Injury is not behind Gatland’s decision to leave out Tshiunza
CHRIST Tshiunza will play no further part in this year’s Six Nations after not travelling with the Wales squad to either Italy or France.
Having not been named in the squad to face Italy in Rome last Saturday, Tshiunza was released back to his club Exeter.
Cardiff’s Teddy Williams was also released back to the Arms Park side ahead of the trip, while uncapped centre Keiran Williams returned to the Ospreys having picked up an injury against Benetton.
The Western Mail understands Tshiunza has simply not made the cut for the matchday 23 again against France and so was not summoned to Nice, where the squad are training this week.
It’s believed Warren Gatland has previously been keen for him to concentrate on improving his carrying game, given his powerful physique
With Wales travelling directly from Rome to France, where they will spend a week in Nice ahead of their final Six Nations fixture, Tshiunza and Williams’ involvement against France was perhaps unlikely once omitted from the initial 33-man squad to head to Italy.
The reason for the 33-man squad - now reduced to 32 following injuries to Liam Williams and Scott
■ JOHN Dalziel believes Scotland’s performances against the elite of France and Ireland should give them even more encouragement than their victories over England and Wales.
After winning their opening two games in the Guinness Six Nations, the Scots’ hopes of silverware were dashed by defeats against the top-two ranked sides in the world when they lost 32-21 in Paris last month and then 22-7 at home to the Irish on Sunday.
Despite the back-to-back losses, coach Dalziel is adamant Scotland are showing “clear progression” that he expects to manifest itself in the form of a positive World
Baldwin, and a call-up for Sam Parry - is to replicate the size of a squad during this year’s World Cup. Warren Gatland did something similar four years ago between the France and Italy matches of the 2019 Six Nations, bringing his squad to Nice.
Part of the thinking for Tshiunza’s absence would be the obligation to release him to his Englishbased employers once it is apparent he isn’t involved in a Test match 23.
If English-based players are not named in the matchday squad, then they are released to their clubs on the Tuesday.
So had Tshiunza, having not been involved against Italy, flown out to Nice to meet up with the squad on Sunday and then not been in the team to face France, he would have had to travel back to Exeter on Tuesday.
While Tshiunza didn’t feature for Exeter against Newcastle last weekend, it’s likely he’ll be involved in their Premiership Cup final against London Irish this weekend.
Gatland has previously been vocal about the importance of players plying their trade in Wales
Cup experience in the autumn.
“I don’t think there’s been a Six Nations where we’ve had the world number one and two in it,” he said. “To have them back-toback, I think we’ve shown where we are as a group.
“In that France game, with the adversity we had in terms of losing Grant Gilchrist (to a red card), to fight our way back into control in that game, that shows the growth in where we are and the respect we rightly get from our opposition.
“We’ve not seen that side of us where we fall into old habits and get blown away by teams.
“We’ve been competitive to avoid the pitfalls of player release, with this training week in Nice a logistical nightmare in some regards because of it.
Still, given Tshiunza’s potential, the idea of him not featuring in matchday squads against Italy and France seems peculiar as Wales look to blood young talent ahead of the World Cup.
Speaking about Tshiunza last week, Gatland hinted that, while happy with the progress Tshiunza had made, the fact he played in England had counted against him.
“We didn’t include Christ Tshiunza as we’re happy with his progression,” he said last Thursday.
“It’s sometimes hard when those players are going back to England and missing fallow weeks and the work we’re doing.”
One point of confusion would be Nick Tompkins’ presence in Rome and Nice despite not being involved in the matchday squad against Italy.
However, Saracens didn’t have a fixture outside of a friendly against the Scarlets last week.
On Tuesday, Wales attack coach Alex King was unable to offer any explicit reason why Tshiunza was hot in France, but it is understood he is not injured.
Gatland will likely offer more insight into the matter later in the week.
against all these teams and we’re more pleased about how we’re progressing against the likes of France and Ireland than the wins we had at the start because they’re the wins we should have been getting for the last three years, against England and Wales.
“We want to test ourselves against the best teams and push from being fifth (in the Six Nations) to get further up.
“We did enough in the game on Sunday. If we could have had another 10 minutes of being a bit more accurate in two or three areas at the weekend, we’d have been desperately disappointed if we didn’t win that game.”