the times | Wednesday January 26 2022 2GM 59
Rugby unionSport
“My tough love has already been
offered [to the players] and it’s like
Valentine’s Day here,” Diamond said.
“It will be 12 months before we are com-
petitive at the top of the table and there
is no reason we cannot be a top side.
“I am used to working with a limited
budget and five out of six years at Sale
we qualified for the Heineken
[Champions] Cup and no one realised
we were working with such a deficit
compared to the rest. Now we are all
equal and nobody can cheat the salary
[cap]. It is [now down to] who is the best
recruiter and coach.”he says. “It’s a business, social media.
It’s hard to compare rugby players to
other sports with it because of the
money in basketball or American
football — you’re adding a lot of
noughts to the end [of salaries].
“[Cristiano] Ronaldo makes more
money on social media than he does
playing football. Every athlete will try
to make as much money as they can.
It’s getting that balance, and making
sure you’re not switching off your
profession for social media.”
He had to learn patience in his
profession two years ago. For the
2020 Six Nations he was called by
Wayne Pivac, the head coach, into the
Wales squad, barely a handful of
Gloucester games under his belt.
Wide-eyed and wanting it all, he
found it difficult waiting for a debut
that never came — Pivac later
admitted that he was far too raw.
Rees-Zammit understands that now.
“I was gutted I didn’t play,” he
explains. “It was the same feeling
when I didn’t play for Wales Under-
16, as I got injured.
“I thought it was the be-all and
end-all, then in the end it worked out
well. Looking back it was the best
thing that could have happened.I
magine being Louis Rees-
Zammit for a moment.
You turn 21 years old next
Wednesday and are already a
British & Irish Lion, Six Nations
champion and World Rugby
Breakthrough Player of the Year
nominee with more than 260,000
followers across your Instagram,
Twitter and TikTok accounts.
This is the reality for the
Gloucester wing, who only left
Hartpury College a couple of years
ago, his life irreversibly altered in a
flash of Rees-Lightning, the nickname
he has embraced. And he can
pinpoint the moment he was
catapulted into public consciousness.
During the Guinness Six Nations
tournament last year, Wales had
scraped past Ireland on the opening
Sunday, a match in which he scored
an acrobatic try, then travelled to BT
Murrayfield. With no fans in the
ground and millions watching on the
BBC, Wales were trailing by four
points ten minutes from full-time.
Rees-Zammit took Uilisi Halaholo’s
pass on halfway, chipped Stuart Hogg
by the Scottish 22, sped past the
Scotland captain and dived on the
bouncing ball. “I gained 70,000
followers overnight after that,” Rees-
Zammit says.
As he sits in the Kingsholm stands
in a black tracksuit, reflecting on the
past two years of his life, his youth is
clear. A small, nervous laugh
punctuates our conversation and his
fresh face is showing little sign of
suddenly sprouting stubble.
He walks tall, clearly starting to fill
out his 6ft 3in frame, but in many
ways he is a boy becoming a man in
the public arena.
It would be easy for a 20-year-old
to be swept away by the hype — but
Rees-Zammit’s family ensure that is
not the case. He lives in a Cardiff flat
with his brother, Taylor, now a Malta
rugby international thanks to their
grandfather’s link to the country.
Every day the boys go round the
corner to the family home for dinner
and to see their dog, Crystal. Maxine
and Joe, their parents, love it.
“My day consists of getting up at
6.45am, an hour and 15 minutes in the
car here, train, then an hour and
15 minutes back,” Rees-Zammit says.
“It’s a long trek every day, but it’s
worth it when I’m home by 4pm and
get to spend the night with my family.
“I chill with Mum, Dad, my brother
and dog. It’s only when I go out
people recognise me. It doesn’t bother
me in the slightest. It’s three seconds
out of your day to maybe make
someone else’s.”
Joe has been on his son’s case
recently. Before Louis scored against
Perpignan on Saturday he had not
claimed a try since November — and
his father jokingly let him know.
“Oh my God, he didn’t stop going
on about it,” Rees-Zammit says,
laughing. “He was rinsing me. He
jokes around with my brother, trying
to give me motivation. I’m not playing
my best rugby so far, so still have a lot
of work to do to get to the levels of
last year.”
That self-awareness is the sign of a
hungry player.
Rees-Zammit may be young but
knows that he operates in two worlds
— the glossy one of social media, in
which it looks like one minute he is in
Tenerife, Antigua or Monaco on
holiday, the next watching his beloved
Manchester United live, and the
reality, in which he is a grounded,
family-oriented grafter who has
spent an hour a day since he was 18
in sprint-training sessions before
team runs.
“I don’t get lost in it [social media],”‘I’m not playing well – I need to work’
“It allowed me to get better in that
environment leading into the autumn,
then the following Six Nations.
Fitness was the struggle. The
repeated efforts, the kick-chase side
of the game I was lacking as I’d never
experienced that before. I’d only
played ten games for Gloucester
so wasn’t experienced.
“Looking at training, and [at]
how good the boys were at
catching high balls and stuff,
took me to the next level.”
Eventually he did make his
debut, in the 2020 Autumn
Nations Cup. Rees-Zammit
thinks those eerie days playing
in front of empty grounds at
Parc y Scarlets helped him.
“It’s probably better I did it
the way I did,” he admits. “It
would have been throwing
me in at the deep end in
front of 75,000 people.”
In last year’s Six Nations
it all clicked. He played in
all five Wales games,
scored four tries, ended
as a champion and a
Lion. But he was not
satisfied having seen
France snatch thegrand slam from his side 85 minutes
into their final game in Paris.
“We were all pretty down after
that,” he remembers of the 32-30 loss.
“It was heartbreaking, then we had to
wait a week. I played for Gloucester
against Newcastle [Falcons] on the
day Scotland played France [their
rescheduled match]. Dad drove me
home in his car, I watched the first
half on his iPad, then got home to my
mum and brother and sat in front of
the TV, watching.
“To win the triple crown was
amazing — but it would’ve been nice
to have won that grand slam. That’s
the mentality you’ve got to have.”
For all he has achieved quickly,
there is no resting on laurels. In fact
he almost seems restless, desperate to
tick off more goals soon.
Asked how he can improve on his
2021, a year of dreams — from the
Lions to making the World Rugby
Breakthrough Player of the Year
shortlist with Australia’s Andrew
Kellaway, England’s Marcus Smith
and the eventual winner, New
Zealand’s Will Jordan — he reels off a
list of desired achievements.
“Grand slam. Championship with
Gloucester. European Challenge Cup.
That would beat my 2021,” he says
determinedly.
The Six Nations is next, a
tournament he has never experienced
properly with supporters. Having
played South Africa, Fiji and Australia
in the autumn — playing to full
houses for the first time on cap
Nos 10, 11 and 12 — he is delighted
that Mark Drakeford, the first
minister of Wales, allowed the
Principality Stadium doors to open in
time, after fans were locked out
over Christmas.
“Thank God. That would
have been the worst,” he says
of the prospect of another
soulless Six Nations. This
will be quite different
from his first Cardiff
match day — for
Llandaff under-15s in
front of 50 parents.
“You can’t hear
your own team
sometimes,” he says.
“It gives everyone a
buzz. It gets you
addicted. You want
to play in front of
all those Welsh fans
every week.”
Burn up the track like he
did last year and his
follower numbers will soar
again. But all that matters to
Rees-Zammit are the on-field
figures.
“My best is still to come,” he says. “I
haven’t hit a peak or anything. Who
knows how fast I can get?” On that
note, it is an exciting time to be in
Rees-Zammit’s jet-heeled boots.Louis Rees-Zammit lit
up last year’s Six Nations
with Wales but has even
bigger aspirations now,
he tells Will Kelleher
Rees-Zammit is targeting European glory with Gloucester and a grand slam with Wales after touring with the Lions, belowStandout attacker
Most tries in the 2021 Six NationsMost clean breaksDuhan van der Merwe (Scot)Louis Rees-Zammit (Wales)Anthony Watson (Eng)Brice Dulin (Fr)David Cherry (Scot)Josh Adams (Wales)Antoine Dupont (Fr)Damian Penaud (Fr)Rees-Zammit
Dupont
Stuart Hogg (Scot)
Van der Merwe
Watson
Source: Opta5 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 9 8 7 7 7Six Nations opening games
Feb 5
Ireland v Wales, 2.15, ITV
Scotland v England, 4.45, BBCFeb 6
France v Italy, 3.0, ITVANDREW FOX FOR THE TIMESagainst Castres, will not be replaced in
camp. Gaëtan Barlot, the France prop
Marler packed down against, has also
tested positive for Covid-19 and has left
his national squad.
Marler joins Farrell (ankle injury)
and May (knee injury) in leaving the
squad. After the second-choice loose-
head prop, Ellis Genge, tested positive
in the autumn, Bevan Rodd, 21, stepped
in against the Wallabies, performing
well enough to retain his place against
South Africa, with Marler on the bench.
May to miss at least two England games
More upheaval followed as the squad
had to be evacuated from the Harbour
Hotel on the Kings Road in Brighton
last night after an electrical fire broke
out in a nearby manhole.
The fire began at 6pm last night and,
while there were no flames in their
hotel, England were later moved to new
accommodation in the city.
May’s knee injury had been troubling
the Gloucester wing for several weeks,
his club coach has revealed. He pulled
out of the England squad on Monday
and is expected to miss at least
England’s first two matches, againstScotland and against Italy in Rome
eight days later. He is seeing a specialist
this week.
“He’s had a niggle for a little while,”
George Skivington, the Gloucester
head coach, said yesterday. “It kept him
out of one game a few weeks ago, it’s just
been chipping away. It got to the point
where he was like, ‘I think we should get
this investigated.’ He’s been managing
his way through it, as senior players do.”
Asked whether he expected May, 31,
to play a part in the Six Nations,
Skivington said: “That’s the hope. He’ll
get a plan for whatever timescale it is.”Diamond’s Worcester vow
Chris JonesSteve Diamond was named Worcester
Warriors’ director of rugby yesterday
and predicted he would make his side
competitive in one year because teams
can no longer “cheat” the salary cap.
The former Sale Sharks director of
rugby officially takes over from Alan
Solomons at the end of the season —
his present title is “lead rugby consult-
ant” — but is already in charge. Jona-
than Thomas, the head coach, has left
the club, who are 12th in the Gallagher
Premiership.continued from back