PLANS to bring back the Wales A team this year have been scuppered because they can’t find anyone to play in the hectic fixture schedule.

Welsh Rugby Union chiefs had intended to bring back the second string team, who last played in 2002 against their Scottish counterparts in Wrexham.

They went through the process of identifying players they would like to feature –a mixture of fringe senior players and bright prospects – and were eyeing encounters with England Saxons and the Irish Wolfhounds at the end of January.

However, they have had to put the kibosh on those plans.

“The issue is that it’s a relatively cluttered season,” said WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips. “The window in which we can play is the last week of January right now.

“We wanted to play England and Ireland ideally, but for various reasons we haven’t been able to pull that off.

“The worst case scenario is we play one of those two next year at the end of January 2018.

“If we can get a fixture in between we will. We are talking to some other people about that but I think it’s unlikely we will get one this season for the reasons we all know, with player release.

“When you start going cross-nations, people have got different release clauses. You can’t play unless somebody is there to play you.

“But the good thing was we picked the team in October time, we went through all the processes. The regions were involved in that. It was useful in that sense.”

The Dragons could well have had a number of players in an A team given the burgeoning talent on their books but the crowded fixture schedule is shown by them not having a week off until the second weekend of March, when they could be in the semi-finals of the Anglo-Welsh Cup.

Meanwhile, Phillips said the WRU have made the “best offer” they can to bring full-back Leigh Halfpenny back home on a national dual contract.

The 28-year-old joined Toulon in 2014 but his deal expires this summer and he is mulling over a return to Cardiff Blues.

Halfpenny was a guest at his former side’s win against Newport Gwent Dragons at the Arms Park on Boxing Day but also has a bumper fresh contract on the table from the Top 14 giants.

“The clock is ticking now,” said Phillips. “It’s at a point where Toulon would want some certainty some time in the next couple of weeks.”

“We have made him the best offer we possibly can. It’s a head versus heart decision for Leigh. We will hope he comes back but he’s his own man and I would respect his decision, whatever it is.

“Any way you would want to look at it, you would to have Leigh playing in Welsh rugby. On the pitch he’s a winner and off the pitch he’s an ambassador for Welsh rugby.”

“When you ask kids who is their favourite player many of them would say Leigh Halfpenny.”