Wales international joins Ospreys after returning home on compassionate grounds

Scott Baldwin is to resume his rugby career in Wales with the Ospreys after his release from Worcester Warriors on compassionate grounds.

Warriors agreed to the Wales international’s departure from Sixways earlier this month amid a serious illness in the 33-year-old’s family.

The 34-cap hooker wanted to spend more time with his close family in Wales, and Worcester supported his request to return home. He has signed a contract that ties him to the Swansea.com Stadium region until the end of the 2022-23 season.

He heads back to the Ospreys after three years in English rugby, with his second stint at the south-west Wales region starting with immediate effect.

Baldwin spent a decade with them up to 2019, when he left for Harlequins. He won a Gallagher Premiership title with the Londoners last year during a campaign that saw him consistently deliver.

Now he’s back with the region for whom he made 165 appearances before his English adventure.

He said: “I am very grateful to the Ospreys for stepping in and offering me the chance to resume my career in Wales. They are my home region and I have always been an Ospreys supporter.

“It is where I established myself and I still have good friends at the Ospreys.

“Having worked with Toby Booth before, I know what he expects and look forward to playing my role within the team and to develop the younger players.

“But my mindset is to be the number one hooker at the Ospreys. I know no other way and everyone can see the changes at the region and how things have really started to move forward.”

His acquisition is timely for the Ospreys.

They have lost two hookers to premature retirements as players over the past year in the shape of Scott Otten and Ifan Phillips, with the latter seeing his