They were hot prospects... but where are they now?
THE sight of Jordan Williams scything through opposition defences for Bristol last weekend will have had Scarlets fans wondering what might have been.
Williams had been tipped for great things, but struggled to command a regular place at his home region before opting for pastures new.
Others too, whether because of injury or circumstance, haven’t fully realised the potential they showed as an emerging talent on the regional scene.
Here, ROB LLOYD looks at what has become of some of the brightest fledgling talents... JORDAN WILLIAMS As he sidestepped and glided through the Scarlets age-grade system, the diminutive Williams looked destined to be one of the rising stars of the Welsh game.
Dazzling feet, searing pace and an ability to kick off two feet, he made an instant impact in an Anglo-Welsh Cup game against Leicester and looked set to be the next international back to trip off the production line down west after playing a starring role for Wales Under-20s as they reached the final of the Junior World Championships in France.
After all, it is not often a great like Sean Fitzpatrick compares a player to All Black superstar Christian Cullen.
Williams toured South Africa with Wales in 2014, but started to fall out of favour with his home region with head coach Wayne Pivac raising concerns about his defensive game. He joined Bristol at the start of last season and delivered a reminder of his talents last weekend with a stunning counterattacking solo score in a hat-trick of tries.
Has just turned 24 so time is on his side. MATTHEW MORGAN You only need to type in “Matthew Morgan wonder try Ospreys 2013” into Youtube to get a glimpse of the wizadry that the former Ospreys’ pivot is capable of producing.
Another supremely talented runner, Morgan lit up with the Welsh Premiership with Swansea before graduating into the senior ranks.
He played 66 matches for his home region and won his first cap for Wales on tour against the Springboks in 2014 after shining at full-back in a trial game at the Liberty.
However, he has only started one game for Wales — against Fiji in the 2015 Rugby World Cup — and hasn’t featured since opting to move to Bristol in 2014, where he was named the Championship player of the year in his first season.
Returned to Welsh rugby with Cardiff Blues at the start of last season, but the 25-year-old has struggled to re-ignite his international career. RHODRI WILLIAMS West Wales used to be renowned as the HQ for the fabled fly-half factory, but in recent years the Scarlets have produced four international No. 9s, with Williams among them. After starring in a Heineken Cup win over Harlequins, the Ammanford product was elevated into Warren Gatland’s 2013 autumn series squad, making his debut off the bench against Tonga and Australia.
He crossed for a try against Scotland during the 2014 Six Nations campaign, but hasn’t been seen since at Test level.
With Gareth and Aled Davies providing stiff competition down west, Williams found himself third choice at the Scarlets and was another to head across the Severn to join Bristol. SCOTT ANDREWS Andrews was among a stellar Wales Under-20s set-up that included six future Lions — skipper Sam Warburton, Rhys Webb, Dan Biggar, Leigh Halfpenny, Jonathan Davies and Justin Tipuric.
The man known as ‘Bubba’ spent a number of years in the shadow of one of Wales’s greatest front-rowers Adam Jones, as did many of the region’s emerging tight-heads, but there were high hopes he could pick up Jones’s mantle once the Lion took his leave from the Test stage.
There was plenty of promise from Andrews during the 2012 autumn series, but he failed to kick on, winning 13 caps over five years spent on the fringes of the national squad.
The presence of veteran Tau Filise and the emergence of Dillon Lewis and others at the Arms Park has seen Andrews loaned out to Bath. TAVIS KNOYLE As a fresh-faced 19-year-old, Knoyle delivered a man-of-the-match display on debut for the Scarlets in a Magners League win over Ulster and a couple of months later he found himself on the plane to New Zealand, with a dream first cap arriving against the All Blacks.
It was Comic Book stuff for the boy from the Neath Valley, who had a year earlier been working at the local coal mine in Onllwyn.
Knoyle was part of Wales’s World Cup squad that reached the semi-finals in New Zealand in 2011, but while he was often called up to national camps, he started falling down the pecking order in Llanelli. He followed Nigel Davies to Gloucester, but that didn’t work out and returned to Welsh rugby with the Cardiff Blues.
Now 27, he is at the Dragons and is one of the few Welsh players to have represented all four regions.
The last of his Wales caps came in 2013. KRISTIAN PHILLIPS Phillips was just 19, having only played seven matches at regional level for the Ospreys, when he found himself called into Warren Gatland’s Six Nations squad. A try-scoring machine at Premiership level with Neath and for Wales Under-20s, Phillips looked to be on the fast track to senior honours.
However, he struggled to command a regular place in a star-studded Ospreys back division and opted to make the short move across the Loughor to the Scarlets.