Rhys Carre: Wales coach Wayne Pivac warns Cardiff prop about conditioning targets
- Published
Rhys Carre has played 17 internationals for Wales
Wales head coach Wayne Pivac says Rhys Carre needs to work on his conditioning after the Cardiff prop was omitted from the autumn international squad.
Pivac has preferred Gareth Thomas, Nicky Smith and Rhodri Jones as loose-head prop options with Wyn Jones ruled out through injury.
Carre, 24, came on as a replacement in the first Test of a 2-1 series defeat by South Africa in the summer.
Wyn Jones replaced Carre on the bench for the next two games in the series.
"Rhys went to South Africa and he was given a brief coming back to what we expected from him in terms of general conditioning and getting himself in the right shape to play international rugby," said Pivac.
"He's fallen short of that so he has got a lot of hard work to do with his club."
Carre has been a regular this season for Cardiff and was impressive in the derby wins against Scarlets and Dragons.
He created a try against Scarlets and scored against Dragons with a powerful burst.
"He is having some big moments in games which is clear for everyone to see, but at Test level, it's about 60 minutes or 20 minutes of intense rugby," added Pivac.
"The levels of conditioning that you have to get to [in order] to survive in our camps, he hasn't quite reached those."
Cardiff defence coach Richard Hodges says Carre has impressed this season.
"Rhys is getting some good game-time at the minute," said Hodges
"He's got Corey Domachowski, Brad Thyer and young Rhys Barrett behind him. There is some genuine competition for that No.1 shirt.
"Rhys has benefited from playing week after week.
"The Welsh coaches are very much entitled to their opinion and if Rhys keeps performing like he did on the weekend, I'm sure he'll remain a part of their discussions going forward.
"He's a power athlete. There aren't many people as big as he is. There are some very good loose-heads across Wales but there are the likes of Gareth Thomas, who has got the shirt at the moment.
"But if Rhys just keeps doing what he's doing, he's got work-ons like every single player in our squad has, he'll remain part of those discussions if he keeps playing as consistently as he is at the minute."
Hodges was asked about Pivac's suggestion that Carre's fitness needs to improve.
"As a coach, my priority is to improve him as a player," added Hodges.
"Everyone will have opinions on Rhys on both sides of the ball but if he can keep producing moments like he did for his try on the weekend and use his 138 kilos effectively, then there's not many other big men like him in Wales.
"He just needs to stay part of those discussions with Wayne Pivac and his group and I'm sure he is."
Cardiff flanker Thomas Young and Dragons back row Ross Moriarty have also been left out.
"In terms of Ross, it was a tough conversation because he has just come back from injury," said Pivac.
"He's a hard-nosed player and we all know what he's done in 50-odd Tests.
"Again, this was the last opportunity for us to have a look at others.
"We've got some quality players who will miss out but it's not as if we've selected this squad to find out if Ross is good enough to play Test rugby.
"We know he is good. His target is the Six Nations. We've asked him to work on a couple of things in his game which he'll go away and work hard on."
Pivac outlined why Justin Tipuric, Josh Macleod, Tommy Reffell and Jac Morgan had been preferred to Young.
"Thomas was up against Tommy and Jac and we've gone with the other two," added Pivac.
"I think if you look at the Josh Navidi type of player, we think in Josh Macleod he's potentially that type of player, and also Justin Tipuric can play more than just seven.
"I think he can play six and he can play eight at a pinch as well."