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Edwards praises Kohn impact

Edwards praises Kohn impact

Shaun Edwards believes Olly Kohn has the potential to have a big impact in the RBS 6 Nations following the giant lock’s call up to the Wales squad late last week.

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The 21 stone second row trained with Wales for the first time on Monday and defence coach Edwards believes the Harlequins man has all the attributes to succeed in the international boiler room. 

Kohn, 31, faces stiff competition for a place in the match day squad against Ireland at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday but Edwards says he has already impressed in his brief time with the team so far.

“Olly plays for the team who are the number one seed in the Heineken Cup so he is obviously operating at quite a high level,” said the former Wigan man.

“He got himself in the wrong fitness group today. He was with Justin Tipuric, James Hook and Lloyd Williams doing shuttle runs and I think that was a bit of inexperience on the international scene.

“He virtually held his own though so his fitness level for a man so big was excellent. Olly is a very, very powerful and genuine scrummager and there’s not many of those about these days.

“We felt we needed beefing up in that area and hopefully over the next few weeks, Olly will get his chance.”

With the likes of Alun Wyn Jones, Bradley Davies and Luke Charteris out of the opener with Ireland, Kohn may well get the chance to impress and Edwards says he has plenty to offer.

“He plays for the English champions and his scrummaging power would be the forefront of his game,” he added.

“But he has other parts to his game. I’ve watched his tackling technique, it’s good and he has that physical presence, that’s his big thing really.

“His first training session was today so clearly line out calls are all new to him but he’s a pretty smart operator and I’m sure he’ll pick that up pretty quickly.” 

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