Carddiff Central: A quick chat: with Andrew Forde

The Cardiff Central Podcast discusses the recent Six Nations campaign and the upcoming match against Glasgow. They highlight the performances of certain players, such as Cameron Winnett and Mason Grady, and discuss the positives and negatives of Wales' campaign. They also mention the team selection for the Cardiff match and share their thoughts on it. They mention the absence of certain players due to rest or injury. Welcome to the Cardiff Central Podcast. Hello and welcome to the Cardiff Central Podcast. Once again, it's me, Harley. Apologies for us being a day late. I was at my daughter's first birthday, and I'll be honest, I didn't fancy recording a podcast like that. Anyway, there's no Carl Wynne tonight because he's busy with work, but I am joined by a very capable guest. In fact, our first returning guest of the podcast, Mr. Andrew Ford. How are you doing, Andrew? That's highly praised there. I'm good, thanks, Harley. How are you? Yeah, not too bad. Getting the sound of children screeching and their farm animals. How have things been since we last spoke? Yeah, yeah. Been a bit busy with the videos, but yeah, not too much. I can't remember exactly when I was last on it, but I think it was post-World Cup, and World Cup was a bit of mayhem. But now it's, yeah, nothing major. Obviously Six Nations, been and gone. Went to the Scotland game, which was a rollercoaster of emotions, especially my dad's Scottish, so that was an interesting game to watch with him. But obviously, Scotland won in the end. And as I said about the Six Nations campaign, from a Wales perspective anyway, it's better in my view. Yeah, I think I've managed to vent all my piss-boiled rage on the raft earlier this week, so feel free to look at that. So we're not going to delve too much into the Six Nations, but I do just want to ask your opinion on the blue and black suit turned out for Wales this time. Yeah, I think overall it was quite positive. In particular, Cam Winnett's the one you kind of look out for. I had no doubt in him when he was called up that he was one of the most... when he was playing for Cardiff, even when he played during that kind of COVID debacle a few years ago against the Harlepins, he was 18, he looked so composed. And he's kind of brought that form for Cardiff into the Wales set-up. Just looks so composed. I thought Mason Grady played really well against Italy, and that was quite nice because there were a few doubters out there regarding him, and he was probably one of the most positive players in that game. It was kind of a blessing he came on, because otherwise there wouldn't have been much positive things to talk about from a Wales perspective for that game, full stop. But yeah, I think overall Cardiff boys performed quite well in the Wales squad during the Six Nations. Yeah, I think they all did well when they got asked a chance. I mean, it was a bit getting up to see more of Teddy, but I thought as soon as we had three second rows on the bet starting against France, I thought they might have found room for him to keep that physicality up. Yeah, Mason Grady made the third most metres in the last round of the Six Nations despite playing 30 minutes, which is impressive. Yeah, I thought Alex Mann did very well at six. I mean, I do agree with a lot of people who say he probably does need to add a little bit of mass, but I don't think it was in his or Cardiff's plan for him to be called at the Six Nations this year round. No, and it's a good stepping stone anyway, because you see the amount of back rowers who in their early days are probably a little bit lightweight, and then as they get a few caps, they bulk up a bit, and that experience he got will be massive going forward. I think Gatland even said he probably needs to put on a few kgs. But yeah, going forward, he didn't look out of place at all. Yeah, probably needs a few kgs to be dominant, but I wouldn't say he necessarily took backwards steps, which is encouraging, especially some of the big boys he was going up against. So anyway, now, because we've got you on and your unique talents, if you were going to make a video of Wales' highlights, of the handful that we had, what would make it for you, if you were doing a sort of showcase to say these were all the good bits of the Six Nations in Wales? So it's a difficult question, I think, after the campaign, because there were some bits that were particularly negative. But yeah, I think good bits would definitely be highlighting how Compose can win it was in that 15 shirt. I think as well, the Ireland game, the kind of defence we showed in that first half, you know, we were well beaten. But I think it could have been almost a car crash. I'm sure people will say it was a car crash, and it was to an extent. But I think we showed a lot of kind of courage with the way we defended in the Ireland game. I think if you were to highlight that, I think that's definitely one of the positives we had. At the end of the day, Ireland is probably one of the best teams in the world easily. So it took them, it took a team like that to kind of batter down Wales. But you think if you can build on that, there's a lot more hope for games in the future once teams have had the familiarity of playing with each other. So yeah, I think if they can win, it's definitely the main one. But I think the defence did show good glimpses in some games. So if you Tommy Turnover moments then I'm guessing? Yeah, yeah, I do actually have a video in the works of as many Tommy Radcliffe turnovers as I can get, including ones for Leicester, not just from the Six Nations campaign. But yeah, I think equal the most turnovers in the Six Nations campaign. So yeah. Equal John Barclay's 2011 I believe. I wouldn't have thought it was John Barclay. I would have thought it would be someone else even like Warburton in his early days. But yeah, that's an interesting start. Yeah, absolutely. I didn't really want to say. I thought going into the end of the 20s, I thought Dele Rubin, Harry Wells had decent tournaments. Yeah. A couple of other boys who came into the Ickley game where we won, which is quite nice. It would be Italian and Twins that I remember for a few years. I think we can park, we can park Six Nations there unless there's anything you want to get off your chest. No, no, I don't think. I don't think there's anything positive I have to contribute. I could probably rant all day about the negatives. But yeah, we'll probably leave it there for now. Absolutely. So let's move on to, you know, our bread and butter seeing Cardiff run out in the blue and all pink and blacks. So we're away to Glasgow this week. You've got some, you've got a unique connection to Glasgow as well, as a Scottish father. Yeah, yes. My dad's from Glasgow, but he actually supports Cardiff because growing up, you know, the Warriors weren't what they are now. So he was never really a Warriors fan. Then when he came down to Cardiff, he got me stuck in to supporting Cardiff. So not sure if I should be grateful or not, because some of the results we've had over the years. But my auntie and uncle are big Glasgow fans. So I've gone up before Scotstoun to watch Cardiff play Glasgow. Unsurprisingly, we lost, but it's a good experience up there. It certainly looks like it's fun. It's definitely an away trip I'd quite like to do. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Maybe when it's a little bit older. Yeah, and Glasgow is a bit of a mad city, but it's definitely worth visiting. Yeah, absolutely. So just thought, because we can, and we've actually got teams today. I don't know if you can see that. So just going through sort of the Cardiff team now. So probably not too many surprises there. I mean, you know, good to see Teddy Williams and Mackenzie Martin back. You know, anything stand out for you there? Other than one thing a mutual friend of ours pointed out, which I'll go and see later. I was a bit, I was more kind of intrigued at the selection of Shane Lewis, who was at four. Obviously, I think he's performed really well at second row, but I thought if you have Seb on the bench, it would be kind of more valuable to have him starting. But at the same time, that could be part of the game plan in terms of later on in the game, if things get tight, it's better to have someone like Seb come off the bench as a second row than Shane. So I think that's the only thing. It's interesting that Max Clarke is starting, I guess they probably see him as more of a natural 13 than Willis. But it kind of offers shades that he might be sticking around for next season if he's getting a sudden run against two games in a row. So, yeah, kind of intrigued by that. But yeah, I think it's a positive team overall. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the thing with Shane Lewis, I was talking with Hugh from Scarlet Pirate Clubs. We were talking, because if you look at the size and the stats and the games played, just looking between Shane and Ben Donald, the one he'd probably put in the second row of the two is Ben Donald. He's a bit taller and he's played a few more games there. I do think it's a lot, because Jockey did say at the start of the season he really sees Shane Lewis-Hughes being the natural successor to Turnbull. So I do think he's almost using this season to get as many minutes with him in the row as possible. I think as I said, with some sort of injured bosses with Wales a lot as well. I think Max Clarke probably deserves it after the last two or three games he's had with Cardiff Jersey. I think he's equipped himself quite well. Yeah, I suppose he is probably the kind of natural 13 they're looking for. I know Willis has covered 13 many a time, but I do think he's more of a 12. And you see that if both Willis and Ray are playing, it's Ray who shifts to 13 rather than Willis. So I think it makes more sense. And then you've got that added bonus of you've got Willis can come on as a 12, obviously Ben then can cover 10 and you've got Grady can jump in at 13 and even Owen Lane can jump in at 13. So it's kind of a nice balance to it there. It's quite a versatile backer, you can even beat him if you really want to, you can push to 12. A couple of players we won't see though, we'll see Noam Chomsky-Azzerati, sort of rested from Wales due to staying as Ants Man. Thomas, unfortunately, he's injured his Achilles, I think? Yeah. Ross Vincent, you know, banning for life, breaking hands with Tom. I don't care if it is a physically legal tackle. Yeah, so it looks like we might unfortunately miss out on Tom. I think once that's confirmed, maybe we'll have a, probably talk a bit more about some of our favourite moments. If we just move on to the Glasgow team now. So I don't know if you or any of your family know much about this. So Glasgow line-up, Nathan Macbeth, Matthews, try scoring machine. Lucio Sordino, Sordani, Max Williamson, Alex Samuels, Euan Ferry, Matt Fagerson, Jack Dempsey, Jamie Derby, Duncan Weir, the mighty meatball himself, Kyle Steyn, Tom Jordan at 12, Stafford McDowell, Sebastian Tentier, Josh Wittai, and then we'll worry about the bench later. So they've gone 6-2, we've gone 5-3. Let's see how this works. Any thoughts about this team? There's a couple of Scotland internationals back. Yeah, no, no. I see a few names that are a little bit unfamiliar to me. But the back row, sorry, well, the back row is staffed, particularly for Figgs and Dempsey to slot back in. But that back line looks pretty, pretty solid, like especially behind Duncan Weir, you've just got options galore there. And if they run us ragged quite early on, we're probably going to be in for a long night because there's some devastating finishers there all round. Yeah, it definitely seems like they're trying to go a bit wider, you know, moving Tom Jordan from 10 to 12, you know, moving Stafford McDowell out. I said that should be good. Sebastian Casio has been on fire all season, hasn't he, really? Yeah, yeah. I think as well, just looking at the bench, it's kind of a bit, maybe they've gone for the similar thing of having Allendale, Oli Kebbell there to kind of cover as if the game gets tight later on, they're going to be some pretty solid, solid options to come off the bench there. Absolutely. I mean, it's interesting they're using Kebbell at tight ends as well. Yeah. Typically he is, at least I know they experiment, both they and Scotland have experimented it in a while. Yeah, that's interesting. I wasn't even aware that he had covered tight ends that often, so maybe it could be something to exploit, but it's Oli Kebbell, it's a good player, I can't say that too early because I've come back to bite me. Or maybe you've got the sort of, you know, the very promising but still quite green re-sparrow to the bench, it's maybe not as easy to exploit as possible. No. So one of the other things we wanted to do with this sort of individual regional pods is sort of go through the rest of the fixer list and try and pick out some key games. I'm just going to run through it so I'll be straight to that. Tomorrow night we've got Black the Warriors. Where has he gone? Bloody typical. All set up. Right, and then next week we're away to Munster, then Ulster after a two-week gap. Then we've got our final home game against Edinburgh on the 27th of April, same day as Wales hosted Italy in the Prince Paddy Stadium. So I'm planning on trying to do the double, watch the win over Six Nations and then switch into the Alms Park. And then we've got our South Africa tour away, so we face the Emirate Lions on the 11th of May. Then we go back to the Sharks, we go to play the Sharks on the 18th of May to see if we can maintain our unbeaten run against them. In fact, our three-year unbeaten run against any team called Sharks. And then obviously on the 30th of June is Judgement Day at Cardiff City Stadium against Ospreay. So out of these games, which one do you think is probably the key one? It's difficult really, because obviously it's just the one home game. I wouldn't necessarily consider Judgement Day a home game, not that it's the last game of the season, so it's kind of different, but it's just the one home game. So I think we've kind of got to hope for a positive result there. And if we're going to target a game, try and target that. Although Edinburgh can be just different gravy at times, especially with the variety of players they've got in their squad. It's just a tough kind of thing to balance having three away games on the trot, especially the quality of teams that we're playing. It's going to be a bit of a difficult end of the season, I think. So which game are you nailing onto the most? The Edinburgh home game? Yeah, but then I'd say often when we play Munster, it's a bit of a... I think we're sometimes a bit of a bogey team for Munster, because even though they've beaten us quite a few times quite comfortably, we do seem to offer something against them. It's always just a great game whenever we play them. Some great tries are scored. I particularly remember during last season, during the COVID season, it was behind closed doors. Home and away was both quite close, and we had them in the Rainbow Cup. And I think it was a captain's challenge that, if I'm remembering correctly, the captain's challenge that essentially at the end denied us a try. And that's what lost us the game. So I always enjoy playing against Munster, and I find on Twitter the Munster fans very good value. So yeah, I'm excited for that game. I'm not going to say that we can beat them, because that would be quite naive, especially away. But yeah, excited for that game. How about yourself, Harley? Any game you're backing? I think the most important game for me is probably going to be that Edinburgh game, because it is our last chance to get the home crowd supporting, try and get another win under that team. Yeah. I mean, the other one I'd say is maybe Sharks away. I know they should probably be at their full strength now, and they'll be playing for a bit of pride towards the end of the season. But I feel like we should at least be beating teams lower ranked than us on the table if we do want to move on. I know this season's been all about development, but similar to the conversations people have with Wales now, we do need some results. You don't learn how to win until you start winning. Yeah, it would be good value as well, getting that win against the Sharks and heading into Judgment Day with a bit of momentum and a bit of optimism going against the Ospreys, because I think we'll need it the way the Ospreys have been playing this season. So if we could go in on a win, that would be great. But yeah, again, I think as well, with the play of the Sharks half towards the end of the season, they'll be kind of peaking a bit, knowing that they've then got a bit of a rest before the end of the international event play. So I think they'll be kind of firing to go. I know you're like so. Etzebeth and Benambi, Ox and Shea, I think they'll be raring to go when they've got a home game towards the end of the season. Yeah, absolutely. It's going to be quite exciting to see them. I very much doubt we'll be able to replicate what happened last time out. But whilst we can, I'm still milking it for all it's worth. Yes, definitely. So going back to this Glasgow game, what do you reckon? A nice loose affair? Do you think we're going to be a bit more competitive than we have the last couple of times you've been up in Scotsman? Yeah, I don't have great memories of the last few times we've played up at Scotsman. We probably haven't given the best showing of ourselves, especially the last game I think was last season. We got absolutely demolished the week after we beat Manchester at home. Yeah, I think we'll probably try and play fast and loose, but it's going to be difficult when you see their outside backs to make sure we're a little bit more complacent. Because if it's broken play, they're just going to run riot. Now I'm saying that it's going to be a fast and loose game. It's probably going to be a tight 80-minute game where the final score is going to be 3-0 Glasgow. So I hope it's not that. I'm quite excited to watch it. I think Friday night games, when it's an away game, it's always quite nice to watch in front of the TV. So hopefully we make a good account of ourselves. We've got a decent team out. If we can put in a solid performance, that's kind of all I'm asking for. Are you going to tell us the maths for the prediction? Oh, I'd go 31-23 to Glasgow. So just about missed out on the bonus point. But yeah, hopefully we can just get a good showing of ourselves. That's all I'm asking for. So if we can do that, then I'll be happy regardless of the result. I don't want another 50 points put on us. How about yourself? What are you predicting? Yeah, I'm sort of feeling in there. I think on wrap on Monday, I said Glasgow were at 15. Looking at the teams now, I think actually maybe probably get within, I think we will be within the two scores, maybe one score. Be quite nice, you know. As long as it's not, I think if it is, you know, it's about like outscoring each other on tries, I think we'll probably stay quite close. I think if it gets into too much of an arm wrestle scrum time, then it could be a bit of an issue, particularly with our bench. Yeah, I'm not quite a big fan of prediction scores anymore myself, because before the Queen's game, a few people were asking, oh, what are you predicting? And I was like, oh, based on how we performed against Bath, I think, I don't think we'll beat them, but we could stay in a fight and we can maybe nick it. And then we all know what happened in that game. So I tend to not like predicting scores at games. Yeah, I'll be honest, that Queen's game, I think, was it called Mulligan or something like that, where you just basically, you just, you just burn the real, nothing we take from that. No, not at all. Yeah. It's weird how positive we were that even though we got kind of demolished by Toulouse, I think it was a lot more positive to take out the Toulouse game and the Wrasse game than there was against Harlequins, who I thought we might have been in the fight at least. So it was kind of a weird thing that there's more positives from getting pretty comfortably beaten away than there was to a home game against a team that only a couple of seasons before we should have beaten at home in the Champions Cup. But it's all been and gone. I'm rambling now. That's all right. So in other news, the Rags are playing Swansea tonight to keep their top four dreams alive in the Premiership. What have you made of the Rags season so far? Have you been following closely? A little bit. I went to the Saint-Dovrie game because a mate of mine was starting for them, Johan Hoogendoorn. He's on a permit from St Peter's. Great name. Yeah, great name. So when I watched him, he'll appreciate me shouting him out, I'm sure. So when I watched him, and it was one of those cards that started off quite well, but Saint-Dovrie just is a bit like the Queen's game, really. And it was expected. I don't think anyone thought the Rags were going to beat Saint-Dovrie. But yeah, I think it's just one of those things of the last few seasons after winning the Prem... a couple of seasons ago when we won the Premiership. It's just things haven't been as plain sailing. But there's a lot of positives to come. There's some very good players coming through, I think, as well. And it's kind of nice to have the settled players like Jason Harries for experience as well for the boys that are coming through. And I think we've got a really nice kind of conveyor belt there for the ones that are coming into the first team, then. Yeah, I suppose it doesn't help. Obviously, with the budget cuts and the pro side having to cut down credits cost accordingly, then we're relying more on players. We'd give the likes of Alex Mann and Mackenzie Glasson. Two seasons ago, we'd been playing most of the rugby in the Premiership. Going through. Just to go, the other Premiership fixture this week. So, Merthyr are hosting Carmarthen and Pompty are hosting Aberavan. They're both two... half past two kick-offs at... on Saturday. Sorry, I've just lost my train of thought. It's all right. One day off work and that's it. I can't even think anymore. So, I thought, as we're sort of going down into more... gradually into more of the community game, a little birdie and a mutual friend of ours, James Rees, told me you've yourself ever been to action. Yeah, I have. Yeah, James actually played for the team that I played for. You've never mentioned it, don't worry. Yeah. Yeah, he kind of outed me a bit on one of the WRAP podcasts. Saying that I'm always injured, which... He's not wrong, but I have played a few games this season. We played a game a few weeks back. It was Dinesh Paras, the top of the league in our league at the moment, having come down from, I think, Div 1. Because they got fined for something or other. I'm not going to claim to know right now what it is. Don't want to accuse them of something they didn't do. But yeah, we had a kind of top-of-the-table clash as such. It was 2nd v 3rd. Beatry of a cloud at home. And it was an absolute mudfest. It was not the funnest game to play in. And it's so heavy underfoot that kind of covering 10 metres of grass felt like you were covering 50 metres of grass. So just luckily when the whistle... If the whistle went for a penalty, there was just a kind of feeling of relief during the game. But yeah, we won the game. I somehow played 80 minutes. But yeah, I hope one day I'll come up against James. Whether that's me going down to his neck of the woods in Bognor Regis or him coming back down to Cardiff. It'd be interesting to play with him. Yeah, see if we can do a 3-4 for a boy around Robin. I'll see if I can get Yvette's second team from Sidmouth and maybe we can get Willow in to bring some long-eaten boys down. We could set up a 7-7 with the Raph Bogdas boys, I reckon. Try and chuck them into a 7-7 tournament. I'd be quite... You've no idea how slow and ineffective I am as a boy. I'm a loose-head prof, so you're preaching to the choir there. I'd be useless if I was involved in any kind of form of 7-7. But it's all about the fun involved. I'd say that I've never played 7-7 properly before. But going to a few 7-7 competitions is always fun, especially when it's the 7-series. It's a shame it's not in London anymore, because me and my mates always go down every year. But that's me rambling again about 7-7. I'd quietly talk about this. Me and my mum have been considering doing something like this, Dubai or Hong Kong 7s at some point. And yes, it is me and my mum. My mum is my first choice for taking me to the rugby, because most people I know are either not interested or just don't get it. At least I can have a conversation with my mum. I always have to get my mates who aren't interested in rugby. If I say, we'll be drinking, then they're sold. So that's my key to get them involved in anything. It's just, there'll be alcohol there. If I say, right, OK, I'll be there. That sounds about right with a lot of my old friends. It's a bit harder to organise stuff like that now. Anyway, I don't want to keep you on, because speaking of drinking, I believe you're off out to the football later. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, big game tonight. Even though it's a wrong-shaped ball compared to what we're chatting about. Hopefully off to the pub soon to hopefully see Wales beat Finland, get to that play-off final. I hope the ball is kicked correctly. I generally have less about football than I do with rugby. I hope no-one picks up the ball today, unless it's a keeper. That's a different story. There won't be any kicks for goal with such a rugby style. It'll be a different type of kicker goal. Yeah, absolutely. I just want to say thank you once again, Andrew, for stepping in. Sorry it's a short podcast, one of the shorter episodes, but I really didn't want to have to trawl through the trauma of Wales Italy. I'm grateful for that as well. Yeah, sounds good. Cheers for having me on, Andy. Anytime you want to hop on. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for listening to the Cardiff Central Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Please subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen to us as it really helps spread the word. You can find us on all the usual social media channels or email us on welshregionalrugbypod at gmail.com. And remember, whatever the question is, rugby is always the answer. .