“I don’t think you can ever write anyone off, especially with someone of his quality,” the Wales head coach said.<\/p>\n
“But ultimately we’ve got a lot of young men that are starting to perform, starting to get consistency, so for me it’ll always be based on performance.<\/p>\n
“There’s also, for me as a coach, it’d be a balance of where we are going and whether people can get to World Cups,” Tandy added.<\/p>\n
“But for me, everyone that’s playing regionally, or is available to us, then I wouldn’t write anyone off.<\/p>\n
Get the latest Wales Rugby merch at Kitbag<\/p>\n
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more<\/a> from \u00a3,24.60<\/p>\n Kitbag<\/p>\n Buy Now on Kitbag<\/a><\/p>\n The Six Nations is running from February 5 to March 14 and Wales Rugby fans can get the latest jerseys, hoodies and more at Kitbag.<\/p>\n Maro Itoje: No rift in England squad after on-field row<\/p>\n By Duncan Bech, Press Association Rugby Union Correspondent, Paris<\/p>\n Maro Itoje insists there is \u201cno crack\u201d in England\u2019s leadership group following the on-field disagreement that took place against Italy at the Stadio Olimpico last Saturday.<\/p>\n Itoje was involved in a discussion with fly-half Fin Smith and vice captains Ellis Genge and Jamie George early in the second half of the 23-18 Guinness Six Nations defeat that has plunged England into crisis.<\/p>\n It centred around a debate over whether to use a penalty to go for goal or set up an attacking line-out and ended with Itoje shouting at Smith, \u201cDon\u2019t argue with me. Take the three\u201d.<\/p>\n England are aiming to end their three-Test losing run when they face France in Paris on Saturday and Itoje says they enter the climax to the Championship without any tension between senior players.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no crack. There\u2019s no crack between us. Fin\u2019s a good guy and I get on with him very well,\u201d the team\u2019s captain said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have good relationships with people you\u2019re able to have those sorts of conversations and are able to move on from it pretty quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no residue from that. Naturally, I guess because of the loss, it was made into a bigger thing than it actually was.\u201d<\/p>\n Itoje\u2019s forceful delivery of his instruction to Smith was the first time the British and Irish Lions skipper has raised his voice on the field in that way.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really lose it!\u201d the Saracens second row laughed. \u201cYou don\u2019t often see me with a mic, I\u2019m not always mic\u2019d up but maybe I\u2019m portraying a false image!<\/p>\n \u201cFin is my guy. As always, the way I try to do things is I like to hear what my key decision makers think of what is going on, and whoever plays 10 they will obviously have an important role in that.<\/p>\n \u201cI initially asked what we thought we should do and I guess he expressed a view, I expressed a view, and I just wanted to quickly move on to the next thing.<\/p>\n \u201cI actually think it\u2019s a good thing that people in the team feel they can express a view and in sport, if anything, that\u2019s the most kosher of fallouts that the world has ever seen. We have had far more blunt conversations between ourselves and other teammates!<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no really biggie. After that interaction, we even laughed about it a little bit on the pitch as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Farrell responds to star’s bullish comments<\/p>\n By Edward Elliot, Press Association, Dublin<\/p>\n Andy Farrell says Scotland wing Darcy Graham is entitled to think Ireland are \u201cthere for the taking\u201d ahead of Saturday\u2019s crunch clash in Dublin.<\/p>\n The Scots travel to Aviva Stadium chasing a first Triple Crown in 36 years to remain in contention for a maiden Guinness Six Nations<\/a> title on the back of a thumping 50-40 round-four victory over France.<\/p>\n Ireland, who have won the last 11 meetings between the sides dating back to 2017, also go into the final-day shootout with aspirations of the Triple Crown and potential championship glory.<\/p>\n Edinburgh player Graham made headlines earlier this week by claiming the hosts are \u201cthere for the taking\u201d and have \u201cprobably not been firing as well as they have in previous campaigns\u201d.<\/p>\n Ireland head coach Farrell, who selected the 28-year-old for last year\u2019s British and Irish Lions tour, offered a diplomatic response, saying: \u201cHe\u2019s entitled to his opinion first and foremost.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a great lad, Darcy, actually. Obviously, I got to know him in the Lions, so it\u2019s how he feels and obviously how the squad feels, and rightly so, in my opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were outstanding last week against France and we\u2019ve been preparing for another Scottish performance like that. We know that we\u2019ll have to be at our best to beat them as they\u2019re a side that we\u2019ve always respected.\u201d<\/p>\n Ireland must extend their nine-year dominance over Scotland to remain in the title hunt before table-topping France host England in the final match of \u2018Super Saturday\u2019.<\/p>\n The Irish have claimed eight Triple Crowns during the Six Nations era, including three in the past four years, but endured an 18-year drought between 1985 and 2004.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, you would love to dream like that (of championship glory),\u201d said Farrell, who guided Ireland to back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024. \u201cObviously, the rest of it is out of our hands, but there\u2019s something that\u2019s in our hands.<\/p>\n \u201cWe concentrate on our performance first and foremost of trying to win something that\u2019s pretty special to us, that\u2019s the Triple Crown. Over the years, it\u2019s been hard to come by when you\u2019re playing for Ireland, so we\u2019re desperate to make sure that we get across that.\u201d<\/p>\n Townsend: Title bid is out of our hands<\/p>\n By Anthony Brown, Press Association<\/p>\n Gregor Townsend flatly refused to indulge in talk of a first Guinness Six Nations title for Scotland as he outlined the scale of the task still facing his side in their quest to make history.<\/p>\n The Scots go into Super Saturday as one of three teams in the mix for the championship, alongside table-topping France and opponents Ireland.<\/p>\n In short, Scotland must collect more match points in Dublin in the first game of the day than Les Bleus manage against England in the late kick-off in Paris.<\/p>\n Asked if he had allowed himself to ponder leading the Scots to a first title of the Six Nations era, head coach Townsend said: \u201cNo. It\u2019s out of our hands, really. We can only do a certain amount. It\u2019s a game for us to play against an opponent that\u2019s had the upper hand on us for years.<\/p>\n “We\u2019re playing them away from home. They\u2019ve got a brilliant record at home. It\u2019s a challenge but a real opportunity for us to go and deliver an even better performance than we did last week.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be great to finish the championship with a win and finish on a high. That will obviously carry on the momentum and if that means we win the game, we obviously know there\u2019s something at stake.<\/p>\n \u201cThose that have been selected know that it is a big opportunity. It\u2019s not a cup final, there\u2019s not just two teams in this championship, but there is an element of that. It\u2019s the last game of the tournament, so we\u2019ll leave everything out there.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/a> and our WhatsApp channel here<\/a> for all the breaking news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These are your latest rugby headlines on Friday, March 13. Wales won’t discount Faletau Steve Tandy has refused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,43326,101,11537,88685,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-473198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-six-nations","tag-sports","tag-steve-tandy","tag-taulupe-faletau","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473198","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=473198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Content](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_Untitled-11jpeg.jpg\"\/)
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