Rees-Zammit is truly fast but Slade is just too quiet

The five players highlighted in this column – Wales winger Louis Rees-Zammit, France fly-half Matthieu Jalibert, England outside centre Henry Slade, Ireland lock/blindside Tadhg Beirne, and Scotland openside Hamish Watson – are there because they have contributed in different ways in this Six Nations, and I’ve enjoyed watching them. Even more credit is due because each has raised their game despite the difficulties of the emotional bypass involved in playing in empty stadiums during lockdown.

- JEREMY GUSCOTT

There is no doubt that ReesZammit crashed the scene in a big way after the clamour for him to be picked for Wales last season on the back of the tries he was scoring for Gloucester. I don’t think many people realised how quick he was until he was on a global stage with an audience of eight million watching the Wales v England match.

There was a call for entertainment more than anything during the lockdown, and Rees-Zammit brought that with his wonderful individual tries against both Ireland and Scotland. He proved beyond doubt that he is one of the quickest guys in the Six Nations, and also one of the most agile, despite being taller than people think at 6ft 3ins.

Now what he has to recognise is that to be seen as a world-class player you have to be able to do more than play in one position – which means he has to become a true back three utility. To do that he will have to work on his aerial game, in the same way that Jonny May has.

The England winger has become really accomplished in fielding the high ball through his dedication in training, and it is important for Rees-Zammit to learn from that. Any good exit strategy depends on everyone in the back three having the skill-set to cover for each other.

Before Israel Folau left our game he was a great high ball catcher, having already honed his aerial skills playing Rugby League. Folau demonstrated that if you get your timing right contesting the ball in the air, you can turn it into a real strike weapon.