While Louis Rees-Zammit hopes his rugby career is behind him as he tries to forge a future in the NFL, he is keeping a close watch on Wales’ fortunes without him – PA/David Davies
All roads lead to March 20 for Louis Rees-Zammit, the pivotal date at the end of his 10-week stint in the NFL’s International Player Pathway programme where the Wales wing will carry out a number of drills in front of NFL team scouts at the University of South Florida. It feels as a big as any Test match he has played in for Wales, knowing full well that if he can impress and do enough to be assigned a roster spot for the coming season as an international player – or, even better, potentially be drafted outright by a team during the NFL draft at the beginning of April – then the door on his dream to play in the NFL will remain open. The stakes could not be higher.
When Rees-Zammit played his last game for Gloucester against Edinburgh back on Jan 13, he told George Skivington, Gloucester’s head coach, that in his mind that would be the last game of rugby he would ever play. He will always be good enough to walk back into rugby if he wants to, having been the youngest player on tour with the British and Irish Lions in 2021. But to succeed in the NFL? He cannot think that there is a safety net.
“You can’t have any doubts going into this. It’s one of the toughest leagues in the world to get into. If you have any doubt in your head, you are never going to make it,” says Rees-Zammit, speaking on this week’s episode of the Telegraph Rugby Podcast. “We have great coaches here to really lead us on to make it in the NFL and ultimately it’s up to us to learn on the field, in the classroom, to perform in front of the scouts.”
Louis Rees-Zammit is pursuing his NFL dream but admits he was jealous of the players turning out for Wales at Twickenham – Instagram/@lrzammit
Rees-Zammit and the other international players in the IPP, including former Northampton Saints back Harry…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/louis-rees-zammit-m-telling-160119743.html
Author : The Telegraph
Publish date : 2024-03-11 16:01:19
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