{"id":393136,"date":"2026-01-27T12:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393136\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:42:09","slug":"wales-announce-new-call-up-four-years-after-last-cap-as-star-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393136\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales announce new call-up four years after last cap as star released"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wales have had to bring in the 27-year-old, who won four caps in 2022<\/p>\n

\nSam Wainwright during training(Image: Huw Evans Agency)<\/p>\n

Cardiff prop Sam Wainwright has been called up to replace club team-mate Keiron Assiratti in Wales’ Six Nations<\/a> squad.<\/p>\n

The four-cap tighthead joins Archie Griffin and the recalled Tomas Francis as Wales’ options for the number three jersey, with Assiratti having picked up a calf injury before being replaced after 56 minutes of Cardiff’s win over Benetton on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Wainwright hasn’t featured for Wales since the autumn of 2022, with his last cap being in the 13-12 defeat to Georgia that ultimately cost Wayne Pivac his job.<\/p>\n

Wainwright had made his Test debut earlier that same year, coming off the bench in two Tests against South Africa.<\/p>\n

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The first of those was a historic one, with Wales securing their first ever win over the Springboks on South African soil.<\/p>\n

Further bench appearances followed in the autumn against Argentina and Georgia.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old, who previously played for Saracens ahead of his Wales call-up, joined Cardiff<\/a> from Scarlets<\/a> last summer.<\/p>\n

Since joining the Arms Park side, Wainwright has played seven times this season.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s obviously disappointing for Keiron, but that gives an opportunity for Sam and we\u2019re delighted for him to join the group,” said Wales head coach Steve Tandy.<\/p>\n

The injury comes as a blow to Assiratti, with the Cardiff tighthead having arguably ended last autumn as Wales’ first-choice tighthead – starting three of the four matches.<\/p>\n

Bath’s Griffin started the win over Japan and will be in contention to start against England at the Allianz Stadium.<\/p>\n

So too will Francis, who is in line for a first cap since the 2023 World Cup quarter-final defeat against Argentina.<\/p>\n

The 77-cap prop has not played Test rugby since joining French club Provence from the Ospreys<\/a> that same year.<\/p>\n

However, having signed a deal to join Sale Sharks next year, Francis has been handed a recall by Tandy.<\/p>\n

“Adding experience to any position is important,” said Tandy about Francis’ recall. “Seeing how motivated he is to be back in camp, he was there last night.<\/p>\n

“Having young Archie Griffin there, the more competition you have, the more players grow.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales have had to bring in the 27-year-old, who won four caps in 2022 Sam Wainwright during training(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-393136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}