After making his long-awaited return to the international arena against the All Blacks, Scarlets playmaker Joe Hawkins said he was loving being back on centre stage.
It was Joe’s first appearance in a Wales jersey since the 2023 Six Nations and the 23-year-old, who arrived at Parc y Scarlets from Exeter Chiefs in the summer, looked like he’d never been away.
The highlight of his sixth Wales cap was a whizzing cut-out pass to centre Max Llewellyn that paved the way for Tom Rogers’s hat-trick try at the start of the second half.
There were also a number of impressive touches with and without the ball that would have delighted head coach Steve Tandy and his coaching team.
“It’s class to be back in that atmosphere and I couldn’t have picked a better one to come back in with the All Blacks, facing the haka and all that stuff pre-game,” said Joe in the wake of the 52-26 loss.
“It was my first time playing New Zealand at any level because I never played them at age grade. It was amazing.”
Joe added: “As a team, it was definitely a big step forward from last weekend, but as competitive rugby players you are never happy with a loss.
“|I think we got a lot more of our game out on the pitch than we managed to last week which is a positive; mentality-wise we battled hard for the 80.
“It’s just little inaccuracies on the back end of that work rate stuff. If you give the All Blacks that many entries into your half and 22 they are going to be clinical and capitalise on it.”
Looking forward to next Saturday’s fourth and final match of the Quilter Autumn Series against the world-champion Springboks, Joe added: “We’ve got to crack back on with it knowing we’ve got a big task next weekend.
“They are an unbelievable team and are number one in the world for a reason but for us the part of the journey we are on it is super exciting to be able to go out and compete against that.
“It’s always about trying to get better week on week.”