{"id":8869,"date":"2026-02-18T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=8869"},"modified":"2026-02-18T07:00:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:00:54","slug":"six-nations-2026-hawkins-excited-to-face-scotlands-lions-with-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=8869","title":{"rendered":"Six Nations 2026: Hawkins excited to face Scotland&#8217;s Lions with Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Glasgow combination could be going up against a Scarlets duo if Hawkins and James hold off the challenge of Thomas and fit-again Ospreys centre Owen Watkin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">James, 23 and 6ft 3ins, showed signs of promise with ball in hand against Les Bleus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He had an injury during the off season and since he has come back for the Scarlets he has been really physical in the carry and in defence,&#8221; said Hawkins, who also partnered James for Wales Under-20s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He has brought that into the Six Nations and he is a big man. When you&#8217;ve got people like that in the team you just want to get them on the ball as much as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After shipping 15 tries and 102 points in the first two rounds, Wales clearly have work to do in defence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Hawkins&#8217; playmaking abilities are key to them also posing more questions in attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We talk a lot about being a team that can excite the nation,&#8221; said the centre, who featured at fly-half for Scarlets in the first half of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;A lot of the best teams in the world believe in their style of game and wouldn&#8217;t change. France double down on that and they are one of the best in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;After a couple of disappointing results it&#8217;s not the time to go away from what is working, or going to work, for us moving forward. We just need to keep banging the drum.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Glasgow combination could be going up against a Scarlets duo if Hawkins and James hold off the challenge of Thomas and fit-again Ospreys centre Owen Watkin. James, 23 and 6ft 3ins, showed signs of promise with ball in hand against Les Bleus. &#8220;He had an injury during the off season and since he has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}