The Scarlets lock has put himself in the frame for an international return after putting off his retirement to come back to Wales
Ball has been tipped for an international recall(Image: Gruffydd Thomas/Huw Evans Agency)
Scarlets lock Jake Ball has been tipped for a Wales recall ahead of the Six Nations, with his former international teammates saying he can bring some much-needed experience and competitiveness to Steve Tandy’s squad.
The 34-year-old has shown he still has plenty to offer after putting off his retirement to come back to Wales and Parc y Scarlets last year, with a series of physical performances for the region so far this season putting him in the frame for an international return.
Ball, who has 50 caps for his country, hasn’t played Test rugby since 2021 when he quit the Welsh game to move to Japan, but says he has “unfinished business” with Wales and continues to harbour international ambitions.
Tandy’s squad is lacking in experience around the park and, while Dafydd Jenkins and Adam Beard are now nailed-on selections, Wales’ engine room could do with another senior figure, following the international retirements of the likes of Alun Wyn Jones and Will Rowlands.
Ball has now been backed to fill that void and add some grunt to a Welsh pack that was bullied at times during the autumn, with Jonathan Davies, his former teammate for club and country, saying his performances for the Scarlets have been deserving of an international return.
“I think he’d add competition,” the former Wales and British & Irish Lions star said on Scrum V: The Warm Up. “Knowing Jake’s mindset, he’ll drive standards and push the boys, and he’ll want to play. I think there’s room for him to be involved, his performances warrant a place.
“We know what Jake’s like, he does the hard work that people don’t really like doing and he’ll throw it about. I think you do need that on a rugby field.”
Former Wales skipper Ellis Jenkins agreed, saying he would “definitely” include Ball in his squad if he was in Tandy’s position and citing the infamous fight the Scarlets man had with captain Jones in Wales training in 2021 as an example of the intensity and competitiveness he can bring.
“He’s a big, older guy that the young boys can look up to,” said Jenkins. “He’s obviously very experienced and he gets it, doesn’t he? He knows what international rugby is about, he knows how to train.
“He trains at an intensity, it’s not a coincidence him and Alun Wyn Jones had a couple of run-ins in training over the years! It was brilliant though, that’s what you need. It’s class. It was two real competitors going at it.”
Detailing exactly what sparked the fight that left Jones with a black eye, fellow pundit and Wales international Dillon Lewis explained that prop Rhys Carre was inadvertently to blame.
“It was Rhys’ fault,” he said. “He legally took a maul down in training and Al thought it was Jake, because they look similar! And it all broke loose.”
Continuing to state a case for Ball, Jenkins said that the current Wales pack could learn a lot from the veteran lock, adding: “There’s been more than one time though, it wasn’t just that [one fight].
“It’s because you’re all competitive, you’re all pulling in the right direction, and that’s exactly what you need in any squad to bring the best out of each other.
“We’re on this transition, this rebuild, there’s an element of that that probably needs to be learnt by Wales’ forwards, I think. You’re going to come against the South African forwards, you have to have that hard, competitive edge about you and I think he’d be great.”
Giving his take, Lewis agreed that he came into a very different environment to recent Wales call-ups when he was first called into the senior squad is 2017, admitting that having someone with significant international experience involved is “massive” for young players.
“Speaking from when I was younger, I was coming into a squad with Ellis, Foxy, Alun Wyn,” he said. “I was surrounded by experience and it almost made my job a lot easier, because I could lean on these players.
“Whereas I feel like now, these young players who are making their international debuts or playing every week for Wales probably haven’t got that experience to lean on. It’s massive, it’s massive to have these experienced voices around you to help you along and they sometimes pick up a bit of the workload that you mess up.”
Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here and our WhatsApp channel here for all the breaking news.