Six Nations 2025: These are the moments why you play - Wales' Will Rowlands
2025-01-31
Category: sports

Men's Six Nations: France v WalesVenue: Stade de France Date: Friday, 31 January Kick-off: 20:15 GMTCoverage: Listen live on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC 5 Live; text commentary and highlights on BBC Sport website and app; watch on S4C.
Running out into the cauldron of the Stade de France can be daunting, but crowd hostility is something Wales lock Will Rowlands has come to embrace.The 80,000 capacity stadium is just a short jaunt across Paris from where Rowlands is based with Top 14 side Racing 92."It's normally an incredible atmosphere there. We are kicking off the Six Nations and playing a great French team so it's very exciting," said the 33-year-old. "These are the moments why you play professional rugby. "It adds a bit of shine for me definitely playing in France and going back there with my national side to play the French national side."There will be a few interested colleagues that's for sure."
Rowlands is in his second season with Racing having joined from Dragons in 2023.He previously said it had been "an absolute joy" playing in France given the passion of the fans, but he hopes Wales can find a way to silence them come Friday night. "The crowd get noisy when they're [ France are playing] loose all-attacking rugby," Rowlands said."You silence the crowd by trying to limit that and attack them both when you have the ball and when you don't have the ball."
Rowlands welcomes some fans not giving Wales much of a hope against a French side which welcomes back world-class half-backs Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack."Perfect. I think that's the perfect place for us," he said, "just go there with little expectation. "There is only one way out, one way up."Wales are on a run of 12 consecutive Test losses, but are boosted by the return of experienced players like Liam Williams and Josh Adams for this year's championship. Rowlands admits it has been a difficult 12 months of development."We didn't see the results of that as we wanted to in the autumn, and hopefully there have been some lessons taken and we'll be judged ultimately by the results in the Six Nations," he said."I think everyone is confident that we can put together some performances at the very least, that will give a lot of confidence and some inspiration going forward."