By Gareth James
Scott Williams believes the best thing to happen to George North this season was being dropped by Wayne Pivac.
Ospreys centre Williams – a teammate of North’s for region and country – believes the Lions star has found his best form following that rejection by the Wales coach in autumn and also discovered a new lease of life by moving from wing to centre.
Williams – whose own Wales career has been halted for the time being by back problems – has hailed the performance of North during Wales’ opening Six Nations victory over Ireland on Saturday.
Moving in from his usual wing position, North wore the 13 shirt against the Irish and was heavily involved throughout, scoring Wales’ first try and having a hand in Louis Rees-Zammit’s decisive score.
His friend, 58-cap centre Scott Williams gave his seal of approval to North’s display as he spoke with Rhodri Gomer on S4C’s rugby podcast Y Sgarmes Ddigidol.
Williams said: “He’s a world class player and he’s learnt everything he knows about playing at centre from me (laughs)!
“I texted him saying ‘welcome to the centre’, and you could see he’s a bit more battered and bruised than he would be out on the wing, but I thought he was excellent, in defence and when he got his chances, he took them very well.
“There’s a big difference to defending in the midfield and I personally thought he did very well.
“You have to get the ball in his hands as much as possible and even if you use him as a dummy runner, he pulls two or three defenders in because of his size and power.
“You can use him in so many different ways, and hopefully Wales will use him a lot more with the ball and to create space.
“Winning always helps with your confidence. He started the season with that red card with the Ospreys, then he played that game against France, and after that Wayne did not pick him.
“It’s probably the first time in his career that George has had some proper competition, and he has shown how good he is.
“The best thing that happened to him was not being picked after that France game, I think, because he’s been brilliant for the Ospreys since then and now he’s back to his best. You can see the hunger in him and he wants to get the ball in his hands and play well.”
As Pivac’s side prepare to take on Scotland on Saturday, Williams believes that the depleted Welsh squad will head to Edinburgh with confidence after their hard-fought victory over Ireland.
“It was a good performance against Ireland. There’s so much pressure on you in international rugby, it doesn’t matter how you win, it’s just important to get the victory and that’s what they did.
“The defence was great. It was a very physical game, and you could tell with the amount of injuries that the boys were putting their bodies on the line. Ireland didn’t get through very often and that’s credit to Wales. They will be happy with that and they can build on that now.
“Scotland have some great players. Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg are some of the best players in the world and it was only a matter of time until they were going to get a big win like last weekend.
“It’s going to be a tough game for Wales and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. Being away from home, and being Scotland’s first home match, it’s going to be a good one.
“I think all the boys were battered and bruised after the Ireland game but they need to try and keep the changes as low as possible because they put in a good game and got the win.
“It’s going to be a tough game but I think Wales will win by five points. Every team has one game when they put in their best performance and I’m hoping that Scotland’s best game was last weekend.”
.@George_North He’s done it so many times for Wales, and here’s his latest effort.
‘ , ‘ . pic.twitter.com/JIaVKgO2RJ
— Welsh Rugby Union (@WelshRugbyUnion) February 7, 2021
With Wales having lost Dan Lydiate, Tomos Williams, Johnny Williams and Hallam Amos through injury, Pivac has called in three players from Cardiff Blues – James Botham, Lloyd Williams the uncapped Willis Halaholo.
Botham made his international debut last autumn. He started two games at blindside and one game at openside flanker.
Scrum-half Williams, who has 31 caps, featured three times for Wales last autumn but was originally overlooked for the Six Nations squad.
Centre Halaholo was in line for a Wales debut in 2019, but injury forced him to withdraw from the squad.
Watch S4C’s live coverage of Scotland v Wales from 4pm on Saturday. This week’s episode of Y Sgarmes Ddigidol rugby podcast, featuring Scott Williams, Elinor Snowsill, Nigel Owens and Rhodri Gomer, is available to download from all main podcast providers. Listen to it here: https://ysgarmesddigidol.fireside.fm/10.
