Robin McBryde, the forwards coach for the Wales Rugby Team has declared that he will be using Ken Owens as the top choice hooker in the side as the team gets ready for a three test match series against reigning Tri Nations champions Australia.
Owens was among the 17 players and support staff who were sent in advance to Australia and arrived at the wee hours on the morning of Saturday to adapt to the weather conditions Down Under as the reigning champions of the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere get ready to battle it out for supremacy, which will kick off on the 9th of June in Brisbane.
The 25 year old Owens is an understudy for Matthew Rees, his captain at his club side the Scarlets and started off his last season as the fifth choice hooker for the Wales Rugby Team. But luck suddenly turned on his side with Rees, the then captain of the national team injured and also, his rival at Ospreys Richard Hibbard heading for the treatment table and Owens was selected to go to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and since then, he has all but established himself in the national side.
Having won his first cap for Wales, coming on as a substitute in the match against Namibia, Owens’s career has only gone up and he has never looked back since and this comment from his coach is a testament to that fact.
Moreover, Owens still has an unblemished record for the Wales Rugby Team, having played five matches for the team and he is in line to start against The Wallabies in the first test match and it could all come down to his performances that could swing the match in the favor of Wales in this Battle of the Hemispheres.