Dan Biggar: 'Perhaps the doom and gloom a couple of weeks after the autumn has slowly started to turn'
Biggar is enjoying his time with Toulon and is now back in the Wales squad
©PA
Wales fly-half Dan Biggar is raring to go ahead of the Six Nations and looking in fine form as he guided his new club side, Toulon, to a comfortable 35-23 victory against Bath in the European Challenge Cup on Sunday.
Biggar nailed five out of five kicks from the tee, orchestrated his attack nicely and it is no surprise to see him included in Warren Gatland's plans for the upcoming championships. The No.10, capped 103 times by Wales, is set to retain his
jersey due to the absence of both Gareth Anscombe and Rhys Priestland.
At the weekend, Biggar was ice cool throughout and negotiated patches of intense pressure from Bath to put the visitors out of reach as they secured three wins from their opening three European matches.
Biggar - who left Northampton Saints with immediate effect in November - thinks that playing in Toulon has benefited his game and he has learned a lot from his teammates at his new club.
"Playing alongside guys like Sergio (Parisse), Cheslin (Kolbe), Baptiste Serin is only going to benefit me and I’ve loved it so far. It’s been a really good experience. Difficult but on the whole a really good experience.”
Biggar’s solid performance will have pleased the returning Gatland and for the fly-half himself, he will be eager to once again make his mark on the international stage after missing out on the Autumn Nations Series campaign due to a knee injury.
Wales managed only one win from four in the Autumn, a run of results which included a historic loss to Georgia, and they would have certainly benefited from Biggar’s leadership to give them a structure and drive that looked to be sorely lacking.
"Missing the Autumn, you feel, even though I was in camp rehabbing, a little bit on the outside looking in," Biggar added. “That was a big aim for me to get back playing and I’ve managed to put seven or eight performances in on the spin now and I feel good for it.
“It’s setting up to be a really good Six Nations. The Ospreys had a really good win last [on Saturday] night [v Montpellier]. "Perhaps the doom and gloom a couple of weeks after the Autumn has slowly started to turn and we can start getting some excitement back into it.”
The fly-half is confident in Gatland’s abilities and has his full support ahead of the tournament. The new head coach will be looking to improve on his predecessor Wayne Pivac’s underwhelming record with Wales which ultimately led to him being sacked from the role.
The New Zealander has brought in Alex King as attack coach - who worked with Wales in Gatland’s absence in 2017 when he was with the British and Irish Lions - and also Mike Forshaw as defence coach who joins from Sale Sharks.
Biggar said: He [Gatland] knows the set-up well and knows a lot of the players well. He’ll instil belief. I’m excited to work with the new guys. I worked with Alex King in 2017. With Mike (Forshaw) coming in, I don’t know a huge amount about him.
"That’s one of the main reasons I came here (Toulon). It's great to pick up different ideas from different coaches. Hopefully there will be some positive weeks coming up.”
