Tandy excited to bring Carre in from the cold

Steve Tandy expressed his joy at having Rhys Carre back in his first team as head coach of Wales.

Carre, 27, hasn’t represented his country since 2023 and, as a result, was ineligible under the Welsh Rugby Union’s selection policy because he has 20 caps, five short of the number needed to represent clubs outside of Wales.

However, there are flaws, as demonstrated by Wales’ decision to select Jarrod Evans for the Six Nations earlier this year despite the Harlequins fly-half having only 25 caps because he was unable to receive a fair offer to stay with his former club Cardiff.

Carre, who left Cardiff last year to join Saracens for a second time, appears to be doing the same.

Under former Wales head coach Warren Gatland, he was shuffled, but Tandy is happy to have the prop back.

He has been given a play-by-pass by the Professional Rugby Board. The former Scotland defense coach expressed real excitement that we could use him for our purposes and that we could bring him into the fall.

Carre will return to Wales in 2026 after playing for Wales for the first three years.

Tandy claims that he did not influence his decision to recall the prop.

He declared, “I never want to be a coach who merely captures people.” That’s not how I want to work or how I should look at it.

Rhys is playing well, and I think we can overlook the fact that he is having a significant impact while playing for one of Europe’s top clubs. He appears to be thoroughly enjoying his rugby.

You can tell from his play that the dynamic and set-piece elements are present. You saw him break down the wing and dump the inside during the weekend in the 79th minute.