Ultimate Rugby's Six Nations Player Of Round Two | Louis Rees-Zammit
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"A star is born" claimed Welsh rugby legend Jonathan Davies after Louis Rees-Zammit's heroics against Scotland in their 25-24 Six Nations victory at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Rees-Zammit earned praised from the legend of Welsh rugby as well as our player of the round award.
A week after his 20th birthday, Rees-Zammit dominated a test match against Scotland scoring two crucial tries and assisted another while shining in all departments on Saturday. So much so that Davies backed the youngster to become a British and Irish Lion.
Commenting on his second and decisive try, Davies said.
"It was just class... his acceleration, then the chip," said Davies in his role as BBC pundit.
"I think a star is born today.
"I think he's played himself onto a Lions tour if they go.
"He looks as if he's gliding."
While Davies was keen to praise the young Welsh winger, his captain and coach were a bit more reserved in their approach as they were careful not to put too much pressure on his shoulders.
Pivac said of the Gloucester wing: "Louis Rees-Zammit is doing some very good things with the ball. He's got things to work on, he dropped a high ball earlier and he wasn't the complete package, but he has scored some really well-worked tries."
Alun Wyn Jones' comments below.
Whether you want to hype up the youngster or not, he was superb against Scotland and thoroughly deserves the player of the round award.
He shook off an early penalty he conceded for taking Matt Fagerson out in the air by fielding a cross kick from Dan Biggar and charged up the field.
He fronted up well on defence with the daunting task of defending Duhan van der Merwe. His first attempt to bring down the powerful winger was successful in the first 15 minutes and did so again moments later.
He was beaten by the excellent footwork of Stuart Hogg before the half hour mark but the attack didn't hurt Wales too much.
The speedster kept his width well to score out in the corner before half time as Nick Tompkins and Liam Williams sent the winger over.
He started the second half brightly with a nice chase from an Ali Price box kick to drag Duhan van der Merwe to the ground before he could get going.
Wales won a penalty soon after his tackle and from the resulting lineout, Liam Williams was over for his try assisted by Rees-Zammit.
After a strong maul from Wayne Pivac's forwards, the winger was put through a hole in the Scotland defence by Callum Sheedy after some excellent hands by Willis Halaholo. He timed his run superbly and just Stuart Hogg stood in Rees-Zammit's way of the try line. The 20-year-old drew Hogg in before putting Williams through for the try. Sheedy's conversion brought Wales within two points as they trailled 17-15.
The red card to Zander Fagerson meant that Scotland were down a man for the final half hour of the match and Wales immediately took advantage as Wyn Jones burrowed over the line to put Wales in front for the first time since the 10th minute of the game.
As Pivac suggested, Rees-Zammit does have a few work-ons for test rugby and one of those may well be his work under the high ball. After Wales went in front, the youngster failed to claim the ball safely enough while under pressure from Duhan van der Merwe which resulted in a scrum for Scotland. The Scots worked possession well after a number of scrums and penalties, Stuart Hogg barged over the line to put Scotland back in front.
Following the try, the youngster regathered himself and was confident in the air as he claimed a kick from Ali Price in heavy traffic. He was smashed shortly after hitting the ground by George Turner. He quickly returned to his feet and got into position for the attack.
A few phases later, the ball was fired in his direction from a Callum Sheedy grubber and he was just beaten to the ball by Stuart Hogg who used all of his experience to box the youngster out of a position to dive onto the ball.
It was from the resulting 22 drop out that Rees-Zammit would strike. After some neat phases with ball in hand directed well by Callum Sheedy, Willis Halaholo threw a nice ball out to the speedy winger. Rees-Zammit took the pass on the drift before speeding past the cover defence of van der Merwe and centre Chris Harris before expertly chipping the ball over Hogg. This time he would not be beat by the Scottish fullback as he accelerated past Hogg with the ball bouncing favourable for him to complete his stellar try.
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) February 13, 2021
With 10 minutes still left to play, the game was not over and neither was Rees-Zammit as he produced two more crucial moments having scored what would be the match-winning try.
He made a somewhat routine tackle on Chris Harris, which on the night was not as routine as it may seem.
In the 77th minute, he quickly reacted to Ali Price's sliced kick into the Welsh 22 and got back in time with Hogg once again tearing after him.
With the Scottish captain breathing down his neck, Rees-Zammit fired an excellent punt that bounced in the Scotland 22 before crossing the line.
His clearance pinned Scotland back in their own half as they looked to chase a win. Some five minutes later, Scotland looked to be on their way to score the match winning try as Finn Russell produced an incredible offload to send Duhan van der Merwe charging down the touchline. A tap tackle from Owen Watkin brought the bulldozing winger down with Liam Williams tackle on Hogg dislodging the ball. Rees-Zammit reacted quickest to throw his body on top of the ball and place it back under extreme pressure from Scotland. Kieran Hardy then kicked the ball out to seal the victory for Wales.
Speaking after the game the man of the moment said:
“We’ve come a long way from the last Six Nations campaign and worked so hard in training,” he said.
“I’m thoroughly enjoying it, the whole team have helped me settle in and I’m loving playing on this sort of stage.”
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