Gloucester ideal to stake Wales claim - Llewellyn

As players at the Welsh regions prepare to start their season amid uncertainty, Wales centre Max Llewellyn intends to keep reaping the rewards of his move over the border.

The 26-year-old is poised to feature when Gloucester kick off their Prem Rugby campaign against Sale Sharks.

A Thursday night date (19:45 BST) gives Llewellyn an early chance to catch the eye of new Wales boss Steve Tandy in the push for autumn selection.

He will also hope to help Gloucester build on an encouraging 2024-25 when they finished fifth and missed out on the play-offs by two points.

"It's an exciting year for us, we're looking to build on what we had last season and hopefully go a step further," said Llewellyn.

Tomos Williams was the star of the Cherry and Whites' 2024-25 season, but centre Llewellyn, who was occasionally deployed out wide, was not far behind.

He scored seven tries in 15 appearances until a hamstring injury ended his campaign early.

Llewellyn should be in the prime of his career and has prospered from making the short move to Kingsholm from Cardiff in the summer of 2023 amid another Welsh rugby crisis.

"When I left it was in a weird stage where you didn't know what was going on in Welsh rugby with cuts and clubs not knowing their budgets," he said.

"I wouldn't say it was a gamble and playing in the English Prem was something that I aspired to do.

"It's been one of the best things I have done in my career with what they have been able to offer me here in terms of facilities, staff, nutritionists."

The move to England has made Llewellyn a potentially leading contender to be a key figure under Tandy after a stop-start international career.

After missing out under Warren Gatland, the centre was given a late call up to the 2025 Six Nations by caretaker boss Matt Sherratt.

He started against Ireland, Scotland and England only for the hamstring injury to deny him a place on the tour to Japan.

Now he aims to provide Tandy with a physical, dominant midfield option at the start of a "new beginning" for the national team.

"I will be judged on my physicality, whether in attack or defence, with the size that I am," he said.

"It's how well I can get over the gain line or stop it on the other side of the ball, but I'd like to think I can do a bit more than that.

"We are so expansive at Gloucester and you end up getting a lot of opportunities. That's really exciting because you know there will be chances, you just have to be one of the players that works hard enough to get on the end of it."