Gatland brings in Plumtree

SQUAD UPDATE: Wales head coach Warren Gatland has added a player to his training squad.

The uncapped Taine Plumtree, who Scarlets last week unveiled as a new signing, has been called up.

The Swansea-born Plumtree, 23, met up with his Wales teammates at Heathrow airport on Monday to travel to Switzerland for a two-week training camp.

Taine is the son of Sharks head coach John Plumtree.

John is a former Swansea head coach and All Blacks and Ireland assistant coach.

🎙 Warren Gatland on the addition of Taine Plumtree to the squad headed to Switzerland 👇#WelshRugby

— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@WelshRugbyUnion) July 4, 2023

“We’ve called up Taine Plumtree to the squad to give him an opportunity,” said Gatland

“I spoke to Taine about three weeks ago about the possibility; he was in discussions with the Scarlets about signing for them.

“He seemed pretty excited. He’s born in Swansea, has come through the New Zealand system and also eligible for South Africa as well with a South African mum.”

Gatland added: “For us, given that we’ve had Josh Macleod pull out of the squad due to injury, some players unavailable and Taulupe Faletau has picked up a bit of an injury, we thought it was a great opportunity for Taine to come in.

“He’s a six foot five [196cm] back-row forward, we don’t have a lot of those here in Wales.

“He’s 23, whether he makes the World Cup squad or not he’s definitely a player we want to keep in mind for the future.

“Potentially, that’s later down the track with the Six Nations, but he gets a chance to come in and we just know how excited he is to get the opportunity to come in and take that chance with us out in Switzerland.”

Following the training camp in Switzerland the squad will have a few days off before reconvening for a training camp in Turkey running July 23 to 31.

Wales then have three warm-up Test matches against England (home and away on August 5 and 12) and South Africa (August 19 at Millennium Stadium) before the official 33-player squad to head to Rugby World Cup 2023 in France is named.