The 19-year-old candidly admits he nearly shed a tear after seeing the savvy junior Wallabies snatch victory in the dying moments of the game. Thanks to Newport’s Arwel Robson’s drop goal drawing the scores level at 17-17 with two minutes to play, Wales seemed certain of a share of the spoils.
But failure to secure the restart ultimately led to dangerous centre Izaia Perese piercing the defence to shatter Welsh hopes as Jason Strange’s side slipped to a 24-17 defeat.
“Losing like that was the worst feeling ever,” he recalls, “To get back to 17-all and to get back in the game, we had done all the hard work to even things up.
“I think it was two and half minutes to go and to leave a soft try out there to let them take the win was heart breaking – I was nearly in tears at the end,” he added.
No matter how deep the wounds of defeat cut into the Scarlet, Nicholas should still hold his head high. Alongside Callum Lewis, the midfield duo strangled dangermen Perese and Sione Tuipulotu for most of the game. The Australian backline oozed Super Rugby and World Rugby Sevens Series stars but they constantly ran up dead ends thank to Nicholas and co.
Australian teams are renowned for their ball skills and finesse but the current vintage aren’t shy of putting themselves about a bit either.
“The boys were very sore after the game, it was very physical,” says Nicholas. “They are a good team, well drilled and very physical – I think we matched them in some areas but obviously for 5-10mins we lacked composure and they took advantage.
“That means it is going to be a big game against England now – we owe them after losing to them at Parc Eirias so it’s going to be a very big game.”
Wales were being lauded as potential Six Nations winners earlier in the seson, but England put an end to that theory when coasting to a 21-37 triumph, however Nicholas is of the belief you learn more from your defeats than victories.
“I think we took a lot from the Six Nations – the first 35 minutes in games we were excellent and then we had a massive drop and that was when teams capitalised against us and scored tries – and then they would edge ahead of us – as was the case against Australia. We did well to go in at halftime just 10-7 behind – in the second half we did well again but just 5-10 minutes again let us down.”
Nicholas, who scored a try on his Scarlets debut as a 17-year-old against Jersey in a pre-season game two years ago, is still learning the ropes of midfield play, but he has two of the best teachers in the game to get the best out of him.
“Down the Scarlets we have got two great centres in Jonathan Davies and Scott Williams. It’s nice to have some world class centres there and that is a lot of help for me in my quest to become a better centre.”
If the game against Australia is any guide to go by, England will this evening discover Nicholas is no soft centre and well equipped to cope with everything the red rose brigade can chuck at him.
