Wayne Pivac has revealed Rhys Webb missed out on selection in Wales’ Six Nations squad due to a perceived lack of pace and accuracy in his passing game.
The 38-cap scrum-half was one of the surprise omissions from Pivac’s 36-man squad, with Scarlets youngster Kieran Hardy retaining his place after a debut campaign last autumn.
Lions tourist Webb was widely expected to get into the squad but Cardiff Blues livewire Tomos Williams has returned from a shoulder injury and also pipped Webb.
When quizzed on the decision, Wales boss Pivac pointed to the pace that selected No.9s Williams, Hardy and Gareth Davies bring.
The Kiwi also disclosed the message was relayed to Webb before the official announcement was made this morning.
“[It’s about] Form. Also, Rhys and I had a good chat this morning around the accuracy of his passing game, which he needs to work on and get those numbers back up,” said Pivac.
“We just questioned his pace at the top end of the game. The other three all bring electric pace, we know that.
“That is something that is in question at the moment with Rhys.
“But he’s not out of the loop in terms of playing for Wales in the future, he’s just not going to be selected for this tournament at this stage.”
The other big selection came at fly-half amid rumours Rhys Priestland – who is believed to be joining the Cardiff Blues from Bath this summer – was in line to get a recall.
It was thought that selection would have come at the expense of Blues playmaker Jarrod Evans but it has transpired that Priestland remains off limits due to the 60-cap rule.
Because Priestland is believed to be returning to play his rugby in Wales next year – though nothing is confirmed yet – it was thought he may now be eligible, similar to Webb’s situation ahead of the 2020 Six Nations.
But Pivac set the record straight.
“Jarrod was left out of the autumn series and was given parts of his game to work on, mainly the kicking side of his game,” said Pivac.
“Neil Jenkins has been involved in that process with Stephen Jones. He’s been working solidly behind the scenes with that and we’re interested to see how that’s developing.
“We know about his running game and we know he’s a gutsy defender.
“In terms of Rhys [Priestland], we’ve asked the question along the lines of the Rhys Webb question when that was done at the time.
“We have injuries to Rhys Patchell, who’s coming back from a well-documented head knock and is now in a reconditioning programme having been out of the game for a while.
“Obviously there is Gareth Anscombe, who is still out.
“We asked the question: ‘Can we select Rhys if we need to call upon him?’
“We’ve selected what we have on the basis that they’re available and we now know whether or not we can use Rhys if we get further injury.”
When asked to clarify whether or not he was able to select Priestland, Pivac said: “No we can’t.”
Wales will arrive in camp on Monday to begin preparations for their opening match against Ireland on February 7.
