Cory Hill and Ellis Jenkins to co-captain summer tour as Warren Gatland recalls Wales’ youngest player Tom Prydie
Prydie made his debut at just 17 years old in the 2010 Six Nations and returns to the squad after five years in the international wilderness, with Gatland resting most of his British Lions
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Your support makes all the difference.Tom Prydie has been handed a Wales recall by Warren Gatland for this summer’s tour of the United States and Argentina, eight years after he became the youngest player in the country’s history.
Scarlets back Prydie made his international debut at just 17 years old in the final match of the 2010 Six Nations, two years before he was first capped by the Under-20s, and after featuring on the summer tour of South Africa and New Zealand that year, he made one more lone appearance on the 2013 tour of Japan while a large number of the squad were away on the British and Irish Lions tour but has not been seen in a Wales shirt since.
That is very much the case again this time around, with Gatland choosing to rest all but two of his Lions contingent as only George North and Ross Moriarty are included from last summer’s squad that drew the Test series with New Zealand – although ‘Geography Six’ call-up Cory Hill is also included and named as co-captain alongside back-row Ellis Jenkins to continue his remarkable rise this season.
With captain Alun Wyn Jones and injured Lions skipper Sam Warburton among those left out, Gatland will hope to use the lone Test against South Africa in Washington DC and the two-Test series against the Pumas to build squad depth ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan – much like England head coach Eddie Jones did with his tour of Argentina last year.
Other notable absentees include Scarlets captain Ken Owens, Bath No 8 Taulupe Faletau, Ospreys flanker Justin Tipuric, Northampton-bound fly-half Dan Biggar, Saracens wing Liam Williams and Scarlets full-back Leigh Halfpenny, while just one uncapped player is named in scrum-half Tomos Williams.
“We’ve been trying to create some depth in the last 12 months or so and some of that’s been forced on us through injury and it’s been an opportunity to bring some new players into the squad in the autumn and Six Nations,” Gatland said.
“Looking at the squad at the moment, probably 10 or 11 players will come into serious contention for the World Cup squad when that squad of 31 gets announced, we’ve taken 31 on this tour and it’s a great opportunity for those 31 players to really stake a claim for the next 12 months and in particular hopefully get selected for the World Cup squad.”
For Hill, the tour will cap his emergence as one of Wales’ key forwards alongside regular captain Jones in the second-row, and after a standout Six Nations campaign the 26-year-old Cardiff Blues lock will have the chance to push his leadership skills alongside club colleague Jenkins, who captained Wales’ Under-20’s side that reached the 2013 Junior World Cup.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for those two players and both of them have had experience at regional level and Ellis in the past with Wales Under-20s,” Gatland added.
“We see them as having some real leadership skills and it’s a great chance to develop them within the squad and they’ll get a huge amount of support from other senior players in the squad in terms of Bradley Davies and Luke Charteris, Gareth Anscombe, Hadleigh Parkes. They’ll be important in terms of supporting those two players and we spoke potentially about not picking a tour captain and just picking a captain per match but we just felt that from a leadership point of view it would be really good for those two players’ development.
“It’s going to be really tough. Given that South Africa have a new coach, they’ll probably make a few changes for the game in Washington and give some youngsters an opportunity as well so that’s going to be a tough match out there – it should be a great occasion and great atmosphere – and two tough matches in Argentina, we saw how well they did last year in a couple of close games against England so we know how tough they’re going to be and it’ll be a great challenge for us and really good for the development and build-up, and we’re really into countdown phase for Japan 2019.”
Wales squad to face South Africa and Argentina
Backs: A Davies (Scarlets), G Davies (Scarlets), T Williams (Cardiff Blues), G Anscombe (Cardiff Blues), R Patchell (Scarlets), H Parkes (Scarlets), O Watkin (Ospreys), S Williams (Scarlets), J Adams (Worcester), H Amos (Dragons), S Evans (Scarlets), G North (Northampton), T Prydie (Scarlets).
Forwards: R Evans (Scarlets), W Jones (Scarlets), N Smith (Ospreys), T Francis (Exeter), S Lee (Scarlets), D Lewis (Cardiff Blues), E Dee (Dragons), R Elias (Scarlets), A Beard (Ospreys), B Davies (Ospreys), S Davies (Cardiff Blues), L Charteris (Bath), C Hill (Dragons, co-captain), J Davies (Scarlets), E Jenkins (Cardiff Blues, co-captain), R Moriarty (Gloucester), J Navidi (Cardiff Blues), A Shingler (Scarlets).
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