Louis Rees-Zammit commits to Wales as he signs new Gloucester deal as England finalise coaching set-up

Teenage sensation has signed a long-term contract at Kingsholm and pledged his future to Wales despite the interest of England coach Eddie Jones

Louis Rees-Zammit has signed a new contract with Gloucester and pledged his international future to Wales (Reuters)

Gloucester wing Louis Rees-Zammit has signalled his intention to commit his international future to Wales after admitting it is his “dream” to play for them, despite Eddie Jones offering the teenage sensation the chance to play for England.

Rees-Zammit celebrated his recent Premiership breakthrough by signing a new long-term contract with Gloucester on Monday, which will keep him at Kingsholm for the foreseeable future with his first professional deal since joining the academy last season.

His electric form in the Premiership in scoring five tries from four appearances helped earn him the Player of the Month award in December, with his purple patch also catching the eye of Jones with the Six Nations looming large at the start of next month.

But Rees-Zammit has made it clear he has eyes for one country only, and having grown been born in Glamorgan and raised in Cardiff, he has used the contract unveiling to leave it unequivocally clear who he sees himself representing at international level.

“I am delighted that my contract at Gloucester Rugby has been further extended to a senior squad long-term contract,” said Rees-Zammit. “I love being at Gloucester Rugby and I am enjoying every second of being part of such a great squad. It’s been such an exciting year for me, and I am grateful for the support of all the staff, players and fans of Gloucester Rugby.

“My dream is to represent Wales at an international level, and I just want to keep working hard to achieve this goal, along with helping Gloucester Rugby reach our ambitions for success.”

The new contract does not make him ineligible for Wales duty despite the Welsh Rugby Union’s selection policy of only fielding players based abroad if they have more than 60 caps, as the policy allows those who have not been capped to agree deals outside of Wales and remain in the frame for the national team.

Rees-Zammit’s international future appears to be a bright one, but it remains in the balance whether new Wales boss Wayne Pivac selects him in Wednesday’s Six Nations training squad due to his sheer lack of experience, with the 18-year-old only making his club debut last season and becoming Gloucester’s youngest ever Premiership player, European player and the youngest to score a hat-trick in the Premiership.

There was one bit of good news for Jones though as England finalised their coaching team for the 2020 Six Nations by appointing Matt Proudfoot and Simon Amor as assistants.

Proudfoot takes charge of the forwards following his involvement in South Africa's World Cup triumph having performed the same role under Rassie Erasmus.

The 47-year-old, a former Scotland prop, will also have the responsibility for the scrum with England dispensing with a specialist for the set-piece in the wake of Neal Hatley's departure to Bath.

Amor, currently head of sevens at Twickenham, will oversee the attack as successor to Scott Wisemantel, who stepped down after the World Cup.

Completing the overhaul is Steve Borthwick's shift to skills coach having taken charge of the pack for the duration of the Jones regime.

Former New Zealand boss John Mitchell will continue to mastermind the defence.

"The Six Nations is a fresh start for the team so that is how we have approached our coaching staff," Jones said.

"Matt Proudfoot has had an outstanding coaching career to date culminating in being a World Cup-winning coach with South Africa.

"He brings great technical expertise and knowledge having coached in South Africa and Japan and having played in Scotland and South Africa. We feel he can take the forwards to another level.

Simon Amor replaces Scott Wisemantel as attack coach (Getty)

"We have had our eyes on Simon for a while. We used him in the run up to the World Cup in some of our training camps.

"I have been very impressed with his dynamism and rugby intellect and he will bring a fresh view on how we build our attack."

Amor, head coach of Great Britain Sevens at the last Olympics, leaves his position as head of the England Sevens men's and women's programme to join the senior team coaching staff.

The 40-year-old will return to his sevens duties for this summer's Games in Japan before joining Jones' backroom staff full-time upon completion of Tokyo 2020.

Additional reporting by PA