Wales senior men’s head coach Warren Gatland has named a 34-player squad for the 2024 Guinness Six Nations campaign.
Rio Dyer has been named in Warren Gatland's squad to face Scotland, England, Ireland and France during the 2024 Guinness Six Nations tournament.
Gatland has named 15 backs and 19 forwards.
Gatland said: “There’s a little bit of experience in terms of players like George North and Gareth Davies – we wanted a little bit of continuity with that and we’re also thinking about the next RWC cycle and giving some youngsters an opportunity, some youngsters that are not featuring regularly for their club sides.
“I’m really excited about those youngsters and that opportunity to develop them over the next four years. The average age of the squad is about 25 compared to a little bit older during RWC and then you look at this next cycle and you want to get those players to mid to late 20s in terms of experience and age.
“What I’ve learned in the past is that even though we’ve done all that hard work in terms of preparation and build up to the RWC. For me it’s about going back the start a little bit, going back to honing the basics and hammering away at that and almost like starting again. You have to reset in terms of our goals and what we want to achieve. I think Scotland at home is a good game for us, they’re a quality side, they’ll be disappointed with what happened with them in terms of not getting out of the pool at the world cup.
“For us it’s a great game to start at home with a full crowd, packed stadium, exactly what you want under a bit of pressure. If you can get off to a good start and win your opening game then it gives you an opportunity to go further in the tournament.
“This first game is incredibly important to us and those first two weeks in terms of putting in the hard word and bringing the squad together. I hope people can see that what we’re trying to do with the team is to develop some of these youngsters to help support the regions I think that’s really, really important in terms of us working together as a collective going forward – developing the young players but also preparing for a good Six Nations and for the future.”
SQUAD FOR 2024 GUINNESS SIX NATIONS
Forwards (19)
Corey Domachowski (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 6 caps)
Kemsley Mathias (Scarlets – 1 cap)
Gareth Thomas (Ospreys / Gweilch – 26 caps)
Elliot Dee (Dragons / Dreigiau – 46 caps)
Ryan Elias (Scarlets – 38 caps)
Evan Lloyd (Cardiff Rugby – uncapped / heb gap)
Keiron Assiratti (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 2 caps)
Leon Brown (Dragons / Dreigiau – 23 caps)
Archie Griffin (Bath Rugby – uncapped / heb gap)
Adam Beard (Ospreys / Gweilch – 51 caps)
Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs / Caerwysg – 12 caps)
Will Rowlands (Racing 92 – 29 caps)
Teddy Williams (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 1 cap)
Taine Basham (Dragons / Dreigiau – 16 caps)
James Botham (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 9 caps)
Alex Mann (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – uncapped / heb gap)
Mackenzie Martin (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – uncapped / heb gap)
Tommy Reffell (Leicester Tigers / Caerlŷr – 13 caps)
Aaron Wainwright (Dragons / Dreigiau – 43 caps)
Backs (15)
Gareth Davies (Scarlets – 74 caps)
Kieran Hardy (Scarlets – 18 caps)
Tomos Williams (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 53 caps)
Sam Costelow (Scarlets – 8 caps)
Cai Evans (Dragons / Dreigiau – 1 cap)
Ioan Lloyd (Scarlets – 2 caps)
Mason Grady (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 6 caps)
George North (Ospreys / Gweilch – 118 caps)
Joe Roberts (Scarlets – 1 cap)
Nick Tompkins (Saracens / Saraseniaid – 32 caps)
Owen Watkin (Ospreys / Gweilch – 36 caps)
Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 53 caps)
Rio Dyer (Dragons / Dreigiau – 14 caps)
Tom Rogers (Scarlets – 3 caps)
Cameron Winnett (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – uncapped / heb gap)
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