Tomos Williams

Tomos Williams is the scrum-half Wales spent years alternating with someone else and should probably just have picked.

He plays the position at tempo. Ball off the deck quickly, a willingness to snipe when the fringe is unguarded, and a passing game accurate enough that his forwards get it in front of them rather than behind. Gloucester’s attack visibly speeds up when he is on the field.

A Lions call-up in 2025 was the peak, and it was cut short by injury on tour, which has been a recurring theme.

His Test career has been shaped by Welsh selection churn as much as by form. Wales have used four or five nines in the time he has been available, and the stop-start nature of it has never let a settled half-back partnership develop.

He is now the most experienced scrum-half in the squad by some distance, which in the current Welsh rebuild makes him something closer to essential than optional.