Here's your round-up of all the latest rugby news for Friday, December 16.
Louis Rees-Zammit passes Six Nations auditionLouis Rees-Zammit put in a shift for Gloucester on Friday night which will have maybe pleased Warren Gatland more than anyone else. Wales have a long-term headache at full-back after veterans Liam Williams and Leigh Halfpenny headed abroad, effectively ending their international careers. Those two legends started their careers on the wing like LRZ, and Gatland sees his new prodigy as the answer to a 15-shaped whole for Wales.
Rees-Zammit, who has only ever played a handful of games at full-back in his professional career, played at 15 for Gloucester on Friday night against ASM Clermont Auvergne in the European Challenge Cup. The experiment was an useful one for Wales and not without reward.
Gloucester claimed a very impressive 28-17 victory to make it two wins out of two in the European Challenge Cup with Rees-Zammit playing the full 80 minutes.
Gatland will now feel more confident that Louis can handle the role of 15 during the upcoming Six Nations campaign.
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Ireland won't rule out Sexton returnIreland's performance director David Nucifora has opened the door to an international return for Johnny Sexton. Mike Catt will step down as Ireland's attack coach next summer and Sexton could be the perfect replacement.
Sexton retired from rugby after World Cup.
"We'd absolutely work with him," Nucifora told RTE Sport. "I think for Johnny at the moment it's just taking a bit of time to take a deep breath.
"It's been a long career to decompress and work out in his own head what he really wants to do.
"There's obviously a lot of rugby intellect in there and you'd like to access it or use it in some way if you had the ability to do it, but he's got to decide what it is that floats his boat over the next period of time.
"But if he ever chose to want to come back into coaching, the Irish system would be mad to say no to him."
Finn Russell remains committed to ScotlandFinn Russell's latest World Cup disappointment has not dented his enthusiasm to play for Scotland as the talismanic stand-off declared he has no intention of making himself unavailable for the national team any time soon.
"No, not at all," he said when asked if his appetite for international rugby had been diminished by his World Cup experience.
"If anything it's given me a bit more of an appetite to get back into it with the national team again and try to get a few more wins and try to win something."
Fellow Scotland star Stuart Hogg retired from rugby in the summer aged 31 but Russell, who is just a few months younger than the former full-back, aims to still be operating at a level that allows him to go to his fourth World Cup in 2027.
The fly-half, who recently joined Bath following five years in France with Racing 92, will turn 35 a week before the showpiece in Australia begins.
"Hopefully," he said. "Age-wise, I'll be able to make that. It's just about whether or not I'm playing well enough, so hopefully I am. I've got no inclination to finish up any time soon internationally."
Ieuan Evans among legends at funeral of Lions greatIeuan Evans, Willie John McBride and Sir Bill Beaumont were among the mourners at the funeral of Ireland and Lions prop Syd Millar.
The Ulster prop played 37 times for Ireland and featured in nine Lions Tests across three tours. He then coached the Lions to a series win over the Springboks in 1974, and was manager of the tour to South Africa six years later.
Millar was also chairman of the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby) from 2003 to 2007.
His funeral took place at West Presbyterian Church in Ballymena.
