Against Scotland Wales hooker, Dewi Lake made his first Six Nations appearance in three years. He last featured for Wales in the 2022 Championship against Italy where he started and yesterday played his first game of the Six Nations after recovering from a bicep injury.
The 25-year-old in the summer and autumn campaigns of last year captained Wales, but he sustained the injury after his club side, Ospreys’ defeat to Montpellier. That then left Lake facing a third consecutive year without Six Nations rugby, but early into the second half against Scotland he replaced Elliot Dee to change that.
“I can’t thank physios and backroom staff enough for the work they’ve put into me and the work we’ve done, behind the scenes, and the coaches and the boys as well, welcoming me, back into the squad,” said Lake.
“It’s been an excellent couple of weeks back in with the boys, so, yeah, obviously nice to play my first Six Nations in a few years, but again, a lot of credit to the physios and backroom staff for the help on this one.”
Despite an attempted comeback from his side in the second half, with tries from Ben Thomas, Teddy Williams and Max Llewellyn it wasn’t enough as it saw Wales fall to their 16th consecutive defeat. A strong first half performance meant that the Scots had just enough to win 35-29 as Wales picked up two losing bonus points.
“It’s probably disappointment,” admitted Lake.
“Like, look, obviously we’re proud of the performance, the character we showed. We probably made it a little bit too easy for Scotland on times penalty count and didn’t have to work for much once they got into our 22 to score points.
“But, flip side of that, our conversion rate was excellent. We had one entry into the 22 in the first half scored and then in the second half, took a lot of our opportunities to get points.
“And again, the character that this group has shown, I think not just today but through the whole competition, is something we can be quite proud of.
“Obviously we’re not over the finish line yet, which is ultimately where we want to be. But, there’s a lot of positives to take from that.”
After they host Italy this afternoon at Allianz Stadium (Twickenham), Steve Borthwick’s England side will travel to Principality Stadium for their final Six Nations match.
“There’s no need to get up for a game like that, is it,” added Lake.
“It’s going to do that for itself, but it’s about being accurate. And, you know, the things that went wrong today, correcting those things, and what we did well, keeping those in place because they’re quality England side. So, yeah, we’d be looking to obviously get that win. That’s been evading us for a while.
“The crowd being behind you in the Principality, you know, hostile environment, I guess for opposition players, it definitely makes a hell of a difference.
“I think it felt when Scotland got a few tries ahead, the crowd shift in the stadium, you kind of felt that on the field and in the stand.
“So I think it makes a massive difference,” concluded Lake.
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