{"id":410233,"date":"2026-02-06T00:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/410233\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T00:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:46:15","slug":"six-nations-louis-rees-zammit-named-at-full-back-for-wales-opener-against-england-reaction-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/410233\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Nations: Louis Rees-Zammit named at full-back for Wales&#8217; opener against England &#8211; reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A welcome return for Francispublished at 12:25 GMT 5 February<\/p>\n<p>12:25 GMT 5 February<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-w0w395-Paragraph e14e9ror4\">Six Nations 2026<\/p>\n<p>      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Tomas Francis running with the ball for Wales against Argentina\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/42ca6d01-7f8c-43cf-83fa-8cde2a83b1fb.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"3300\" height=\"2162\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Tomas Francis will win his 78th cap off the bench for Wales. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"> The 33-year-old has not played international rugby since the 2023 World Cup quarter-final defeat by Argentina in Marseille.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"> Wales have struggled to fill the tight-head prop void left by Francis, who has played 77 internationals, won Six Nations titles in 2019 and 2021, and featured in the World Cups of 2015, 2019 and 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After leaving Ospreys in 2023, Francis will arrive at Sale Sharks from the French second division team Provence for the start of the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Francis, who will aim to play in a fourth World Cup next year in Australia, backs up Bath&#8217;s Archie Griffin at Twickenham with Sam Wainwright the other tight-head prop in the squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A welcome return for Francispublished at 12:25 GMT 5 February 12:25 GMT 5 February Six Nations 2026 Image&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-410233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410233","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=410233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}