Louis Rees-Zammit interview: ‘I was wasting my talent in the United States'
Although the 24-year-old holds 'no regrets' on his time across the pond, the Welsh wing is hardly overflowing with positivity about his experience, either. In his first press conference with his new club, Bristol, on his return to the sport he loves, he describes the NFL as 'brutal... ruthless... tough', where he was seeing players 'cut every day'.
Ultimately, the seed of doubt was planted in Rees-Zammit's mind at the beginning of his second year in the US and it was one which would not stop growing. In mid-June, after leaving Gloucester and Wales behind in January 2024, Rees-Zammit departed the NFL and returned to rugby. Last week, he was announced as the Bears' latest recruit.
'I just felt that I was wasting my talent out there,' says Rees-Zammit, who has 32 caps for Wales. 'It's very difficult to get into the NFL if you haven't come through the college system. You just don't get the same opportunities as those boys. I wasn't getting many reps and I was fed up when I was practising there. [Rugby] was a good journey but it's one that wasn't finished so I'm excited to carry it on.
'I gave it my best shot and maybe I didn't get the opportunities playing that those coming out of college did. I am very real about it; it probably wasn't for me in the end but there are no regrets. Would I have regretted it had I never done it? I've done it, played a year, and I wanted to come back to rugby. Here I am.'
Now, Rees-Zammit has his sights set on Gallagher Prem glory with Bristol, semi-finalists last season. He has only signed a one-year deal, believing it would have been 'unfair' to commit for any longer owing to him having had nearly two years away from the sport.
If all goes well, however, Rees-Zammit has not ruled out extending his stay in Bristol. He is invested in Pat Lam's style of play and wants to become 'one of the best players in the world' during his time here. His American girlfriend, a TikTok influencer, is due to move over to Bristol (visa-dependent) and he will be flat-hunting in the city soon. However, he is exactly the sort of name which would prove attractive to rugby's breakaway league, R360, with whom Rees-Zammit has been linked. 'Globally,' he says, R360 would 'definitely' be a good move for rugby.
'We want rugby to be as big as possible – if we can play it on a global stage, then ultimately that is going to be huge,' he says. 'I don't know too much about it to be honest with you because I've been away and I wasn't fully wanting to come back to rugby at the time, but over the past few months, I've heard more. For me, my first rugby game back is going to be in six weeks' time, so my full focus is playing for Bristol and hopefully making the Welsh team in the autumn and going from there.'
That first game is Leicester at home on the first weekend of the Prem season. In his NFL days, Rees-Zammit's weight was up to 16st 5lb but he is already in the process of dropping back down ahead of that tussle with the Tigers. He currently weighs in at 15st 7lb but his optimal rugby weight is a touch more than 15st. Interestingly, the extra mass did not affect his top speed, which remained at 23mph.
But, given what he learnt about the commercialisation and marketing of sport from one of the world's best, the NFL, it was always either the Prem or France for Rees-Zammit – never Wales – and always, specifically, Bristol.
'It's obviously not great [in Wales],' he says. 'Rugby is so big all around the world but it's just about how we commercialise it and I don't think we've done an amazing job with that. The Premiership and the French leagues have done better than others and that's kind of why I wanted to come back to the Premiership; especially at Bristol, where we have a great media team and great commercial department. It's been tough over the past 18 months [in Wales] but it's about how we can commercialise rugby to get everyone involved in it, all the fans around the world. There are so many fans around the world, if you look at the stats, it's just about how we can make it a global market.'
One suspects, wherever he is playing, that Rees-Zammit will be front and central in that.
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