Gloucester lock Freddie Thomas has said his omission from the latest Wales squad has left him with a point to prove. Thomas scored a try in Gloucester's win over Bath, setting the early pace in the Premiership ahead of a clash with champions Northampton on Saturday, but was left out of Steve Tandy's squad for the upcoming Nations Championship campaign.
Thomas told BBC Radio Gloucestershire that the call was "really disappointing," but that Tandy was clear about what he needs to work on. "It does obviously give me a bit of extra motivation because that's where I want to be - that's what I'm playing for," he said. "It's given me some extra energy and maybe an extra lift that maybe I needed."
Versatility a double-edged sword
While aiming for more consistency, Thomas feels his versatility may have counted against him. "It's something I find quite hard, trying to break through into that consistency in performance, I have still not locked it down yet," he said. "I have still got more to give every week. I am starting to build on those foundations and trying to get better every week and hopefully get back into that Welsh squad."
He added: "I think it has helped me playing both second row and back row (though) having spoken with some of the Welsh coaches it may potentially be hindering me, making me a question mark. For me it's out of my control, I am just trying to play the best I can."
James relishing back-row battle
Exeter flanker Kane James says he is relishing the challenge of breaking into one of the most competitive positions this autumn. Jac Morgan and Aaron Wainwright are expected to feature heavily, with James also facing competition from James Botham, Alex Mann, Taine Basham and Taine Plumtree in the back row.
"It's pretty stacked," James said. "There is good competition but a competitive squad is only going to boost us. It's similar at Exeter, we've got one hell of a back-row. Being more involved in the senior squad has helped me improve massively. I'd like to think that I bring something different with my speed and power. I just like to get my hands on the ball, use my footwork and pace."
Russell lays down gauntlet for Scotland
Finn Russell says Scotland need to start converting their previous near-misses into results this autumn. Russell believes Scotland's display in their 42-28 defeat away to South Africa in July shows they are not far away from contending for glory, but says the hard-luck stories around his team need to be halted.
"I'd definitely say we're in a good place," he said. "We had some good performances in the summer and we just need to kick on from there and try and beat the top teams rather than running them close and losing. We had a big win away from home against Argentina, then travelled to South Africa and ran them close. It was great to have a good performance but that was a game that we had enough chances where we definitely should have won that.
"So there's a lot of positives there but at the same time there's a lot that we need to work on and we need to get better if we're going to start competing to win these tournaments. We can't go off a big win against France to then losing to Ireland like we did in the Six Nations. We need to be stacking these wins one on top of the next. And in the summer we didn't manage to do that after Argentina. We need to be winning these games back to back to challenge to win tournaments."
