Wales boss Warren Gatland has rewarded the “pretty outstanding” form of uncapped Leicester wing Jonah Holmes by selecting him in his autumn Test squad. Stockport-born Holmes, who scored 10 tries in 11 games for Leicester last season and qualifies for Wales through a grandparent, is one of two international rookies among a 37-man group.
Ospreys wing Luke Morgan, a renowned sevens specialist, has also been called up by Gatland for games next month against Scotland, Australia, Tonga and South Africa.
Holmes, 26, began his professional career as a scrum-half with Wasps, while he also played for Rosslyn Park, Henley Hawks, London Scottish, London Welsh and Yorkshire Carnegie before arriving at Welford Road.
“He has been on the Welsh exiles list, and his form for Leicester has been pretty outstanding in terms of the number of tries he has scored,” Gatland said. “It gives us an opportunity to bring him in and have a look at him.”
While Gatland welcomes back eight British and Irish Lions to his squad following Wales’ successful summer tour of Argentina, including skipper Alun Wyn Jones, centre Jonathan Davies and hooker Ken Owens, he is also without a number of injured players.
Scarlets flankers Aaron Shingler and James Davies, Bath No.8 Taulupe Faletau, Cardiff Blues back-row forward Josh Navidi and Ospreys centre Scott Williams are among the absentees, together with fly-half Rhys Patchell, currently sidelined because of concussion.
Assessing Patchell’s situation, Gatland added: “We are concerned about him. I need to reiterate and point out that player welfare is the most important thing for us. “He will come in with us, we will look after him and he can train.
“My view would be that if he did get another knock in the next game or in the next four to six weeks, then he probably needs to do what George North did and take the rest of the season off to get himself right.
“We will assess where he is. “The most important thing for players these days is their welfare, and we will not be taking any risks with Rhys or pushing him to get out on the field unless he’s 100 per cent comfortable and confident.”
Backs: A Davies (Ospreys), G Davies (Scarlets), T Williams (Cardiff Blues), G Anscombe (Cardiff Blues), D Biggar (Northampton), R Patchell (Scarlets), J Davies (Scarlets), T Morgan (Dragons), H Parkes (Scarlets), O Watkin (Ospreys), J Adams (Worcester), S Evans (Scarlets), L Halfpenny (Scarlets), J Holmes (Leicester), L Morgan (Ospreys), G North (Ospreys), L Williams (Saracens).
Forwards: R Evans (Scarlets), W Jones (Scarlets), N Smith (Ospreys), E Dee (Dragons), R Elias (Scarlets), K Owens (Scarlets), L Brown (Dragons), T Francis (Exeter), S Lee (Scarlets), D Lewis (Cardiff Blues), J Ball (Scarlets), A Beard (Ospreys), B Davies (Ospreys), C Hill (Dragons), A W Jones (Ospreys, capt), E Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), D Lydiate (Ospreys), R Moriarty (Dragons), J Tipuric (Ospreys), A Wainwright (Dragons).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here