{"id":69322,"date":"2025-08-15T04:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T04:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/69322\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T04:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T04:09:07","slug":"louis-rees-zammit-joins-bristol-bears-in-return-to-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/69322\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Rees-Zammit joins Bristol Bears in return to rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-player-guid=\"f25756c9-1e92-359e-b706-c2bd09c6f548\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/5208436\/louis-rees-zammit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Louis Rees-Zammit<\/a> has sealed his return to rugby from American football after signing for Bristol Bears.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old, who has been capped 32 times by Wales, announced in January 2024 that he was quitting rugby to join the NFL&#8217;s International Player Pathway Program.<\/p>\n<p>He signed first for the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"f68f2343-8ceb-7a02-740d-af6338be21d2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/kc\/kansas-city-chiefs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> and then the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"ca6fb778-cbf6-d9a3-3e93-01230335fcab\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/jax\/jacksonville-jaguars\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> but he failed to make a breakthrough with either and has opted to return to his roots.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/rugby\/story\/_\/id\/45924082\/new-wales-coach-tandy-admits-shock-louis-rees-zammit-return\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Wales coach Tandy admits shock at Rees-Zammit return<\/a><br \/>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/45873844\/welsh-rugby-star-louis-rees-zammit-end-nfl-journey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby star Rees-Zammit calls time on NFL dream<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rees-Zammit said on the club website: &#8220;Bristol Bears was the obvious choice for me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to get fans out of their seats, create exciting moments and help people fall in the love with the game. I&#8217;m excited to return to rugby at a club that demands those values.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/>Louis Rees-Zammit has made 32 appearances for Wales.\u00a0EPA\/SEBASTIEN NOGIER<\/p>\n<p>The exciting winger formerly scored 42 tries in 77 appearances for Gloucester, while his try tally in a Wales shirt stands at 14.<\/p>\n<p>Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam said: &#8220;Louis is a world-class player and we&#8217;re thrilled to welcome him back to rugby union and to the Bears this season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He has the drive and ambition to be one of the best back-three players in the world, and his goals align perfectly with our ambitions as a club.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At just 24 years old, we know the athlete and competitor he is. The way we play and the way he wants to play fit seamlessly together, and we&#8217;re looking forward to working with him when he joins the group tomorrow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bristol begin their season against Sale Sharks in the Premiership Rugby Cup on Sept. 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louis Rees-Zammit has sealed his return to rugby from American football after signing for Bristol Bears. The 24-year-old,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-69322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}