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Getting to know: Wales U20s full-back Cameron Winnett

(Photo by Liam Heagney)

Good news in Welsh rugby is hard to come by in 2023. Even their U20s were mired by negativity, finishing with the wooden spoon in this year’s age-grade Six Nations. However, their appointment of Mark Jones as interim head coach has had a galvanising effect and there have been some green shoots at the ongoing Junior World Championship.

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Cameron Winnett is one the improving Wales youngster, playing his part in the agonising one-point near-miss versus New Zealand at Paarl and then finishing strongly at Stellenbosch to secure a win over Japan ahead of next Tuesday’s pool-closing clash with France in Athlone.

If the Winnett name sounds vaguely familiar from the past to rugby fans, it is because he made his Heineken Champions Cup debut for Cardiff in December 2021, scoring after just four minutes in a tie at Harlequins that was played despite Dai Young and his front-line squad all being unavailable after getting caught up in South Africa in yet another lockdown.

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RugbyPass caught up with Winnett at the Wales team hotel in Cape Town and in a quickfire round of questions he revealed he loved watching Israel Folau when he was growing up, that he wants to sometime play with Cheslin Kolbe, and that he harbours the ambition of adding goalkicking to his repertoire:

THE BASICS
Born: January 7, 2003;
Joined Wales age-grade: Last year at 20s;
Club: Cardiff;
Position: Full-back;
Boots: Nike Tiempo;
Gumshield: I don’t wear one. I just never have really;
Headgear: No;
School: Coleg y Cymoedd.

RATE YOURSELF (out of 100)
Pace: 70;
Passing: 80, 85 maybe;
Tackling: 75.

THE PAST
My favourite Wales player of all time is… Leigh Halfpenny.

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Favourite try I have ever scored is… Against Harlequins.

A rugby memory that makes me smile is…  Making my first appearance in URC for Cardiff.

The moment I realised I could make it is… The Harlequins game, my first senior game.

One piece of advice I would give to my younger self is… Cherish every moment.

My best subject in school was… PE.

The first player who made me fall in love with rugby is… I loved Israel Folau growing up and Leigh Halfpenny and Liam Williams.

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Growing up, my position was… Centre and then full-back.

The coach who has most impacted my game is… Dan Fish.

THE PRESENT
My best attributes on the field are… My stepping.

One thing I’m doing to improve my education is… Not at the minute. Sorry.

My favourite current Wales player is… Mason Grady.

My favourite YouTuber is… KSI.

My hardest working teammate is… Morgan Morse.

My most skilful teammate is… Louie Hennessey.

My favourite training drill is… One v ones.

My favourite music artist is… Probably Drake.

THE FUTURE
A player who could go all the way is… Morgan Morse.

If I could play with anyone, I would like to play with… Cheslin Kolbe.

I will be happy with my career if I… Play international seniors.

I want to make a difference by… Helping my team win.

One thing I want to add to my game is… Goalkicking.

If I could get a degree in anything I would choose… Not sure, sorry.

I would be a better player if I… Got bigger.

If I could play in any other country, I would play in… France.

One person I want to meet is… Cheslin Kolbe.

One trophy I would love to win is… Heineken Champions Cup.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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