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Blair Murray (centre) has been electric since he arrived in Wales. (Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd)<\/p>\nA Wales legend has been singing the praises on one of Wales’ breakout stars from the last 12 monthsBlair Murray (centre) has been electric since he arrived in Wales. (Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd)<\/p>\n
Shane Williams believes Blair Murray can be Wales’ answer to Cheslin Kolbe and Darcy Graham as he backed the Scarlets<\/a> flyer to cause havoc with the returning Louis Rees-Zammit.<\/p>\n Rees-Zammit is back in rugby union following his NFL adventure, crossing for his try for Bristol Bears this weekend<\/a> in their Gallagher Prem Cup clash with his former side Gloucester. In his absence, Murray has stepped up as a dangerman for Wales in the back-three over the course of the last year.<\/p>\n Since making his debut for Wales in the autumn last year, just months after moving to Llanelli<\/a> from New Zealand, Murray has become a regular – already winning 10 caps.<\/p>\n That saw him touted as a potential British and Irish Lions tourist, while he was also included in the United Rugby Championship’s Elite XV at the end of last season.<\/p>\n As well as being named the Scarlets’ players’ player of the year last season, he was also named the Welsh Rugby Writers Association’s young player of the year to cap a remarkable first year in Wales.<\/a><\/p>\n What makes it all the more remarkable is that Murray had previously told WalesOnline that he didn’t even expect to feature for the Scarlets all that much in his maiden campaign, let alone Wales.<\/a><\/p>\n For all the doom and gloom in Welsh rugby right now, the prospect of combining Rees-Zammit and Murray in the Welsh back-three this autumn is at least one positive for new coach Steve Tandy. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.<\/a><\/p>\n “He’s a decent player, he’s explosive,” said former Wales wing Williams. “I love watching Blair play \u2013 he is Wales’ Cheslin Kolbe, Darcy Graham equivalent.<\/p>\n “These are the players I enjoy watching. They are gutsy, brave, work hard, are touchline-to-touchline and don’t shy out of anything.<\/p>\n “These are the quality players that you want to see in your national team. Blair is up there. He works hard.<\/p>\n “Rees-Zammit is a player that they will want to get connected to Blair. There are a lot of good wingers in Wales who have probably been starved of the ball for the last 24 months, with the way that Wales have played the game.<\/p>\n “So he’s another positive in Welsh rugby. I would have liked to see him go on the Lions tour this summer, to be honest with you. That would have given him huge confidence moving forward.<\/p>\n “But he’s just a player I want to see on the ball, connecting with Louis Rees-Zammit. Then it’s dangerous whoever you’ve got on the other wing, whether it’s Josh Adams or someone else. That’s a dangerous back-three in any world rugby team.<\/p>\n “There are positives in this Wales team. There are good players there, not only in the back-three but spread around. We’ve got one of the best nines in Tomos Williams that can get the ball moving quick and get Wales on the front foot.<\/p>\n “They just need to do that as a collective and we’ll see what happens with the new coach coming in. It’s exciting and I’m hoping Steve Tandy can get the best out of all those players.”<\/p>\n Wales are relatively blessed with back-three talent at the minute. As well as Murray and Rees-Zammit, British and Irish Lion Adams looked back to his best in Japan this summer.<\/p>\n Tom Rogers, Ellis Mee, Rio Dyer, Josh Hathaway and Keelan Giles have all pulled on the jersey in recent seasons too, with former Wales centre Tom Shanklin believing it’s an area of strength for Welsh rugby.<\/p>\n “All four teams have got good back-threes on paper,” said Shanklin. “I think all four regions can field really strong back-threes.<\/p>\n “That’s probably the strength and the biggest point of the difference at the moment. If our sides get good go-forward ball, which is quite tough at the moment, then they’re going to be really dangerous.”<\/p>\n Tom Shanklin and Shane Williams are a part of the Premier Sports team showing every game live from the BKT United Rugby Championship. It all starts 26\/27 September with live action from Ulster v Dragons RFC, Scarlets v Munster, Vodacom Bulls v Ospreys and Cardiff v Emirates Lions.<\/p>\n Premier Sports was proud to sponsor the Welsh Rugby Writers Awards 2025 as the destination for club rugby fans with 400+ live rugby games every season including URC, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, Top 14, Japan Rugby League One and MLR from the USA. To join in visit www.premiersports.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Wales legend has been singing the praises on one of Wales’ breakout stars from the last 12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764,14260],"class_list":{"0":"post-441216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales","13":"tag-wales-rugby-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115243030485959230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}