Wales coach Warren Gatland might have described his team’s victory over Georgia as “ugly and messy”, but that assessment did not include Louis Rees-Zammit’s individual brilliance in scoring a hat-trick of tries.
The Welsh side led 17-7 at half-time in Nantes, before Rees-Zammit swept into action, scoring his first try before the Georgians responded with two of their own.
The 22-year-old Gloucester winger then chased on to a Liam Williams chip for his second, before outsprinting the defence to reach his own kick ahead and grab a third.
“I’m happy to score, happy to score a hat-trick,” said Rees-Zammit after Wales wrapped up their Pool C play unbeaten with a 43-19 victory.
“But the most important thing is the result and getting the five points.
“It’s my first hat-trick for Wales as well. It’s great to do it in a World Cup.”
His trademark chip and chase, he added, was not easy to master.
“It’s quite hard to kick at full pace. I do practise that skill a lot and I’ve just got to try and execute it in matches because sometimes you only get one chance.”
The hat-trick took Rees-Zammit’s try tally at the World Cup to five, second in the try-scorers’ list.
“It would be good to get top try-scorer. That is a goal of mine, but as long as we keep winning these games that’s all that matters. As long as I’m helping the team, that’s what counts,” he said.
More ball to have a crack
Gatland said he wanted to get even more from his winger, who, ever the showman, mimicked football star Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Siuuu’ goal-scoring celebration after crossing for a try against Portugal.
“I’d like to see him with a little bit more ball in hand and having a bit of a crack,” said the Kiwi coach, whose side also beat Portugal, Australia and Fiji in pool play.
“You see the pace he’s got and he’s very skilful for that kick-and-chase. He’s still a player with a huge amount of potential.”
“He’s still young, we think he can get better and better.”
Rees-Zammit, capped 31 times, agreed with his coach
“I haven’t had much ball in hand. When I do get it, I need to create something.”
“Thankfully, I got the hat-trick and I got an assist. That’s great.”
Wales co-captain Dewi Lake said Rees-Zammit had “impressed a lot of people”.
“Sometimes you look at him and it doesn’t look like he’s putting any effort in running. When I try to run that quick it doesn’t look as smooth or silky!” the hooker said.
“Louis has always been a very dangerous attacking player.”
“But the way he gets at the end of kicks and his effort-based work in terms of chasing kicks and wanting to be the first player to the ball, has been huge for us and it paid dividends for us today.”
Electric pace
Lock Will Rowlands said the winger’s pace made it easier for the team.
“Give the ball to Zammo in a bit of space and you can almost stop running. Just let him run it in. He’s electric and great to have him in the side,” Rowland said.
“Zammo has probably been a bit frustrated the last few weeks with not getting the ball enough but he was great. If we can get the ball to him more then we know he’ll score more tries.”
Turning to the quarter-finals in Marseille next weekend, Rees-Zammit said the bonus-point win over Georgia, albeit marred by a World Cup-ending broken arm for No 8 Taulupe Faletau, had been just the tonic.
“We’re absolutely buzzing with the result. It builds a nice momentum,” he said.
“We’re getting the job done and really looking forward to the quarter-finals.”
Gatland said he was happy Rees Zammit had not been struggling with niggling injuries as has been the case in the past.
“I’ve been taking the mickey out of him because he’s trained every day for six weeks now without missing a training session,” he said.
“We’re getting the best out of him by having him play and train every day. We’re seeing the benefits of that and we’ve been pleased with his progress.”
