Toby Faletau - The Tongan Tank

Tuesday 12 July 2011

The inclusion of several youth players in Wales' 45 man preliminary World Cup squad has lifted the fans' expectation of their team's prospects in future tournaments, starting with the World Cup in September.

On the back of what has been a very disappointing year for Welsh rugby, the breakthrough of many young players has proved to be very refreshing. One youngster included in Gatland's squad is Newport Gwent Dragons' forward Toby Faletau. At only 20 years old, the Tonga born star appears to have a very bright future ahead of him in the sport. Faletau's father, Kili Faletau, was also an international rugby player, featuring for Tonga at the 1999 World Cup.

As a man who clearly has rugby running through his blood, Faletau has a great chance of being named in Wales' World Cup squad, which is due to be announced by the WRU on August 22.

The Dragons star made his full international debut in Wales' 28-31 defeat to the Barbarians at the Millennium Stadium last month after being highly praised by Warren Gatland for his performances at club level last season.

Speaking before the match against the Baa Baa's, Gatland spoke about Faletau's World Cup chances:

"He is one of the youngsters who has a good chance of being in the squad, and so hopefully that gives a good indication of how we want to play."

However, like most of the younger generation named in the preliminary squad, Faletau has very little international experience which could go against him when it comes to the squad being selected. An ankle injury meant that the 17 stone forward took no part in this Wales' Six Nations campaign earlier this year; however, no-one could doubt his talent after his performances for the Dragons last season earned him young player awards from the Welsh Rugby Players' Association, Welsh Rugby Writers Association and the Magners League.

Regardless of whether the 20 year old plays in the World Cup this year or not, Dragons' coach Darren Edwards knows he has a very talented player in Faletau and hopefully he will become a stand out player in future years with Wales' long term future being a priority.