Today's rugby news as Welshman named signing of the season and star gone after 'drunken training incident'
These are your rugby headlines on Wednesday, January 8.
Wales star 'the signing of the season'
Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams has been hailed as 'the signing of the season' by three England internationals.
The 30-year-old has been in sensational form in his debut season for Gloucester, lighting up the Premiership with some phenomenal individual displays. His incredible run of games has also seen him tipped for a potential inclusion in the British & Irish Lions squad for this summer.
READ MORE: New Welsh rugby team formed by WRU to help find players who slipped through cracks
Speaking on the Rugby Union Weekly podcast, Williams' fellow No.9 Danny Care lauded the Welshman's talents as he praised the way that Gloucester have been playing in recent weeks.
Discussing the Cherry & Whites' impressive win over Sale with Ugo Monye and Chris Ashton, Care said: "I really like what George Skivington is doing there, they made a big play to say 'right, we're going to attack'. I think the signing of the season, Tomos Williams, is just brilliant."
Monye and Ashton agreed that Williams - who scored a brilliant solo try at the death against Sale - was indeed of the signing of the season, before Care added: "With his experience, his leadership, he's captained the side a few times this year, he epitomizes everything, the tempo and everything is brilliant.
"The link play he's got, the cheat lines as every scrum-half has is brilliant, and he's got the wheels at the end to score that try. He's got a couple of metres on Roebuck but he still gets there to score that try."
Star departs after 'drunken training incident'
Former France hooker Camille Chat has left Racing 92 with immediate effect after an alleged drunken incident.
The 29-year-old has been let go by the Top 14 side midway through the season, weeks after French media reported that he had allegedly turned up drunk to the club's training centre, the morning after a players' Christmas party. Chat had started for the Parisians two days earlier in their Champions Cup loss at Sale on December 13.
He was reportedly then suspended for two weeks while fellow hooker Janick Tarrit received a week suspension having not turned up to training at all that morning.
While Tarrit later rejoined the squad, there was no such reprieve for Chat, with his 12 years at the club that he joined as a teenager coming to an end on Tuesday evening with a brief statement.
The club statement read: “Racing 92 and Camille Chat have decided to end the contract between them by mutual agreement. Racing 92 wishes Camille Chat the best for the rest of his career.
"For his part, Camille expresses his attachment to Racing 92 and wishes it every success for the end of the season.”
Chat took to Instagram to share a parting message, as he wrote: "The 12 years spent at Racing 92 were more than a career. They were a personal and sporting adventure without comparison."
The Frenchman won the last of his 33 international caps at the 2021 Six Nations, while he played 166 times for Racing and won the Top 14 title in his senior debut season.
Italy star to miss Wales clash
Italy prop Mirco Spagnolo will miss his side's opening two games of the Six Nations after being hit with a hefty ban.
The 24-year-old loosehead has been suspended for five weeks after being sent off for a croc roll in Benetton's clash with Zebre at the end of December.
At a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday, he was handed a 10-week ban which was then halved due to his "apology, good disciplinary record and full engaged participation throughout the disciplinary process".
Spagnolo will miss Benetton's Champions Cup fixtures against Bristol Bears and La Rochelle, as well as their URC clash with the Ospreys in Swansea.
However, more pressingly for Italy head coach Gonzalo Quesada - who selected the prop for every Test in 2024 - he will also miss the Azzurri's trip to Edinburgh to face Scotland, as well as their meeting with Wales in Rome the following weekend.
Dallaglio makes shock captaincy call
Lawrence Dallaglio has called for in-form Saracens star Tom Willis to not only be recalled by England but made team captain as well.
No.8 Willis has lit up the Gallagher Premiership with some phenomenal displays so far this season and is now seen as too good for Steve Borthwick to ignore. The 25-year-old has only won one cap for England, which came against Wales in a World Cup warm-up match in the summer of 2023.
He is also not the captain of his club side, with Maro Itoje leading them. But after current England skipper Jamie George said Willis has "comfortably" been Sarries' best player so far this season, Dallaglio believes the former Wasps and Bordeaux star is the man to lead Borthwick's side into the next World Cup.
“Tom Willis is the name on everyone’s lips at the moment and justifiably so,” he said. “He is the best forward in the Gallagher Premiership. He is head and shoulders above everyone in terms of defenders beaten, metres made, post-contact metres etc etc.
“It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when with Tom and England. In my opinion, he’s ready to play for England now. If you’re the best forward in the country and have been consistently – his performances over the past few weeks have been eye-catching – then you’re ready.
“If Caelan Doris is the star man for Ireland there’s absolutely no reason why Tom Willis can’t be the star man for England as well. There are a few of us who would suggest that not only is he a player for England for the here and now, he’s a potential captain for the here and now as well.
Dallaglio added: “Jamie George, for all his world-class ability, is 34. There’s a strong case to put someone like Tom in not just to win his second cap but to pop him in as captain already with one eye on the next World Cup.
“I think he’s one of those players that other sides would not only have already capped but probably handed the captaincy to as well.”
