Thomas Young hard to ignore - Wales interim coach

Wales interim coach Rob Howley had high praise for Wasps back-row Thomas Young and believes he has the potential to play international rugby.

The 24-year-old has scored 13 tries in the 37 Aviva Premiership matches for his club and is among the six uncapped players named by Howley for the upcoming Six Nations campaign.

He was initially named as stand by for Wales' tour of New Zealand last year but a hamstring injury followed by another shoulder injury has delayed his call-up to Wales and Howley admitted that a player of Young's ability is "hard to ignore".

"It's hard to ignore Thomas," Howley said.

"Once again, he is another player we talked about during the autumn.

"He is playing in a side that is full of confidence, self-belief and scoring tries for fun. Thomas has played a huge part in that.

"He has got pace, he is a ball player, he can create opportunities for others, so it just changes the dynamics of the back-row. Having a creative ability of ball players in the back-row certainly gives us options."

Young, who is the son of Wasps rugby director Dai, has also played for Wales Under-20 team seven times in 2011-12 and has featured at both openside and blindside flanker for his club Wasps. Howley believes he is better suited for seven but his flexibility can be an added bonus.

"Probably, he's a seven.

"I have spoken to his father (Wasps rugby director Dai Young), and he feels that he is a seven as well, although he has the ability to play six."

Also included in the squad is Leicester Tigers back Owen Williams, who has been top form along with Scarlets wing Steff Evans and Newport Gwent Dragons' Ashton Hewitt. Howley believes the young talents in the squad will provide a lot of energy and resilience.

"I was impressed with Owen in the Munster game (against Leicester) last month in terms of the resilience he showed in the game and how he kicked," Howley said.

"Both Ashton and Steff we spoke about in the autumn series. They've played well. Having watched Steff in the Champions Cup against quality opposition, it certainly gives you a better indication of where players are at.

"He creates opportunities for himself and players around him.

"Ashton is young, he is talented and needs to be given a chance. There are areas of his game he has improved on in the last four or five months.

"It is a freshness - an important freshness to the squad - and we are really excited about it."