Anscombe returns to Wales with Scarlets to savour one final chapter at 35

Gareth Anscombe has signed with the Llanelli-based Scarlets, returning to Wales at 35 for what he acknowledges could be the closing stretch of a career that has taken him from Auckland to Cardiff, Osaka, Gloucester, and Bayonne.

The fly-half made his second URC appearance for the Scarlets in last weekend’s 14-try thriller against the DHL Stormers in Cape Town, and his attention now turns to Saturday’s fixture against the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.

“I got to the back end of the Top 14 season with Bayonne and was deciding what I wanted to do,” Anscombe said. “I felt like I still had another year left in me. I wanted to keep playing and I felt I could still contribute, but it wasn’t like I wanted to go after another contract.”

Family considerations shaped his thinking as much as rugby ones. “I didn’t really want to move the family too much. I’m at the stage of my career where I have to think about my family and my kids starting school. I wanted to come back to Wales if it wasn’t for me in France.”

The approach, when it came, was direct. “It was quite late in the season. It was Dwayne Peel reaching out really,” he revealed. “I wanted to go somewhere where I could be the right fit and the Scarlets felt like that. The squad excited me and you can see the history around the place. Even coming from New Zealand, I think everyone knew who Llanelli were. They were the legends that kind of forged Welsh rugby. So it’s a real honour to be able to pull on the jersey.”

Anscombe first arrived in Wales twelve years ago, recruited by Warren Gatland from the Chiefs after playing a starring role in their 2013 Super Rugby title win. Gatland had identified that the Auckland-born playmaker — who had helped New Zealand win the 2011 Junior World Championship — was eligible for Wales through his Cardiff-born mother and moved quickly to secure him.

He made his Test debut within a year and went on to earn 42 caps, featuring in two Rugby World Cups and playing a central role in Wales’s 2019 Six Nations Grand Slam, where he was named Player of the Match in the clinching victory over Ireland. At club level, his five years at Cardiff produced a defining moment: the late penalty that sealed the 2018 European Challenge Cup final against Gloucester in Bilbao.

At the Scarlets, Anscombe will compete for the number ten jersey with Wales international Sam Costelow, teenage prospect Carwyn Leggatt-Jones, and the versatile Joe Hawkins — a contest that underlines both the depth of the squad and the experienced role Anscombe is expected to fill within it.