Wayne Pivac reacts to Louis Rees-Zammit's return to rugby

562 days after announcing his departure from rugby, Louis Rees-Zammit is parting ways with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars in favour of what he hopes will be a return to the international rugby arena.

Bursting onto the scene as a teenager with freakish athleticism, Rees-Zammit was fast-tracked to the Welsh national team by then-head coach Wayne Pivac, who claims the “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough” selection policy.

The coach oversaw the first two years of Rees-Zammit’s international career, including 2021’s breakout Six Nations campaign. The speedster’s game-breaking exploits on the right wing played a big role in Wales taking home the title.

Fast forward to today, and Pivac is back involved in the community game in Auckland, having spent two years in Japan Rugby League One with the NEC Green Rockets. Just hours after Rees-Zammit’s return announcement, the coach happened to be interviewed on the Kiwi radio station Sport Nation.

“Well, he’s certainly a player who brings the crowd in, and it’s usually females, to be honest,” Pivac joked when asked how big of a win for rugby Zammit’s return is.

“Whether it was for mums or grandmothers, he certainly had a huge following as a youngster; we got hold of him at 19, I think he played Test rugby at 19 or 20. But that guy is the quickest guy that I’ve coached, quicker than any of the Fijian boys. He is absolutely rapid.

“With someone like that, you can’t coach natural speed. So, he’ll be a great asset to get back in. It will be interesting to see if he goes straight back into the Welsh team and makes himself available.”

A club contract is expected to be signed in the coming weeks as the European season nears, and there are plenty of bidders vying for the 24-year-old’s signature.

Unfortunately, during his absence, Welsh rugby’s struggles did anything but dissipate, with just one win, coming against Japan in the recent July Test window, to show for their efforts since the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

With the poor results, crowd numbers have been declining at both club and international levels.

Pivac saw firsthand the troubles within the game, and while he hopes Rees-Zammit can inject some life into the scene, he was blunt with his diagnosis of the broader issues.

“Look, I was there nine years, and not a lot changed in those nine years. We’re having the same conversations, it’s just that I was speaking from the Welsh point of view, rather than the regional point of view.

“A lot of the issues around the funding, the development of the game, the lower level, they just haven’t moved on. Whereas other countries have.

“You’ve still got the old clubs that don’t want to amalgamate. There are the regions, where they’re positioned. A lot of young talent is going across the border. They’re eligible for Wales and England; they’re making themselves available for England.

“And just the money in the game is drying up. It’s not what it used to be, so it’s pretty tough.

“I know the contracts we were playing players, and in some cases, they’ve dropped a huge amount. Guys who were on hundreds of thousands of pounds are now on less than one hundred thousand playing club rugby.

“So, it’s a sad state of affairs.”