The Wales winger Louis Rees-Zammit has stunned the rugby world on the eve of the Six Nations by announcing a career switch to American football with immediate effect. The 22‑year‑old made the bombshell announcement shortly before the Wales squad was named and he will leave for Florida this week to join the NFL’s International Player Pathway.
Aside from cross-code transfers to rugby league, few international players have quit rugby to play another sport in more abrupt fashion. Rees-Zammit said it had long been his “dream” to play in the NFL and his club Gloucester have agreed to release him. The NFL International Player Pathway offers elite athletes from around the world the opportunity to earn a place on an NFL roster.
Even the Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, only discovered the news shortly before a scheduled lunchtime press conference. “I learned about it about an hour ago,” Gatland said. “There’s never a dull moment in Welsh rugby. I spoke to Louis probably about half an hour ago. It’s a little bit of a shock. Things have happened pretty quickly in the last 24 hours.”
Gatland said that Rees-Zammit had been advised by his lawyers to reveal nothing to anyone. “Louis said he had an approach on Sunday to go and do a training camp with the NFL,” the Wales head coach said. “He rang me to give me that information and to say thanks for his time at the World Cup. He said he’s always dreamed of potentially playing in the NFL and feels that if he doesn’t take this opportunity now it might not happen again in the future.
“I wished him all the best. I’ve always been a great believer in players taking opportunities that are presented for them. I said if it doesn’t work out, what are your next steps? He said he’d come back to rugby. He just feels there’s an opportunity for him and a time to do that.”
Rees-Zammit must now hope that skipping rugby’s oldest international tournament pays longer‑term dividends. The British & Irish Lions winger scored a fine solo try for Gloucester against Edinburgh at the weekend but rather than heading into Wales’s pre-Six Nations camp he is now off to Miami in pursuit of a very different goal.
“It is nothing about rugby, it is about my ambition to make my dream come true and play in the National Football League,” Rees‑Zammit told Gloucester’s website. “As a little boy my dad always brought me up to be a big NFL fan. He used to play American football … that is the sport he grew up loving.
“I have had the incredible honour of playing rugby for my country which, as a proud Welshman, I’ve never taken for granted. However, I believe that this is the right time for me to realise another professional goal of playing American football in the US. Those opportunities don’t come around very often.”
Gloucester’s chief executive, Alex Brown, said the club wished him well. “We understand the size of the opportunity. Whilst we are naturally sad to see him leave, ultimately, we are not able to dissuade him.”
The timing, even so, is striking, with Wales due to open their Six Nations campaign against Scotland a sold-out Principality Stadium on 3 February. Rees-Zammit’s reasoning is that the 10-week training camp in Miami, which is set to determine if he has an immediate gridiron future, commences this month. He has until April to prove his worth and, if selected for an NFL practice squad, would join them in August.
Several rugby players have tried their luck in American football over the years, the most recent being Christian Wade who earned a place on the Buffalo Bills pre-season roster for 2019 but never played an NFL regular‑season game. He has subsequently returned to rugby with Racing 92 in France.
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Rees-Zammit’s bolt from the blue overshadowed Gatland’s decision to pick a 21-year-old captain in Exeter’s Dafydd Jenkins, the second youngest Welshman to lead his country. There is also a recall for James Botham, grandson of the England cricket legend Lord (Ian) Botham, in the back row, alongside five uncapped players, the Cardiff quartet of Alex Mann, Mackenzie Martin, Evan Lloyd and Cameron Winnett plus the Bath tighthead prop Archie Griffin. The experienced Taulupe Faletau will sit out the Six Nations with a calf injury, however, with the influential Jac Morgan and Dewi Lake missing as well. The Cardiff-born Exeter wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is a further absentee, the player having expressed his wish to represent England instead.
Scotland, meanwhile, have named the former England prop Alec Hepburn in their Six Nations preliminary squad. The 30-year-old Exeter prop won six England caps in 2018 but, having not played Test rugby for three years, is now eligible via his Scottish-born father. Sale’s distinctly rapid ex-England U20 winger Arron Reed and Leicester’s tight-head prop Will Hurd of Leicester have also been included but there is no room for the recent British & Irish Lions Hamish Watson and Chris Harris.
• This article was amended on 17 January 2024. A previous version referred to “Sir Ian Botham”, rather than Lord Botham.
