three fit tightheads and hookers left in his squad - so there’ll be no need for cuts.

However, that’s not the case elsewhere as he looks to release at least 11 players from his travelling party.

Four uncapped players made their Wales debuts on Saturday, with Rhys Barratt, Ben Warren, Ryan Woodman and Harrison Keddie all coming off the bench.

Opportunities

All four will be hoping they have done enough to stick around in order to push for a first cap.

“I thought Rhys Barratt had some really good moments,” said Tandy afterwards. “Harrison was straight into the game, Ryan Woodman’s athletic, and Ben Warren had moments.

“It’s great for us. We need more competition. The way they trained, the way they’re coming in every day to be better, is exciting.

“There’s a lot of boys back home that have been with the English club, they’ll be in training this week. The competition gets a little bit higher and we’ve got to continue to do that.

“We’ve got to find ways to give young guys opportunities with an already young team. You look at the backline that started - it’s pretty young - and then the boys that are coming on, it’s exciting for the future.

“But ultimately we’ve got to go and experience more rugby. The more games we get, there’ll be lots of lessons along the way, but there’ll be lots of opportunities and there’ll be a lot of growth in this team.”

Boost

Tandy will be boosted by the introduction of his English-based players - as well as Montpellier’s Adam Beard - to camp this week.

While the likes of Beard, Tommy Reffell, Rhys Carre, Tomos Williams and Nicky Smith are all well-known to the coaching staff, it doesn’t give them a great deal of time to look at less familiar faces from over the border - like uncapped duo Kane James and Bryn Bradley.

“Not a lot if we’re being honest,” said Tandy when asked how much time he’d have to look over those English-based players.

“We’re going to have to be thinking about that now, but again, we’re watching them every week and again.

“We’ve got to have an eye on an opportunity as well. These three test matches are massive for us, but we’ve got to have one eye on the future as well as to where we can give maybe a young guy an opportunity on this summer tour - that’s without giving out caps.

“You’ve got Tommy (Williams), Ollie Cracknell, Tommy Reffell, they’re amazing internationals, so it’s something that we’re well versed in.

“It’s something that we keep in contact with these boys as well, it’s not as if we don’t speak to them, we don’t see them, we’re not looking, or feedbacking on the game, so we got a pretty good idea.”