RISSING TO THE CHALLENGE
HOW DO you follow a fifth-place finish in the Six Nations and a first-ever home defeat by Italy? For Wales, you take on the world champions by heading on a three-Test tour to South Africa – a place Wales have never won. There are surely easier ways to regroup!
Still, those players travelling in Wayne Pivac’s squad are eager to prove they are a better team than they showed in the championship. Amongst them are Dragons locks Ben Carter and Will Rowlands. The pair’s rugby journeys are somewhat different – Carter has worked his way through Wales’ age groups and made his Test debut a year ago aged 20, while Rowlands didn’t win his first cap until 28 having studied economics and management at Oxford before taking up a professional contract at Wasps. But both are in the second-row mix for this tour and are hoping to help revive the Dragons’ fortunes next season too.
Over the page they talk lineouts, learnings and long-term goals…
