Pivac in spotlight as Reffell and North make Wales squad for South Africa
The uncapped Leicester flanker Tommy Reffell has been named in the Wales squad for this summer’s South Africa tour for which George North has been recalled after 14 months out of Test match action because of a serious knee injury. The 150-times-capped Alun Wyn Jones is also selected, but Jonathan Davies and Callum Sheedy have been left out.
Bridgend-born Reffell, a former Wales Under-20s captain, is rewarded for a succession of outstanding displays during Tigers’ push for the Premiership title this term. He is joined by the uncapped Cardiff No 8 James Ratti in a 33man group for three Tests against the world champions in July.
Despite the presence of Jones, who was Wales’s 2019 World Cup captain and led them to the Six Nations title last year, Dan Biggar remains as captain. Biggar took over leadership duties for this season’s Six Nations while Jones continued his recovery from a long-term shoulder problem. The 36year-old lock returned to Wales action against Italy in March, but he has played only four games since undergoing two operations to rectify an injury he suffered seven months ago.
Biggar, meanwhile, will lead a squad shorn of several injured players, including Leigh Halfpenny, Johnny McNicholl,
Ross Moriarty, Justin Tipuric and Aaron Wainwright.
The Ospreys flanker Jac Morgan also misses out, but players brought back into the fold by the Wales head coach, Wayne Pivac, include the Scarlets fly-half Rhys Patchell and Dan Lydiate. Lydiate, who has won 65 caps, has not featured for Wales since the opening game of last year’s Six Nations against Ireland, when he suffered a knee injury.
Wales face Tests in Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Cape Town, starting on 2 July, having lost all 10 previous games against the Springboks in South Africa. Wales’s poor run since being crowned 2021 Six Nations champions has seen them win only four of 12 matches, ramping up the pressure on Pivac as he prepares for a demanding tour.
Pivac said: “I spoke to Tommy Reffell before we announced the squad for the Six Nations. We looked hard at
Tommy and decided to leave him out then. He has played very well since, he’s been very consistent – one of the most consistent players in the English Premiership – so we feel that he deserves an opportunity and he will be well tested on this tour.”
Pivac accepts that he has a job “where everybody is watching your every move” as he looks for his Wales players to bounce back from a demoralising home defeat against Italy. Italy’s 22-21 victory – their first in Cardiff – saw Wales fall from Six Nations champions last year to a fifth-place finish.
“We’ve had some robust discussions as a coaching group,” Pivac said. “We let the dust settle a bit because emotions were running pretty high right throughout the country, and rightly so, because that is a result that nobody is proud of.
“The big thing is we had those robust discussions, we will learn as much as we can from the experience, and hopefully it makes us a better side moving forward. Certainly, that is the attitude we are taking. What we want to do is turn that frustration, that emotion if you like, into the hard work that is required going to a place like South Africa.”
Asked if the criticism had hurt him, Pivac added: “No, personal criticism doesn’t hurt because it is a job you know where everybody is watching your every move. When you take these positions on you know there is a responsibility that goes with it. Certainly, a loss to Italy was something that wasn’t in my thought process, to be honest, without sounding arrogant. I believed we were good enough, we had done enough work, and we could have won that game several times over. The fact is we didn’t, so you take what comes with that, and a lot of it is justified.”