\n
The 20-year-old has made an immediate impression on Wales head coach Warren Gatland with his notable footballing ability and all-round excellence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nHawkins made his Test debut against Australia during this season’s Autumn Nations Series, which turned out to be the final game of Wayne Pivac’s Wales coaching reign.<\/span><\/p>\nGatland had no hesitation in retaining Hawkins for Wales’ 34-10 Six Nations opening defeat against Ireland when he again underlined his quality.<\/span><\/p>\nHawkins looks set to feature in Saturday’s trip to face Scotland at Murrayfield and he has settled seamlessly at Test level, already developing a midfield combination with 110 times-capped George North.<\/span><\/p>\nLess than a year ago, Hawkins was playing for Wales Under-20s so the rise has been rapid.<\/span><\/p>\n“When you are in the under-20s, you see the senior team playing and you have always got ambitions of going on and playing for the senior team,” added Hawkins.<\/span><\/p>\n“I probably didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it has done. It is a bit surreal being out there on the training field. <\/span><\/p>\n“I guess it’s just trying to take in all the experience they (senior players) have, and then put it into your game.<\/span><\/p>\n“All you can do is take care of business back at your region and hope you get a bit of recognition internationally.<\/span><\/p>\n“I wasn’t expecting it to happen as quickly as this. I just focus on playing for the Ospreys, and then whatever happens, happens.”<\/span><\/p>\nGatland preferred big ball-carriers like Jamie Roberts and Hadleigh Parkes at inside-centre in his first stint in charge.<\/span><\/p>\nHawkins possesses some of those physicality qualities, but also provides more refined offloading and kicking options.<\/span><\/p>\nHawkins has also played at 10 and Wales kicking coach and record points scorer Neil Jenkins has told Gatland he believes the young product could end up as a 10 in the senior game.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/span>Six Nations 2023: Wales aim to avoid giving Scotland chances – Forshaw<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n“I have always tried to be as rounded as possible, the way the game is going, you can’t be too one-dimensional,” said Hawkins.<\/span><\/p>\n“I like the ball-play, but you have got to be able to bash it up a little bit as well.”<\/span><\/p>\nHawkins is also adapting to interacting with some of the players he admired growing up.<\/span><\/p>\n“On the field, it would probably be quite easy to go within yourself a little bit, but if you want to compete with the players in camp you have got to try and be bold and be vocal,” added Hawkins.<\/span><\/p>\n“When you come in with big characters, if you want to impact the game and training, you can’t go into your shell.<\/span><\/p>\n“They would rather it if you are vocal and demanding on the field, so that is what you have got to try and do.”<\/span><\/p>\nThe Wales coaching staff will keep his feet on the ground as new defence coach Mike Forshaw emphasises.<\/span><\/p>\n“He apparently played well against the Wallabies in the autumn and he is a new player and I’m impressed with some of the abilities he has,” said Forshaw.<\/span><\/p>\n“There are some things he needs to get better at defensively and I have worked closely with him, and had some one-on-one footage, to get him on the same page of what I want to achieve here with the backs. <\/span><\/p>\n“Some people tell me he could be number 10 in the future, so he’s got some good footballing ability. He had some good touches at the weekend.”<\/span><\/p>\nThe Hawkins family has a proud rugby tradition, with Joe’s father David a former Aberavon centre, his uncle Dan also an accomplished player and grandfather Brian a Wales Youth cap who played for Newport and Newbridge.<\/span><\/p>\n“When I was younger, he (David) coached me a bit, so he was always giving me advice along the way, but these days he lets me crack on,” Hawkins added.<\/span><\/p>\n“They have been loving it. It’s almost like living another career through me.<\/span><\/p>\n“They are all proud. If I am involved on Saturday, they will be making the trip up to Scotland.” <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Hawkins made his Ospreys debut at 18 and has played two internationals for Wales Venue: Murrayfield, Edinburgh Date: Saturday, 11 February Kick-off: 16:45 GMT Coverage: Live on BBC One Wales, S4C, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and Radio 5 Sports Extra, the BBC Sport website & app; live text commentary on BBC Sport […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50],"tags":[180,579,831,6549,3221,3339,7354,432,312],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13336,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13334\/revisions\/13336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}