Wales squad: Five takeaways as Steve Tandy tries to ‘bury bad news’ by naming ‘rookie duo’ and ‘wilderness’ prop for Six Nations
Wales boss Steve Tandy has his say on Tuesday in Cardiff after naming a squad that included Tomas Francis, inset
Following Wales’ announcement of their 38-man squad for the 2026 Six Nations, here are our five key takeaways from Steve Tandy’s selection.
The top line
Having sifted through the rubble of the home-based-only selection obliterated 73-0 by South Africa last time out, Tandy popped his head above the parapet seven and a half weeks later to unveil his Six Nations squad.
With no match week player release regulations tying his hands for the daunting challenge that will start away to England on February 7, 11 English-based players and two based in France were included in his pick.
Within that, there were some serious talking points. For instance, Leicester’s Gabriel Hamer-Webb and Bath’s Louie Hennessey are two uncapped players, while Tomas Francis, who hasn’t played at Test level since the 2023 Rugby World Cup, was handed a surprise recall despite only playing for Pro D2 Provence.
The plot only thickens when you switch the narrative to the 25 home-based players, consisting of nine Scarlets, seven Cardiff, seven Ospreys and two Dragons.
You can only imagine the weight that will be on the shoulders of the 14 Cardiff/Ospreys players coming into Wales camp next Monday, following the overnight media reports that Y11, the owners of Ospreys, are the WRU’s preferred bidder to take over Cardiff and facilitate the pro game going from four to three regions.
Players back in the Welsh mix for the first time under Tandy include hooker Ryan Elias, back-rowers Josh Macleod and James Botham, out-half Sam Costelow, centre Owen Watkin and winger Mason Grady.
Tandy was always going to be without his injured skipper, the back-rower Jac Morgan, and this leadership role has again been handed to hooker Dewi Lake.
No.8 Taulupe Faletau and centre Max Llewellyn were his other unavailable injured players, along with Kane James, the 2024 England U20 Junior World Cup winner who was set to change allegiance.
Some of the overlooked fit and available names included English-based duo Tommy Reffell and Nick Tompkins, along with the locally based Rio Dyer and Callum Sheedy.
It was also confirmed by the WRU that ex-Welsh internationals Duncan Jones, Dan Lydiate and Rhys Patchell will continue for the Six Nations the interim coaching roles they had assisting Tandy for the Autumn Nations Series.
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Burying bad news
What a brazen attempt by the WRU to bury bad news, scheduling the naming of Wales’ Six Nations squad for 12:30 pm on Tuesday, the day after the board convened to green light the prospective deal that will see Cardiff bought out by Ospreys owners Y11.
Reading between the lines, given that there has been no official WRU nuts and bolts confirmation, the assumption is that the Ospreys would merge with Cardiff and be based in the capital, leaving the way clear for Scarlets to be the lone standard bearer in West Wales, with Dragons cheerleading the sport in the east of the country.
The revelation that it’s Y11 who are the WRU’s preferred bidder sent shock waves through the sport overnight, infuriating the supporters groups of those two regions and Welsh rugby fans in general, and the fall-out is likely to be seen in the below-capacity crowds for the upcoming Test matches.
Yes, Wales are on a miserable run of 21 defeats in 23 matches, which is enough ammo for people to vote with their feet anyway and not stump up for the Principality matches against France, Scotland and Italy.
However, the overnight upset caused by what is proposed in the regional game has been traumatic, to say the least, and the last thing fans would have wanted to digest was a Test squad announcement so soon after. It was a heck of a way to try to bury bad news.
Rookie duo
It’s incredible how fortunes can so quickly change in sport. The career up to now of ex-England U20 Hamer-Webb could best be described as transient.
There had been appearances for Bath, Hartpury, Cardiff and Northampton, as well as some time with Southland in New Zealand for the former Southampton, Bristol and Yeovil football club triallist.
Even his switch to Leicester this season didn’t initially work out as he was restricted to three PREM Cup appearances before a post-Christmas change in luck.
After playing twice off the bench in the league, the 25-year-old started in Tigers’ recent two Champions Cup matches versus Bayonne and Stormers. It’s a sudden exposure that is now followed with his call-up by Tandy, and there will be intrigue about how he knuckles down to it next week.
Hennessey, Tandy’s other uncapped pick, is another underutilised talent in this season’s PREM. The international call isn’t new to him, as he was named in their Autumn Nations Series squad without getting a run.
But he was a try-scorer for Bath at Toulon last month in the Champions Cup and has made two league appearances since then, suggesting he will offer a greater pep in his step when he links up with Wales for the second time around.
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Wilderness pick
Test tightheads coming back from the wilderness following a long absence isn’t a new script. Dan Cole wrote this particular story about the way he came through the adversity of being jettisoned by Eddie Jones following the 2019 World Cup and re-emerging under Steve Borthwick in 2023. That was quite a long wait between drinks.
Tandy call-up Francis hasn’t had that long a lay-off; he was last capped by Warren Gatland in the RWC 2023 quarter-final loss to Argentina in Marseille. He has since made his bed not far up the road from the French port city, lining out with Provence in Pro D2.
However, the 33-year-old recently signalled his intent to return to the big time, agreeing a two-year deal to join Sale for the start of next season. Nobody, though, predicted that less than a week on from that announcement that he would be back in the thick of it at Test level.
With Wales having struggled at the scrum in the autumn, Tandy has obviously thought it best to bring in a headline reinforcement in the guise of the 77-cap Francis. Playing against the likes of Grenoble and Beziers, as he did in recent weeks, certainly isn’t comparable to the demands of international rugby,
But what can be said for now is that Francis’ enviable Test-level experience can at least help the still raw international pair of Keiron Assiratti and Archie Griffin to make a better fist of competing for the No.3 shirt with him now back in the squad after a two-year absence.
Where’s Reffell?
Whose cornflakes at the WRU did Reffell wee in? Tandy’s predecessor Gatland couldn’t get enough of the Leicester flanker, who followed his record of starting in all five Six Nations matches in 2024 with selection in four of their games in last year’s campaign.
However, the 26-year-old hasn’t had a sniff since playing off the bench 10 months ago against England.
Despite losing Morgan to his serious shoulder injury sustained against Argentina in the opening match of the recent November programme, Tandy’s reaction wasn’t to get on the blower to Reffell.
Alex Mann was his preferred seven versus Japan and with him switching to six against the All Blacks, Harri Deaves then wore the seven shirt in that final fixture, where Wales could have selected players based outside the country (the window was shut for the campaign-ending drubbing by the Springboks).
In the meantime, Reffell has been playing away at club level, grappling with the likes of Leinster and Bayonne in Europe and also Gloucester and Exeter in the PREM.
For whatever reason, he hasn’t merited a call-up even though he featured in some of those matches with fellow back-rower Olly Cracknell, who has made the Wales squad.
It’s quite a change from the situation two years ago, when Gatland sang Reffell’s praises at Twickenham, describing him as “absolutely outstanding”.
