Welsh Stars Revitalised International Career Following Brutal Exit

Wednesday, 11 February 2026 at 18:00

byHarry Tovey

Rhys Carré made his return to international rugby for the first time last November and played his first Six Nations match since facing England in 2023 last Saturday.

The loose-head prop returned after falling out of favour with former Wales head coach Warren Gatland ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. This was due to failing to hit individual targets.

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But the 28-year-old has returned, ending his exile from the game in Wales for over two years. This is despite falling beneath the Welsh Rugby Union’s 25-cap rule for players based outside of Wales. Like, Harlequins’ Jarrod Evans last Six Nations, exemptions were made for Carré.

On returning to international rugby, the Saracens player said:

“I left and put all my eggs back in one basket with club rugby.

“Thoroughly enjoyed my time playing for Sarries.

“I guess my form got me back here, and I’m glad to be back.”

The majority of his international outings have been largely from off the bench. He started in the autumn internationals against Argentina and New Zealand. However, his major impact at Test level has been as an impact player later in the contest.

When he played in Twickenham for only the second time as an international last Saturday, the game was already lost when he replaced Nicky Smith. Ill-discipline took centre stage last weekend, with Steve Tandy’s side conceding 16 penalties and four yellow cards.

On the discipline of facing the old enemy, Carré added: “What we have spoken about is, obviously, that the discipline is a big thing, and how we piggybacked them up the pitch.

“We gave them easy ins and didn’t really make them work for it, so that for us is the starting point of how we are going to improve. It’s just cut out the easy ins, which will help the discipline when the pressure is not on us.

“England is a very good team, and you can’t afford easy access to your 22 and stuff without adding pressure to yourselves. I think that took its toll.”

Wales face a French side, which will head to Cardiff on Sunday afternoon (KO: 15:10) following a convincing dispatching of Ireland at the Stade de France.

The reigning champions have been boosted with starman Antoine Dupont making his international return, and Wales have not recorded a win over them since the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Tandy’s side will be hoping for their first win in the Six Nations since facing Italy in Rome in 2023, but the stain of last weekend’s brutality may takes it toll on Sunday.

“You go into every game with confidence,” continued Carré.

“Obviously, the beginning of the game last week didn’t go our way, which then led to more pressure. And pressure then leads to more ill-discipline, so I think if we can put our best foot forward first, then get ourselves into the game and put us in good stead.

“It’s the Six Nations; there are no easy games anymore. We just need to focus on ourselves and get ourselves back into a better place. No one enjoys losing, especially the way we did.

“But, if anything, that gives us more (encouragement) to show that was a one-off.

On whether there will be a reaction this week, he added: “Like I’ve said, we’ve been working on it this week. We’ve reviewed the game, we know where we went wrong and the silly things that we did.

“It’s international rugby, you can’t go into a game thinking ‘here we go again’. We’re all professional rugby players, we’ve all won games all lost games, we know how it feels to win games.

“I think if we’re in the game in the first 20 minutes, like we weren’t last week, then we are going to grow in confidence from that. If we can do that, we can hopefully show a better side of ourselves.

“It’s the same in any game; if you don’t turn up in the first 20 minutes of any game, then you are going to struggle. We know what we need to do, we’ve got our plan, and we go into the game and do it.”