-Credit:Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd
Gloucester Rugby have made a cheeky dig at Warren Gatland after he omitted Max Llewellyn from the squad.
The Kiwi boss decided to leave out Llewellyn, who has been enjoying a fine season for the Cherry and Whites. He started every match for Wales in the autumn internationals, so it came as a surprise that he wasn’t involved.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Gloucester posted a video compilation of Llewellyn’s tries this season, accompanied with the caption: ‘The Gallagher Premiership’s top try-scorer, Max Llewellyn (alongside a winking emoji).’ The post came just 90 minutes after Gatland revealed his squad.
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Explaining why he left him out, Gatland said Llewellyn, who turns 26 today, was unlucky.
“He’s pretty unlucky in terms of that,” said Gatland.
“For us, there’s a lot of quality 12s around. 13 is the one position we haven’t got depth. With Joe being there as an option with the left foot, we’ll see how he’ll go. We were limited a bit. We were going to pick 33, but we picked 34 as we’re going to France for a week for a camp.
“He’s been spoken to in terms of that (improving). For him, there’s probably an opportunity to get more touches and get his hands on the ball. He didn’t have any touches against South Africa. He’s got to continue doing what he’s doing. There was a long discussion about midfield and getting experience in there, trying to get a real balance in the team.”
Llewellyn came through the Cardiff Rugby academy and represented Wales U20s. After becoming a regular in the Cardiff senior team, he signed for Gloucester in 2023. His father Gareth represented Wales 92 times.