JACOB BEETHAM (CARDIFF RUGBY)
A long-time teammate of Ellis Bevan, exhilarating fullback Jacob Beetham has come through the ranks with his soon to be Welsh campmate. Beetham also gained Wales U20 honours, and made his debut in the aforementioned win over France in the 2020 U20 Six Nations. Apart of the same class of 2020/21 that introduced the likes of Jac Morgan, Mason Grady, Joe Hawkins and Archie Griffin to the Welsh senior squad, Beetham could well become the next player from that group to make their debut under Gatland.
Beetham’s debut for Cardiff came in what could well be described as a baptism of fire. Called into action for the 2021/22 Champions Cup pool stages, Beetham took up the 15 shirt for his first senior Cardiff cap and went up against the likes of Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack for Stade Toulousain. Despite putting out a resilient performance, the now six-time Champions Cup winners proved too dominant for Cardiff, as they ran out a 39-7 win at the Arms Park. This was Beetham’s sole cap of the 2021/22 season, and he would have to wait over a year for his next taste of first team action in blue and black.
Beetham would instead go on to earn his stripes for Cardiff RFC in the Welsh Premiership, yet suffered a devastating ACL injury in September 2022. After a lengthy spell on the sidelines, Beetham returned to Cardiff RFC, as the Welsh Premiership title returned to the nations capital. The fullback would go on to break into the URC squad within this past season, for a total of 17 appearances with six coming as starts. Beetham was also once again reunited with Dupont this season, as Cardiff met Toulouse in the latest Champions Cup pool stages.
Beetham enjoyed a stretch of four consecutive starts for Cardiff, as he impressed despite the defeats to Racing 92, Connacht, Leinster and Glasgow. Gatland has certainly been amongst those to have taken notice of the 23-year-old, who has been amongst Cardiff’s brighter sparks in what has been an underwhelming season by their standards. It will be interesting to see if the young fullback gets the nod for a test debut, and returns to Cardiff alongside Bevan as capped internationals for the 2024/25 campaign.
KEELAN GILES (OSPREYS)
The third call-up on this list comes from the Ospreys, in the form of highly rated winger Keelan Giles. Having made a name for himself across Swansea since 2016, Giles is already an established player to Ospreys fans and could well become a household name across the country this Summer. In January, Giles became the club’s eighth highest try scorer in their history, as he crossed over against the Emirates Lions in the EPCR Challenge Cup to score his 32nd Ospreys try.
Giles has since added four more scores to his tally for the season, and could well etch some additional tries to his total of nine, as the Ospreys embark on the URC Play Off Quarter-Finals this weekend. The Ospreys managed to scrape into the top eight after their Judgement Day derby win against Cardiff last weekend, yet Giles and co are in for a tough test as they take on the league leaders and reigning URC Champions Munster on Friday night.
At 26-years-old, Giles is the oldest of the uncapped four, and he has been a player that Ospreys fans have long been calling for a test match debut. Giles began his Ospreys career in the 2016/17 Pro12 season, and marked his first appearence for the club with a try against Italian outfit Benetton Treviso. Giles was in immense form for his first few matches for the club, as he immediately followed this up with seven tries in three matches against Newcastle Falcons (two tries), Lyon (hat-trick) and Welsh rivals the Dragons (two tries).
Such scintillating form did not go unnoticed by the Wales coaching staff, and Warren Gatland called upon the then 21-year-old for the 2016 Summer tour of New Zealand. Unfortunatly for Giles, he was unable to make a test match cap in the land of the All Blacks, and was later an unused replacement in an Autumn International test against Japan.
In 2017, Gatland was preoccupied with the British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, and Robin McBryde called up Giles for Wales’ Summer tour of the Pacific Islands. However once again, the Ospreys man was unable to get picked for the match day 23s, and had to watch on as Wales took on Samoa and Tonga in some physical encounters.
Whilst Giles has not seen a similar run of scoring since when he arrived in Swansea, he has been one of the Ospreys most consistent players throughout his eight years at the club. However, the one blemish on his resume was the 2019/20 season, which was a tough one for the winger. Giles had a disrupted start to the season, and it was later cut short through injury, which saw him only accrue seven caps for the campaign. Giles’ more recent form has been rivalling that of his first season with the Ospreys, and his long wait for a Welsh cap could finally be coming to an end.
The powerful wing was back at his try-scoring best throughout the latest URC season, and could well cause the heavily favoured Munster some trouble along the touchlines this Friday.