{"id":27518,"date":"2026-03-27T16:27:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/louis-rees-zammit-bristol-and-wales-back-feeling-more-comfortable-at-full-back\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T16:27:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:27:31","slug":"louis-rees-zammit-bristol-and-wales-back-feeling-more-comfortable-at-full-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/louis-rees-zammit-bristol-and-wales-back-feeling-more-comfortable-at-full-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Rees-Zammit: Bristol and Wales back feeling &#8216;more comfortable&#8217; at full-back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rees-Zammit is set to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c9d45lzzvx6o\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">return to Wales&#8217; Principality Stadium<\/a> on Saturday when Bristol take on Harlequins, having swapped their home in Ashton Gate for their second showpiece outing at the ground. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has played at full-back before &#8211; making one start for former club Gloucester and three for Wales there &#8211; and says he will play wherever the coach wants to play him going forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Both Pat [Lam, Bristol director of rugby] and Steve [Tandy, Wales head coach] have said at the start of the season that they want me to play full-back so that&#8217;s the plan for now,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s very interchangeable now playing full-back and wing \u2013 in terms of long-term future, I&#8217;m happy for either.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bristol&#8217;s fast-paced, aggressive, running-rugby style was cited as a big part of why Rees-Zammit joined the club and he has already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cx2pmmld09vo\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">extended his initial deal to stay beyond this season<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said the way the Prem club play allows him to &#8220;get a lot of touches&#8221; on the ball which was starting to creep into Wales&#8217; style, particularly during the win over Italy in their final Six Nations game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You&#8217;ve seen that a bit more in the Italy game, I thought I got a lot more touches, a bit more space, so I&#8217;m loving playing full-back,&#8221; Rees-Zammit said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I really enjoy it, it allows me to have a lot of freedom. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Playing here [at Bristol] especially, the boys are real good in terms of giving me ball in space and that&#8217;s when I can be effective.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When Rees-Zammit returned to rugby he said he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/czxk5xkeyjgo\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">felt &#8220;faster&#8221;<\/a> than he was when he left the sport in 2024 and he insisted that now the initial &#8220;rusty phase&#8221; has been shaken off he is &#8220;excited&#8221; to see what he can do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m only 25 so I wouldn&#8217;t say I&#8217;ve even hit my prime in my career yet,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m still learning off my team-mates, off the coaches, trying to get better every day in training. Whatever it takes to become one of the best players in the world &#8211; which is my goal \u2013 I&#8217;m going to continue to do every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cwyjwq98wj0o?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rees-Zammit is set to return to Wales&#8217; Principality Stadium on Saturday when Bristol take on Harlequins, having swapped their home in Ashton Gate for their second showpiece outing at the ground. He has played at full-back before &#8211; making one start for former club Gloucester and three for Wales there &#8211; and says he will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27520,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27518\/revisions\/27520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}