Former Wales winger Louis Rees-Zammit says he’s had “a lot of interest” and hopes to find a new club “next week” after leaving the NFL and returning to rugby.
Rees-Zammit signed an active roster deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars for the 2025 season after being part of their practice squad for the 2024 season and travelled to London for the games against the Chicago Bears and New England
Patriots in October.
The 24-year-old announced in January 2024 that he would retire from rugby union in order to pursue his dream of playing in the NFL via its International Player Pathway Program.
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Rees-Zammit shares his thoughts on his former Lions team-mates and how they’ll get on this summer against Australia
But he has now ended his American football adventure and is on course to sign for a rugby club within the next seven to 10 days.
“I can’t name teams, but I’ve had a load of interest, which is unbelievable. I’m very grateful for that,” Rees-Zammit told Sky Sports News.
“The season starts pretty soon. So it’s about finding the right team for me in terms of location, in terms of how quick I’ve got to get into camp. And because the season’s right around the corner, so all of these things are going to happen, are going to happen pretty sharpish.
“Me and my brother are going through negotiations and seeing teams interested, which is amazing. We should find out in the next week or so.”
Rees-Zammit made his debut in 2020 and won the Six Nations Championship with Wales the following year.
He made 32 appearances for his country, scoring 14 tries, playing his last match for Wales at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, when they lost to Argentina in the quarter-finals.
“I’ve learned so much here [in the NFL] about my body and the way we’ve trained out here is very much different to the way we kind of trained in rugby and I think I can bring many different skills that I’ve now got than I did 18 months ago,” explained Rees-Zammit.
“Playing for my country is the pinnacle and it’s one that I absolutely love doing.
“I managed to play 32 times for my country in three, four years. I need to find a team. Once we find a team, get into good form and hopefully come Autumn Internationals, see where selection is.
“It’s something that I’m really looking forward to and I really want to play for my country again.”
His return to the sport comes with Wales at a low ebb, having recently ended an 18-match losing run and with a new head coach, Steve Tandy, to take charge at the end of August.
He said: “Obviously it hasn’t been great over the past couple of years and that’s for sure. But now the new coaching staff will come in. Those players will be very excited. We’ve got a very young squad. I think that time in Japan was time for those young players to kind of gel together and kind of get a feel of how one another plays.
“The Autumn Internationals are around the corner in a couple of months. So I think with the new coaching staff coming in and all the players are going to be absolutely buzzing that we’ve come off a win. It’s just about building momentum.”
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Rees-Zammit played in four different positions in his Kansas City Chiefs debut!
Andy Farrell’s British and Irish Lions’ starting XV for the opening match against Australia on this summer’s tour was the first Test side since 1896 not to include a single Welshman.
“Obviously the Lions is absolutely massive and I was very fortunate to do that on the last tour to South Africa,” said Rees-Zammit, who has an eye on being included in the next tour to New Zealand in 2029.
“Coming back to rugby, every player wants to play for their country and then go on to play for the British and Irish Lions.”
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Watch the British and Irish Lions’ tour of Australia exclusively live on Sky Sports this summer
Sky Sports will exclusively show the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, with all three Tests against the Wallabies and seven tour matches to be shown exclusively live.
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