When formulating our pre-Six Nations top try-scoring tips, we discounted Louis Rees-Zammit on the basis of his impact, or lack of it, in the Autumn Nations Series.
Yes, he scored an absolute worldly effort against Fiji, scorching past the defensive cover to touch down for his sixth international try, but apart from that, there was very little to shout about.
Our concerns were that without a settled and quality centre partnership inside to feed him quality ball in time and space, the Gloucester flyer would have few opportunities to repeat his 2021 form when he scored four Championship tries.
Unfortunately for Wales fans and backers of Rees-Zammit and indeed Josh Adams, another of the pre-Championship favourites, that has proved to be the case.
Whilst the jet-heeled winger’s numbers are decidedly better than when he failed make any metres or line breaks or beat any defenders against Australia, and only touched the ball once in the 48 minutes he was on the field, his lack of involvement in the first two rounds of Six Nations 2022 has even led to questions being raised about his worthiness of a place in the team, by Wales Online.
The 21-year-old’s failure to stop Darcy Graham scoring in his corner in last weekend’s 20-17 win over Scotland was another black mark against his name.
Mainly though, it is Wales’ poor distribution and attacking shape that has led to his star waning in the last six months. Owen Watkins and Nick Tompkins started together for only the second time in a Test against Scotland, and theirs was the eighth different Wales midfield combination in the last year.
In the Fiji game, Rees-Zammit topped a century of metres in terms of carries – almost more than the four other games since November combined.
Take out that Fiji game from his attacking stats and the British and Irish Lion has not so much been quiet but dormant as the table below shows.
| S Africa | Fiji | Australia | Ireland | Scotland | Match Av. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Carries |
3 |
12 |
|
6 |
6 |
5.4 |
|
Metres Gained |
18 |
83 |
|
23 |
32 |
31.2 |
|
Ball receipts |
9 |
16 |
1 |
13 |
9 |
9.66 |
|
Passes made |
|
3 |
|
2 |
|
1 |
|
Line Breaks |
1 |
4 |
|
1 |
|
1.2 |
|
Defenders Beaten |
1 |
2 |
|
|
|
0.66 |
How are our pre-Six Nations 2022 outright tips doing?
Title winners – Ireland
The round 2 defeat to France was clearly a blow but with Ireland picking up a losing bonus point and France facing back-to-back away games against Scotland and Wales and then England at home, all is not lost.
No Grand Slam
Two rounds down and already five of the contenders are out of the running. France will fancy their chances of claiming a first title since 2010 by way of a Grand Slam now that they have successfully negotiated their toughest hurdle on paper, but as we alluded to above, none of their games are ‘gimmes’.
Top try-scorer – Damian Penaud
You couldn’t help but think that we’d backed the wrong winger when Gabin Villière raced in for a hat-trick in France’s opening round 37-10 win against Italy. But thankfully, Damian Penaud, our choice, scored one himself as well as setting another up, to remain on his shirttails. Both drew a blank against Ireland and Villière damaged his cheekbone in the win so will miss the next match at least.
Ireland wing Andrew Conway and England duo, Marcus Smith and Jamie George, all have two tries apiece.
Top points-scorer – Dan Biggar
We can’t dress this up, Biggar’s blank on the opening day was a disaster. The Wales captain did not have a single attempt at goal on a miserable afternoon in Dublin.
Biggar and Wales redeemed themselves in the win against Scotland, the fly-half contributing 15 of his side’s points. But, even so, he has a lot of ground to make up on Smith and France full-back Melvyn Jaminet, who are joint-leaders on 30 points. Finn Russell, with 20 points, is also above Biggar who is currently ranked fourth.
There is also the worry about the knee injury that caused him to hobble through last Saturday’s match in Cardiff. Should he be passed fit, Biggar will need a similar points haul to the one he got against England at Rugby World Cup 2015 to get right back in contention. Biggar set his own record for points in a Test that day with 23 of Wales’ points in a 28-25 victory.
