Taine Plumtree playing for Wellington
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Wales have included uncapped back row forward Taine Plumtree as injury cover in their squad for a two-week training camp in Switzerland.
Plumtree, who was born in Swansea but raised in New Zealand, is also eligible for South Africa through his mother.
He recently signed for Welsh club Scarlets having spent the recently completed Super Rugby season with the Auckland Blues and provincial rugby with Wellington.
“Given 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,” coach Warren Gatland said.
“He’s a six foot five 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 know how excited he is to get the opportunity and take that chance with us out in Switzerland.”
Wales have two Rugby World Cup warm-up fixtures against England and another versus South Africa ahead of the global showpiece competition in France that begin on Sept. 8.
The warm-up matches are to be played on consecutive Saturdays from Aug. 5, with England their opponents in the first two.
He’s the son of ex-Swansea head coach and All Blacks assistant John Plumtree.
He represented New Zealand at the 2019 World Rugby U20 Championship, where he played against Wales, but has not been capped at senior level.
He went on to make his Super Rugby debut for the Blues in 2021 and has continued to impress for Wellington, including a hat-trick of tries against Northland.
-Reuters
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