Rhys Priestland will become stronger – Rugby News Update
Rhys Priestland, the 25-year-old Scarlets and Wales fly-half, who is equally adept at playing fullback has been tipped by the his former boss Nigel Davies to bounce back after a disappointing tour of Australia.
Wales have recently returned from their tour of Australia, where they lost the three-match test series 3-0 and in the second test at Melbourne, Priestland kicked the ball when he really should have held onto it, to give the Wallabies victory in the dying
seconds of the game. His error was the game changer.
His former boss at the Scarlets, Nigel Davies, who has since moved to Gloucester Rugby in the Aviva Premiership, has insisted that the fly-half is still learning and he should be given a chance to silence his critics in the future.
"I can remember Stephen Jones and Neil Jenkins in my time - fantastic players. But you always have periods when you get a lot of stick if you are a 10," said Davies. "Rhys is having that now - he is used to it. He's done it with the Scarlets and he came
through a very rough patch there and he just kicked on. It's part of his learning experience. "I could see that Rhys was reading the game very well [in Australia]. He didn't always execute what he wanted to do.”
Priestland is still a novice on the international circuit, and has only played 18 games for his country, making his debut against Wales at Murrayfield, on February 12, 2011, a little more than a year after he toured Australia.
Wales had not won a test on Wallabies' soil for 43 years, and the entire blame cannot be put on Priestland. He has started 15 games for his country, and has come on as a substitute a further 3 times. He has 12 conversions and 8 penalties to his name so far.
Davies also believes that there is a reason to be optimistic. Wales has improved their rugby standard tremendously and ran their hosts close in all games, which certainly bodes well for the future.
However, Priestland has another opportunity to prove himself when the autumn internationals come around.
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