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The ex-Scotland insider sharpening Wales centre Max Llewellyn
By Chris Jones
Scotland have been warned that one of their own has helped turn Wales centre Max Llewellyn into a defence-busting force when the teams clash in the Six Nations Championship at Murrayfield on Saturday.
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Llewellyn, son of former 92-cap Wales lock Gareth, is big enough to play in the pack but has made a real impact at centre for free-scoring Gloucester this season, where he has benefited from the help and advice of Chris Harris, the 46-cap Scotland and British and Irish Lions Test centre. Like Harris, Llewellyn packs a big punch in the tackle and has the strength to bust through defences, as he showed in Wales’s improved performance while losing 27-18 to Grand Slam-chasing Ireland in the last round of the Championship.
It took the departure of head coach Warren Gatland to bring Llewellyn, who has scored seven tries for Gloucester this season, back into the squad, with stand-in coach Matt Sherratt recognising the gain line-breaking power of the 6ft 5in back who will be launched against the Scots at the weekend.
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Dominic Waldouck, the former England Saxons, London Irish, Wasps, Northampton and Newcastle centre, is part of the Gloucester coaching team that was left dumfounded by Gatland’s decision to ignore Llewellyn.
Waldouck paid tribute to Harris’s influence on the young centre and said: “Max has a fantastic attitude and wants to get better every day, and he applies himself and responds to coaches. Chris (Harris) does a brilliant job of supporting and guiding Max, helping coach him. All those centres are driving each other on, learning from each other, and becoming better players. It is a fantastic dynamic between them and is brilliant to watch.
“It’s great that Max has got the recognition with Wales that we all believed he should have got earlier on. Would I like to have tried to stop him? No, I think I would have run out of the way! What a handful he is – 6ft 5in, 110kg – quick, elusive, dynamic, and skilful. It would be horrible to play against Max.
“It is a privilege to coach all of our centres and help them on their journeys. The way we want to attack relies on transition from defence, and we define ourselves by getting the ball back in defence. We are relentless in trying to create turnovers for ourselves, and it does take time to bed in those ideas, and we saw that at the start of the season when we moved to a more attacking style and our defence struggled in that new style, but we have improved.”
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Gloucester’s attacking style has seen scrum-half Tomos Williams and outside-half Gareth Anscombe installed in the Welsh side, while wing Josh Hathaway and lock Freddie Thomas are also in the squad preparing to face Scotland.
Gloucester have added Ireland No10 Ross Byrne and wing Ben Loader to their squad for next season to offset the loss of Pumas back Santiago Carreras to Bath. The squad includes a number of talented young players, including centre Seb Atkinson and lock Arthur Clark, who will be pushing for future England squad places. Gloucester endured a difficult season last year, underperforming in the Premiership and concentrating on cup competitions, winning the Premiership Rugby Cup and losing in the European Challenge Cup final. This season, they are third behind West Country rivals Bath and Bristol.
Waldouck said: “This is testament to the programme George (Skivington, head coach) has created here, and it is committed to developing young players, creating young internationals, and is doing just that, so that is brilliant. It proves that the programme is working, and if I were those young lads seeing guys come through the Gloucester ranks, train really hard, get better and then get opportunities at international level, I would be very motivated to do the same thing.
“We went through some tough times last season and they can often bring a group together in adversity. One thing we did was stick together, and George led us brilliantly through those challenging times, and we are starting to see the fruits of that labour in the individuals we are developing and the international recognition. I guess you have to go through some dark times to get the good.”
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