By Steffan Thomas

Josh Adams has forged himself a reputation as one of the best wings in world rugby, but he is prepared to add more strings to his bow.

The Cardiff star has scored 17 tries in 34 Test matches for Wales and is one of the first names on Wayne Pivac’s team sheet.

Centre is somewhat of a problem position for Pivac, and while the return of George North for the Six Nations will come as a huge boost, Wales need to develop more options especially in the number 13 jersey.

Adams is known as a deadly finisher, but he is also a strong distributor with a lot of peripheral vision and reads the game well, defensively.

And Pivac evidently sees the qualities in Adams which are needed to move from wing to centre, with the 26-year-old originally named to start at 13 against Fiji before a calf injury forced him to pull out in the warm-up.

“I was disappointed that my calf and Achilles issue played up in the warm-up,” said Adams.

“I was really looking forward to it. I had a good week’s prep in the centre, and I’d enjoyed it.

“It was a new challenge for me, and it was exciting. The injury I picked up was out of my control. It was one of those obnoxious, crazy things that I’d never had before and it was unknown, so we couldn’t really pinpoint what it was. It was more precautionary.

 

How good is this from @Cardiff_Rugby?!

Without a staggering 42 players as they welcome the reigning European champions Toulouse, but they are not backing down!

Josh Adams gets the first try of the game 👊#HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/nv86CzTTJW

— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) December 11, 2021

“But I was quite annoyed with myself for picking that up because I was super-excited to play in the centre against Fiji. Wayne didn’t pinpoint a specific thing he wanted me to bring.

“It’s about the way we go about things as a team, so just my usual stuff, really. I would have slotted in and had, potentially, more touches of the ball.

“Maybe I would have more responsibility in terms of being a voice in the defensive line. Usually, our 12 or 13 is our defensive leader.

“But he wanted me to play my game, get my hands on the ball as many times as I could, and put the boys outside me into space as much as I can.”

There are many examples of world class wingers moving in field as their careers progress. New Zealand great Ma’a Nonu started his Test career on the wing before moving to centre and current All Blacks superstar Rieko Ioane has recently done similar.

From a Welsh point of view, North was widely regarded as one of the world’s leading back three players, but has been a revelation since moving to outside centre.

Adams believes he would be more than capable of moving into the midfield at Test level should the need arise in the future.

“It’s called getting older and slower!,” joked Adams.

 

All 👀 on Josh Adams #SixNations pic.twitter.com/UpxyTG4EAM

— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) February 1, 2020

“No, the positions are different but, in some scenarios, they are not too different. You are asked to make more defensive reads around set plays at 13.

“In attack, you are also utilised more as a gain line option. But then again, in modern rugby most wingers are certainly gain line threats as well coming off their wings.

“There isn’t too much difference. One major difference I found in the few weeks training I had at 13 was back field stuff.

“As a wing, you are fixated on making sure your back field coverage is right, your kick reception and all that stuff. When you move into the centre, your job isn’t to worry about that.

“It’s more to defend the front line and make sure you are connected to the guys outside you. You find yourself turning to run and then remember you are actually playing in the centre.

“So, it’s small things like that that take a bit of getting used to.”

With the Six Nations just under two months away, France and Ireland will be considered favourites given the way they both comprehensively beat New Zealand, while England will also be confident having overcome world champions South Africa.

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Here’s a look at that first Wales try of the afternoon by Josh Adams 👏#SixNations #bbcrugby pic.twitter.com/qp8mkZpTZ1

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) March 9, 2019

 

Despite being the reigning champions, few people are giving Wales much hope of defending their title after an autumn campaign which posed more questions than answers, and yielded two victories against Fiji, and Australia respectively with both sides falling foul of red cards.

But Adams insists Wales thrive on being underdogs and has warned their rivals to underestimate them at their peril.

He said: “I would be happy to be deemed as underdogs. I am sure the squad would as well.

“It’s that how we were deemed as last year, then it worked out pretty well. As a group, we know where we want to go.

“We are going in the right direction, and we have a few players coming back from injury, so strength is improving. I think we’ll be in a good spot.”