Cardiff Central: Farewells, frustrations and Friday night lights

Welcome to the Cardiff Central Podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of Cardiff Central Podcast. As ever, I'm Carly and I'm joined by the boys, Carwyn and Dan. How are you both doing today? Yeah, not too bad, mate. I'm pretty buzzing about a couple of good results today. Yeah, I'll mention that for a bit later on, but go on. How are you, Dan? Yeah, I'm all good, all good here, thank you. Went to the Rags game on the weekend, so I've seen Cardiff win a game, for once. That's a story to tell your grandchildren, say, I remember when Cardiff would win games. Yeah, so we'll talk about the Rags game in a bit. So just a couple of quick bits of news. So with the news that's come out the last couple of days, we can't stop the podcast without talking about two big retirements in Welsh rugby. I mean, on the international stage, two different ends of the spectrum, but in terms of what they mean to their respective clubs, Ken Owens, the Sheriff, and Josh Turnbull both retiring within a few days of each other. It feels like an end of an era with some of these players. Yeah, it's disappointing, isn't it? I think there's two different ways. There's Josh Turnbull's retirement, which was... I suppose they were both expected, but Josh Turnbull was expected and we knew it was coming, and he'd had that farewell, he'd had that opportunity to say goodbye, did his post-match interview where he sort of said, oh, if this is my last game at Cap, then therefore, and we all went, okay, so there was that hint, we know it's happening, therefore, we can accept it, and he had his PE teacher give him his jersey, everything was lovely about that. And then Ken's announcement, which, you know, I've been at press conferences earlier in the year where Dwayne Peel was saying that they were quite hopeful that they'd see Ken Owens again this season, and sadly it wasn't to be. There were rumours around November, December that it wasn't going to happen, then it seemed like it might happen again, and unfortunately, due to injuries, he had to retire and hasn't had that opportunity to say goodbye, and what a servant for Welsh rugby. 91 caps, five Lions test caps, seven successes seasons as captain of Scarlet, that's just the overview, that's before you get into the individual stats of both his performances and the trophies he's lifted, so fair play to him, what an achievement and what a career. Yeah, I mean, just on Turnbull, the Cardiff podcast in particular, what a player he's been for us for 10 years. I know he left under a slight cloud from Scarlets, and I think sometimes there's Cardiff people who can turn their nose up a bit, like us picking up people leaving other regions in weird circumstances, but it's going to be weird him not playing for Cardiff now, that's how staple he is. I think the stat when they announced it in the week is that before the season, he was averaging 23 games a season for us, and I'm sure we don't even play 23 games, I mean, he must be doubling up in a couple or something, so whatever shirt he's, four, five, six, seven, eight, captain or not captain, just like a top player, and a great guy off the pitch as well, you know, you guys chat a lot, I've chatted a lot about leadership and stuff, but there's been times where he's literally been carrying the team by himself, the only leader on the pitch or dragging us forwards and great guy off the pitch as well, I wrote a piece on my site today, but there's been a couple of other people say similar stories, and so my eldest son passed away in December 2021, and once I said about it, the first message I got was Josh Turnbull on behalf of the squad saying, like, really sorry to hear about your loss, anything we can do, let us know type thing, and I know barely if people know him on Twitter or in real life saying that when he started his chemo for cancer, same thing, Turnbull straight there messaging saying, like, good luck with it and stuff, and you don't have to do that, players don't, yeah, he's the captain of the club and stuff, but, you know, there's no need for him to be keeping up with supporters and messaging and stuff, so I think that just tells you what a top bloke he is as well off the pitch, and great that he's staying as an academy coach, I mean, he's had a long coaching apprenticeship, so to get him in there with the academy, and probably the Rags, once they sort all that out, then, yeah, a great guy to keep around, and his legacy will be his performances on the pitch, but also the players he's bringing through for them as well. Yeah, absolutely, I mean, you touched on my point, I was going to say, you know, don't be surprised to carry on seeing him around CAP, because he has taken on a role with the academy, and I think, you know, he's going to be a fantastic player to learn from, you know, maybe not even just the academy boys, I think there's still plenty in the senior squad to learn, you know, I think we made him an answer to one of the wrap Christmas quiz questions, you know, which players won the most different number of jerseys in a season, him, because he wore four, five, six, seven, eight, 19 and 20, all in one jersey, all in one season. I think, yeah, I mean, I don't think he did 21, because I don't think we did any 62 splits, but you guarantee if we had, he'd probably have had that one as well. Yeah, and again, you know, just because Cherish and Campbell Kane is probably one of the players who was sort of standing out from, you know, my earlier years of watching rugby. Yeah, and yeah, good luck to both of them, whatever they're doing next. Yeah, sorry. Sorry, mate, I just wanted to say the most important thing is they're both involved in rugby going forward. But I don't think you could meet two people that are more talismanic for and a better representatives of the game and need to be involved. And both are also, you know, from a Welsh language standpoint, and they've both done a lot in the Welsh language and spoken a lot in the Welsh language and prioritise that at times, which has been really nice. And I think it's just crucial that they stay within the game and around the game because they could be helped, but not just not just if it's coaching, but just involved in administration or anything really, just somewhere in the game. If I was a Scarlets now, there's an element of jobs for the boys. But you know, the way Ken spoke around that whole striking and all that sort of stuff. I mean, the mess of the Scarlets went off the field. Now they could certainly do worse than getting Ken in there somewhere to sort of have a look at their rugby structures and sort some of that stuff out with a real player focused mind on it. Even the sort of club spokesman type person, because again, he does speak really well. And if he has a name, he's someone who carries a lot of weight, I think. Moving on to sort of the other end of the career spectrum. So on this, we've announced Seven Sciences Senior Academy. I've seen the names. I don't really know too much about them, so I'm going to pass on to someone who knows a little bit more about that, which is Dan. Do you just want to give a quick rundown? Yeah, so there's seven players who signed Senior Academy deals. They are Tom Howe, a hooker, Dylan Barrett, brother of Reece, but I think he's a loose head pop mostly now. He was a tight head pop briefly, but I think he's full-time loose head. Evan Reece, who's a 6-8, Sean Davis at Scrimaf, Oshan Darwin-Lewis at centre, Olly Das, who I think his actual name's really long, it's like Thailand or something the family name is from. He's a full-back slash winger, predominantly can play full-back, and then Cody Stone, full-back slash winger. So we know Cody Stone quite a bit, he's played for the Rags and for Wales under-20s this year. We've seen Tom Howe, a hooker, I think I spoke about him briefly, he was under-16 but playing at under-18 and has been capped for Wales under-18 this year. Really promising player. I think it's an interesting move that they put him in the Senior Academy in his first year of sixth form, now going into year 12. They obviously rate him very highly. Slash, there may have been some others sniffing around there. Evan Reece has looked good for the Rags second half of the season, I think he was too old to play for Wales under-18s, so I think they bumped him up to the Rags a bit quicker, but he hasn't looked out of place. And then I think Sean Davis is probably the standout of the seven names there, he's capped in Wales under-18s, pretty much one player of the match before Glantaf even started some of their games in the college league this year. That's how good he's been. People might know his brother Jack, who was on our books briefly and is at the Scarlets now. But yeah, he looks a real player at nine, somebody who is just obviously better than everybody else on the pitch and I suspect we'll see quite a bit of him for the Rags. I suppose the question about some of these guys coming under-18 is whether they go into Buck Super Rugby, but I'm not sure if they're all going to university or not. But certainly expect Sean Davis to be playing heavily either Bucks or Rags next season. Maybe we'll try and get Griff back on the board and maybe he can give us a lowdown on what he thinks roughly what the plans are for a lot of these boys. I think there's a few more as well, just to say that Griff said they weren't finished, so I think they're probably looking at a couple more names as well before the start of next season. It'd be interesting to see if, despite the cameo presence of our rivals, whether or not the Rags get into the EDC next season, whether or not that ends up being a lot more academy heavy than we perhaps have in other years. Otherwise, the only other news I've got is Arlo Robson looks like he's leaving the club after one season. Unfortunately, I just don't think it worked out for him. I think we're shady coming home. We're fairly well stocked at five and a half now and we've got two decent pens and then we've got Ben Thomas as emergency camera and then we've got Harry Wilde in the academy. So, as I said, it's a bit unfortunate, I guess. Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed by this one. I think I really do feel for him because when he came in I was quite excited because I remember him at under-20s level and starting at Dragons he was a really good attacking threat and I thought he was really good in pre-season actually, particularly with ball in hand. But I think he then didn't get his opportunity then when he got his opportunity, I can't remember, against one of the South African teams, wasn't it? And he tried to really push the boat out and try and get everything perfect. And there were a couple of kicks out in the fall, there were a couple of things, a couple of forced passes and it just didn't work because he was so, he'd obviously built it up that he had to make an impact, had to have an effect on the game. And because he was so obsessed with that, he ended up having a negative effect on the game which then obviously knocked him down the pecking order again and sadly it's never quite worked out for him. I am disappointed for him. You know, one thing it does say is how good the form of Tinas Tabea has been and also that it's clear that Sherratt has his man which is Tinas and when you're trying to build a side and build a side that is perhaps going through a transitional period, you want some steady faces or steady people in certain positions and 10 is that crucial position. So I can understand why there hasn't been much chopping and changing but yeah, I hope for the best that Arwel finds a really good opportunity next season and has plenty of opportunities to show what he can do because he has definitely got plenty of talent. Anything you want to add to that? I watched him play for the Rags on Saturday. He's a class above that. I mean, he was cruising in that field like miles better than everybody else. But yeah, I think Arwen did it well. He just hasn't quite had the opportunity slash taken the small opportunities he has had at the top level. So in an ideal world, you'd keep him as third choice probably if budgets are at a suitable level. But where we are now, it's probably best for both parties to shake hands and move on. Yeah, that's it. Either way, we all wish you the best wherever you end up, Arwel. As it's sort of been alluded to quite heavily, Dan, do you want to discuss the Rags game? So another resounding victory? We were bloody brilliant. We were fantastic in the first half. We were the best start of the OBSC and then we completely stopped playing in the second half. We were already I thought it would be quite a close game actually against Merthyr. Yeah, they had a bit of cup final hangover to a degree, but they're always big and physical and they're quite tough to break down whenever you play them. But I mean, we just absolutely blew them away. Some of the tries we scored in the first half were superb. Arwel was way too good. Derry Cross is a class above. Luke Pollock looks really good outside centre. I think he's been one of the Rags players of the season this year coming out of Cardiff Uni. And then some of the guys up front, the Hud brothers, Lucas de la Rua was just cruising round as well, to be honest. Yeah, Alan Rees is one of the smaller hookers in the league, but I don't know how he does it. He just makes yards every time, unbelievable. So, yeah, I don't actually remember what the final score was, 40 or 20 something in the end, but we got a bonus point by about 20 minutes, I think. So at that point, it was just feet up. They will have to play much better for the full 80 minutes if they're going to beat anybody in the playoffs, but job done on Saturday. And just on a general level, I think it's a hell of a job for them to get into the playoffs. There's been a shortage of numbers, there's been rumours about Steve Law sort of not taking his payments so that other players could get paid. And the start of the season was a real tough time, I think, pre-takeover for the Rags, but the way they pulled it back second half of the season and got that fourth spot against, above some pretty good teams, Pula and Ponce Prida have looked good, particularly with the new coaches in. It's a credit to the young players that are there and also the more senior spine of that team as well as Greenfield. Is that your polite way of saying this is as far as it goes to Cardiff this season, because of who they've got in the semis? I'd bloody love to beat Newport. I would absolutely, in full Kevin Keegan style, love it if we beat them. But yeah, I think, you know, the good thing is, is pressure off. Nobody expects Cardiff to win that semifinal, so they can go out there and give it a really good go. I mean, unfortunately, there's a reason why nobody expects us to beat these teams. Did you see the score load for Newport on the weekend? Yeah, I said, Tony beat a big team on Tuesday, you know, his wife, he's a Bridgend senior kid, look at his wife, and he was sort of going, well, it's 40 now, it's 60 now, but look, they're not stopping. So yeah, final score in Newport Bridgend was 89-26. If you want to know how steep the challenge that's going to be for Cardiff, I think. Well, Lilo is back from his ban now, so he can have his game, his dream game against Newport. Just play him, just for the banter. I'd have a 10 to play the Matt O'Brien against Sadwell, I'd watch that. That'd be quite a good battle, that. Yeah, just going on to the third, so obviously that covers two of the three premierships always we follow. Do you just want to talk briefly about the Santa Cruz game, Coward? And then maybe just wrap up the premiership as it is. Yeah, got a win, a two-point win up in RGC. I know Johan Dier goes to every game, he's going straight from Gloucester to that game, so fair play to him. Got a 5.30 train from Gloucester to get up to RGC to watch that one. But yeah, I think it's been a weird season for Ponteprese, and on top of that, what's going on with EDC, it's sad, it's a bit of an end of an era for them, I think, and Merthyr as well, to an extent, but probably they haven't been in that division as long as Ponteprese, and when you think of a league that's going to be without Ponteprese in it, considering how dominant they have been at times and how crucial they've been to that league at other points, it's sad to see. But fair play to them, they got the win on the weekend, they're going to finish in a special position in the league, considering that they have ended up changing their coaching staff throughout the season as well, and like Cardiff as well, have had several injuries and players unavailable. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the players there now, I don't know. On the Welsh pod, we interviewed Josh Phillips a few months ago, someone like him, who's still young, only a couple of years out of his under-20s, and maybe still has ambitions to get back to regional rugby. What do you do? Because he's had a great season with Ponteprese, do you stay with Ponteprese, or do you then look for a team that's going to be in the EDC? So we'll have to see what happens to them going into next season, it'll be interesting. He's signed for Swansea, apparently. Oh, there we go. Do you know what I mean? He's an example, but maybe Dan's answered my question. Literally, of all the players you could have picked, I only know the Josh Phillips, as I was formerly. But there are certainly others, like I would say something like Ryan Wilkins at Ponte, who was formerly of us, like was he 21, 22, probably looked really good with us, but for injury could have maybe stepped to the first team. But yeah, if you're staying with Ponte, you're not exactly putting your hand up to get back in the pro game at this point. So moving on then, so I think, correct me if I'm wrong, so the semi-finals, I don't know when they've been played, but it's going to be Newport versus the Rags, and Llandevery hosting Ebbw Vale, I believe, is that correct? Or are there still some things that need to be sorted? Llandevery can finish top if they win both of their remaining games with a bonus point, I think, they'll finish above Newport highest point. That does seem quite likely, given how well they've been going. Yeah, I'm not sure who it's against, but I think the provisional dates are the 4th 5th of May for the semi-finals, and then the following weekend for the final, but I think last year it was on like a Sunday night or something stupid, wasn't it? I'm sure whenever it's played, it will have been well thought through by the WIU. It's a very nice, I don't know if you've seen the timer dating down for the Cardiff RFC website, taking down to the play-off, which is quite nice, I like that, of 16 days, it's coming down to seconds, which I really appreciate as well. Alright, moving on, so we'll swing from sort of semi-pro community up to international. Wales women went to Virgin Media Musgrave Park to play Ireland women? I think, safe to say, none of us expected that. No. Sorry, I probably should expand. No, I didn't expect them to get hammered by Ireland 36-5. What I will say is, it does say a lot about, and people are going to say it's down to professionals, it's not just down to that. Ireland last year lost 31-5 in Cardiff, didn't they? And I think that was without a lot of their sevens players, there's no Parsons, there's no Eve Higgins in the centre, just one hell of a player by the way, she's got a great try on the weekend. And those sort of players have been crucial to their backline, and that's where they got the success against Wales a little bit. Outside edge defence again for Wales was a bit lacking, the last player defence especially. I think it's been... It was also uncharacteristic errors, and I think that was one of the words that Carys Cox used in presser this week, which was saying, it's uncharacteristic of us that the line-out was malfunctioning. The line-out has malfunctioned a lot this season so far. I don't know exactly what that's down to. I can't really put my finger on it because it's not as if it's a completely different set of players. It's a bit confusing why that has been struggling as much as it has. It hasn't worked with Seiki at ten so far. The plan was to have a more expansive game plan, that was all that was being talked about. Get the backs involved, get the back three, exciting back three, young back three involved. That hasn't worked. It was also... You look back to a few seasons ago where Seiki George, there was a clamour for her to be part of it because they wanted distance on the kicks. But now I think the way Wales are wanting to play with a bit more width, it almost calls for a... Keely Powell to play at ten because I think she's made a real impact when she's come on the bench, come off the bench I should say. I thought Carys Cox went well, moving into the centre and offered a bit more cutting edge, although I do hope that Karen Lake's injury isn't too bad. I know she was having a scan the other day. I don't know the conclusions on that so far. And likewise with Bethan Lewis, that also derailed Wales. But overall, this week both Carys Cox and Courtney Keats that were on for presser duty this week both said that they were hurting after that result and I think the pressure is now starting to get to... maybe Johan Cunningham, not quite the players but definitely Johan Cunningham. A few people calling for his head. I'm not quite on that bandwagon yet. It'll be interesting to see what Dan thinks but I think there's a lot to be said about continuity in that position. I just think tactically they've been out-thought at times as well which is the slightly more worrying thing and maybe have just got a lot of things wrong and a low on confidence. Yeah, I mean, I think Aaron's covered the on-field stuff really well there. I didn't watch it live so I already knew the score and I'd seen a few comments going into watching it yesterday and it was worse than I was expecting even then. I just, I agree there's no point calling for Cunningham to be sacked at this point. That's very knee-jerk. I think he's built up enough credit in the bank to be given a chance to turn it around and I just, I did find, I've got his quote here that the BBC picked out. It said, I think we have to be honest with each other. We're probably not comparing apples with apples with different countries at the moment, which I thought was a weird comment to make after playing Ireland because if it was England or France, you know, that's definitely not a comparable set-up. But if anything, we should be ahead of Ireland. We were professional a good 12 months before their women's game was in a right mess. I think the IRFU gets praised for sort of the men's pathway and how they've dealt with that, but their women's game was absolute shambles. Lots of infighting going on there. And so now he's saying that we're not comparing apples with apples with Ireland. Does that mean that, you know, that means there's wider problems there? The WIU have sort of almost put a bit in place, we've done all right, and then they put their feet up and said, oh, that's sorted. Now we've sorted women's rugby, off we go. There's something not quite right there. I thought Hannah Jones' comment about sort of lacking want and passion is maybe more specific around the culture maybe within the squad at the moment, whether something needs to change there. But I don't know, there's obviously something behind the scenes which isn't going right, as well as the on-field stuff. Yeah, that's an odd comment from Cunningham, which probably needed a bit more context. Potentially it's something as simple as he's just trying to say anything to deflect a bit of blame off the players at this point and trying to protect them a little bit. They are a much better team than they're showing. It's not that we've got poor players or that we're massively poorly coached, I think. It could simply just be it went wrong on Saturday, and that does happen sometimes. How we bounce back will be important. Lots of questions hanging over the last two weeks of this competition, certainly. Sorry, just to jump back in, but one on the Hannah Jones comment, I think people were at pains to stress that that was taken out of context a little bit when it was put on social media. But I think with Cunningham's comment, it's a sign that... I don't want to say it's difficult to say complacency, but the initial statement from Nigel Walker when he came in was something along the lines of, we have the best pathway in the world. Well, Wales have not got the best pathway in the world. I mean, they're nowhere near it. I would say they're definitely closer than they were three years ago, and we'll come into the brilliance of the pathway in a bit. But it's still problems there. At the national level, just not having a professional team in Wales at the moment does seem baffling. And I do get why there's so much clamour for that situation to be resolved, because so many of those players haven't been playing consistently or certainly weren't on the back of the WXV, and then have started playing more regularly. Obviously, a lot of them, what is it, 12 of them play for Gloucester or are part of Gloucester's set-up, rather. Not a lot of them play every week, so it's a bit of a difficult one going forward, I think. We spoke about it after the men's Six Nations. There needs to be a review. This one, I think, there really needs to be a review. Last time Wales lost heavily against Ireland, I think, was three years ago. I can't remember, but they were nilled by Ireland at home. And the reaction to that was professional contracts to get the girls getting money for their jobs and give them an opportunity to become better, a better opportunity to become better, I should say. Now there needs to be a serious review of why have Ireland clearly leapfrogged them or seemingly leapfrogged them? Why has Scotland managed to close the gap while Wales haven't managed to close that gap above them to the extent? But, yes, that's the negative part. We can move on to the positive part, can't we? I was going to have Mike do this. So I've been instructed by a RAF head office that we've got to focus on the positives. So Ireland were amazing. The fiscal intent, despite the union not giving a shit, which is incredibly worrying. This is when the IRFU put the bare minimum into it, into the Irish women's team, and they blew, blew, blew. Aoife Wafer, basically, I think that's three play of the matches in a row, you know, made her debut. Sam Monaghan, unbelievable. It's like she had our calls because she managed to mess up bar line it very well. And, you know, a lot of that was her pressure. It wasn't necessarily us doing it wrong. I do think Joan Cunham should have listened to the pod when I said bring Natalia Chilman. And I also feel like we should have started with a bulkier set-up, I do think. I think they thought we wouldn't be able to match, we'd be able to beat Ireland up at front, and frankly, that's not the case, I think. I do think we've gotten a bit complacent with that, and not necessarily developed the other parts of our game as to where they should be. I mean, you mentioned the out wide defence just isn't quite good enough. The kicking game's still an issue. And then I feel like the attack. To be honest, I could take the moments I have about the attack and put it on any Welsh side. Professional, semi-pro, national, international club. It does seem to be an issue, where it's only in the MQ from the moment about quite a lot in the past. But, yes, so we've got France up next week. At the start of this tournament, I thought we'd have a good go against France, less sure now. And then, obviously, final game is Italy. So, you know, it's starting to become that's going to be a must-win game again. It sounds very similar to the conversations we had during the men's Six Nations. Yeah, it is a must-win game, isn't it? Yeah, France, I think, played a bit of a rotated side at times and probably not shown all their true colours and maybe did that a little bit more so against Italy. Whereas, Italy, on the flip side, haven't really turned up to the extent that we may be expecting. They haven't kicked on in the last 12 months, I think, compared to Ireland and Scotland. So, I think it is a real challenge. As you mentioned, we've got to speak positively. I do want to get a quick word in about Gwenan Hopkins because I don't think I've been as excited about a player coming through in a long time. And that's men's or women's rugby. I really think she is the real deal. And that's not just on the pitch as well. For 19, she speaks so well in Welsh and English. It's just second nature to her. And she's inspirational. You listen to her. And she said she's dreamt of playing for Wales since she was four years of age. And then she's getting her debut cap. She comes on, makes a huge impact, and scores a try on debut. Yeah, OK, the result isn't the ideal thing, but she is a really good prospect. And the people that were there at the press conference on Tuesday, I hope she doesn't mind us saying this, but afterwards, we all turned to each other and went, well, there's Wales' captain of the future. Because it seemed obvious that the way she speaks, the way she is, how high quality a player she is. At speed, ball carrying, with late footwork, technically, she's brilliant. She's gone through the pathway. And this is where the pathway has been brilliant. She said she's the first to be in Wales under 18s, Wales under 20s, Celtic Challenge, and now she's getting the opportunity at Wales. And she's also in the Hartbury set-up as well. She's going to be brilliant. And yeah, her, Sian Jones, you can see these talented players coming through. And technically, and ball skills was the other thing that was mentioned by Courtney Key, their skills are technically far superior to people probably 10 years older than them, because they've grown up with the rugby ball, rather than perhaps picked up the rugby ball at university level like some of the other players have. And it's going to be brilliant once these players get into their pomp in some 10 years' time in Glasgow. And her mum is still playing for Club Rugby, apparently, in Cardiff. So get her in as well, I would. This is Cora. Yeah, I love it when you've got mother-daughters there. It's at the Valkyrie, so our women's team there. So the captain, Hannah, her mum retired last season. So they had two seasons playing together. And her mum still comes in and sits on the bench just in case they're short for the season as well. So, you know, all about that. So moving swiftly on. So after what feels like 50 years, Cardiff, the senior side, have an actual game. So Friday Night Lights, which would have been great for me because I could have stayed and then I realised it was Ulster. So, yeah, so we're going up against Ulster. Ulster currently eighth in the league. We're sort of in 12th. Ulster have had a bit of a bad campaign. I've seen rumours that the likes of Stephen Kitchoff, Ian Henderson will be playing. I don't know how true that is, but I feel like that could even the odds on our side. What do you both feel, think about the upcoming game? They have confirmed that... I'm just trying to look for the list of players now. They picked up a load of injuries playing. They played Claremont, I think, last weekend. It was like Henderson, Kitchoff, one of the other island... Or Timoney, is it the Franco? In and around the island squad as well. Stuart Moore in the centres. They are missing a bunch of lads. They've been right up and down this season, sacked the coach. They've got some serious money problems by the sounds of it as well. Kitchoff is off at the end of the season as their major signing. Their CEO has stepped down as well. All is not right at Ulster, but I think going to any island team away is always tough. Ulster on a Friday night is always going to be tough in Belfast. It is a good chance. Just looking at this game and the Edinburgh game as a mini-block for Cardiff, I think a result would be really good here. Within Cardiff, we know the improvement that we've had throughout the season. We know that if we don't win, it's not necessarily showing that we haven't improved at all. The way the fixtures have worked, we had the easier fixtures when we weren't so good at the start of the season. Now we're better, but we're playing tougher games in the second half of the season. We can still be improving without really noticing on the results at this point. Just to have something tangible for the supporters and for those outside the bubble to really see that we are taking a step forward. I think a positive result, either from Ulster or Edinburgh, preferably both, would be really good. Our injury list is looking slightly shorter. I think Faletau is back this week. I think Teddy missed the last game through injury. He'll be back as well. Obviously, a couple of guys, Aserati and Adams, I'm thinking in particular, who are carrying Knox through the Six Nations, have had two or three weeks off now to recover. I think we're in a good spot. Ulster are not as physically imposing as they have been before. We saw against Munster that when we come up against teams who are similar playing styles to us, we can go toe-to-toe with these guys and we can get a little bit of forward dominance at the right times. We can just brush up on the accuracy of that attacking game, which I think has let us down over the last two games or so, particularly in the red zone. If we can just convert, nudge our points per 22 entry up just by two or three points, we're in a really good position to get a positive result from there. It's difficult to balance how much you want to win with the fact that we are on this really long journey. I would really love for us to win one of the next two games. Go on, Jonathan. Yeah, the cynic in me, when Dan started, he said, it's been confirmed. I thought he was going to say, it's been confirmed that Cardiff have lost by seven points, after being ahead at 60 points. It's actually getting difficult. Look, with all the upheaval at Ulster, I think if you're ever going to win up there, this is a great opportunity. I don't think this is the best Ulster society level C. Obviously, they've got a bit more to play for than Cardiff. Although, as I discussed with Harley before the pod, Cardiff do still have a chance at top eight, even though it is bizarre and highly unlikely. I do struggle to see Cardiff winning the game. I do genuinely think it'll be four or five points to Ulster. It'll be one of those frustrating times, but you can get at Ulster. That 10-9 defensive structure they've got at the moment clearly isn't sorted. Dowak isn't. For me, he's not a 10. I don't know if he's going to start a 10 this week, but if he is, I don't think he is a 10. He's a scrum-half playing 10, and it's clear when you watch him that he is. I'd like to see Cardiff target those areas. Ben Thomas has been running some really nice lines in that position in recent weeks, especially not quite to the ability of Max Llewellyn, but in a Max Llewellyn-esque off the back of the line, he can do it and can target those plays, and I'd like to see him doing it. Likewise, get Josh Adams doing what Josh Adams does best, which is attacking off the back of the line-out, coming on a subtle line behind the line-out. If you remember the try he scored against Georgia in the World Cup in 2019, that sort of line that Wales use so well, and I think you can target them as well, because they do tend to defend with a hooker at the back of the line-out there, or certainly used to. It's a good opportunity to play Ulster, but it is still Ulster away, which is always going to be a challenge. It'll be a good performance from Cardiff. We know that, it's just whether we get a good result. Yeah, absolutely. Shall we, just for a bit of fun, shall we do our, as we do have a game to predict the team for, shall we do our usual completely inaccurate team prediction, despite what is an incredibly settled squad? I'm going to be selfish, I'm going to pick a front row, and I'm going to go with I'm going to go Kerry, Belcher and Azzarate. Any recourse on that? Any chance for any different names? Kerry, Dommer, sort of... It's 50-50 for them. I feel like it's Kerry's tip, send them off on a good run. Yeah, the only thing I would say is, just for narrative reasons, do they start Dommer this week and then start Kerry next week, so he comes off during the game and gets the applause in his last home game? I don't know how much Sherratt thinks about these sort of things. I'm starting for both in the block. I think if Dommer starts out in South Africa, they're probably going to want their strongest scrimmage and loose head to start. Fair point. It's mandatory there's going to be a big ginger loose head playing at the start. There's no kicks off, so we've got to have a big red ginger. Big red one. Dan, do you want to pick second row? Kerry and Seb, I think, pretty straightforward. Yeah. Any calls for anyone else? I mean, for me it's Terry and Seb anyway. No, I'd agree. I'd agree. I think it's probably going to be Mann, Mann, Young, and I'd be stunned if I touched that. So I'm going to say Benji Martin. Yeah, same. Don't ruin it. To me the narrative is, is Palaita's coming back and he's going to show us this was the missing link and we're just going to win everything there. He was those last seven points we needed. I mean, that could be the case though, but with him off the bench, because that's when we really need somebody like Palaita, really. The only problem is, I find Palaita a really poor player off the bench. He's not a poor player, but off the bench I feel like, because I feel like he's one of those players who grows with the game. There we go. That's going to be clipped up. If anything gets clipped up from us on social, I'm a really poor player. There we go. Off the bench. Off the bench, innit? I've got this. And now, the reason I picked Brent Roberts is because it means that I get to do the easiest selection, which is half-backs, which is a definite, definite to be it. Is it though? Because it could virtually come straight in. No, I feel like Jocky's so keen on keeping like consistency, like, you know, he's really avoided the risk of them even resting to be it. You know, I reckon it would have been, you know, it would have been Thomas if it... Yeah, I don't agree with you. I don't agree with you. And also, I think Bevan's to be have made quite a good partnership now, so... And it is almost solidifying maybe our first choice partnership. I think it'd be interesting if Bevan does start. Does that suggest... For some reason in my head, if Bevan starts, unless Bevan's got a knock that we don't know about, but if Bevan starts, it suggests to me that they see a more... a longer future for him at the club. If he's off the bench and just, you know, I don't want to say making up the numbers because that's not quite... He's a much better player than that. But the way Sheriff's used his spare nine is basically making up numbers. Yeah, at times. Yeah. So if he's on the bench and there is cover, then that suggests that it's a short-term loan and it's just because Thomas is injured and they need someone in that slot. But if he starts regular games and starts three or four on the trot towards the end of the season, that to me suggests perhaps that it's a longer-term ambition to keep him towards next season. And just to counter my own playing devil's advocate question, like Faletau coming on in the last 20 minutes, Bertrand coming on in the last 20 minutes would be really good as well because I think particularly obviously his experience, but I think you can then say to Bevan that you're not going to play the 80, definitely not now because, like, we've got somebody on the bench who can come on. So, properly empty your tank for 55, 60 minutes. Give us as much tempo as you can. All of your tricks, all of your threatening the fringes. You don't have to conserve anything. And then we'll bring on somebody who won't kick it away in the 80th minute. Oh, that's necessary, wasn't it? I'm still hurting about it, to be honest. Go on, go on. Talk us through the centre partnership. Was it Ben, Thomas and A and other? Yeah, definitely Ben. Does Lilo come straight back in or do they keep Grady there? Grady was good there against Munster. Low Lane's injured, so does, but Cabango's fit now. Does Grady go back out? I don't know. I still kind of think if Lilo's fit, you pick him at 13. Just... He's just our best 13. Yeah, he just... I still think he's one of the best in Wales. So, I'll go Ben and Ray and Mason, like, well, whoever picks the back three, I would imagine pops him onto the wing then. And then with Ray advancing, if he only does 60 on his return, then Mason would just slot in from then, really. Yeah, I'd be surprised if Grady is on the wing, just purely because Diego Cabango's up for press this week, so that suggests that he's playing. Yes, it does. Yeah. That was an interesting one. I didn't know that that was the case, unless... There's something about Adams we don't know about and they've left him at home. Maybe they want to give him his knees a proper recovery. Don't know how much he's healed after whatever it was he had during the Six Nations. So, Cowan, I'm guessing then your back three, you're looking at Cabango, Winnet, Adams? Yeah, I wasn't there, but that apparently was a professor that I assume he's going to play in the back three, unless it's more of a narrative thing along the lines of how amazing it is to have him back. He's going to be in the 23 jersey. But I'd be surprised if he's there as well. I think you're looking at probably beating him in the 23. So, yeah, I think that's the obvious back three options is Josh on one wing, Theo on the other wing, and Cam. Well, Cam, yeah. Full back. If that's the case, I'm happy to put Mason at 13 as the selection. Maybe they're just saying now's the time we've moved on from Ray a little bit where he's been missing for a few weeks and we're forward planning. We can't, or he's going to be announced as he could be announced as leaving and they're saving him for the play next week in the last home game, so maybe there's an option. Any recourse for that one? So we go into Grady for 13? Yeah. Yeah, that's what I mean. I mean, he has to start, essentially. If he's fit, he starts, Mason. Just because of the sort of the size that he gives you and the pace and stuff. Yeah, he's a bit more around the edges, but I don't, at this point, I don't think you can not start him anymore. Two big choices, though. So first of all, are we saying we're sticking with Sherratt's usual 5-3 or do you think he's going to go back to a 6-2 for this game? Also, even with some of the big names they are quite a physical team. I would say 6-2, probably. I would lean towards. He's shown no inclination to put another fly half on the bench. So, yeah, Beetham can play centre and full-back. Probably play wing if you asked him to as well. I think he has, at some point, gone under the seat. If you've got Grady, you can move out. Yeah. I just think your centre's a bit thin. You know, both your centres and if Beetham goes into 12 or 13, then you've got both. Yeah, I think we don't have any 13s anyway. The only other option is Beetham and... Yeah, Beetham and Max Clarke, I guess. I don't know if he's still cropped it. I said I don't know. That's the only other, or it'd be one of Hallahall or Ole Lowe. What's the loose forward options? We've got Donnells, obviously, the obvious one. I was thinking, yeah, you could probably go with someone like Thornton as your 19. Thornton, Donnell and Ellis? Yeah. Or Falotel. Or Falotel, yeah. Yeah, no, I forgot about him. But, you know, if... I thought that was the reason we did a 6-3. We can swap them both out. Donnell looked pretty good in the second row versus Munster, I feel. Yeah, I think... I personally think it might be a 5-3 and Donnell and Falotel on the bench, which to me is just... It's just a risk with no open-side cover, then. If Young goes down, you are stuffed for a proper factor. Yeah. I mean, to say that, if you think about a lot of the past, you know, a lot of our tight side forwards are pretty decent over the ball as well. Mann can do it. He's definitely more... It would be botching rather than like-for-like would be the issue, I guess. Yeah. There's always got to be a compromise somewhere. Yeah. We'll make a decision. Are we doing 5-3 or 6-2? I'm saying 6-2. Carwyn, you're saying 5-3. You're the host. You get to decide the vote. I'm going to go purely just because I want as many back rows in this team as possible. So I'm going 7-1. 6-2. I'll go 6-2. So, look at Thornton, Donnell, Falotel. Then I've got Bertrand, Beetham, and then so front row replacements. Tomaszewski at 17. 18. If Litterick's not fit, are we thinking Will Davies-King or Parker? Davies-King seems to be ahead of Parker at the moment, doesn't he? Yeah. I think Jocky quite likes the fact that he almost adds to that carry physicality in the carry later on. Then 16. Are we going for FM or Evan? Evan Daniel was a random late appearance on the bench for the Rags on Saturday. He wasn't named, but then just turned up on the day, I don't know, after a game or whatever. Maybe they wanted him in a minute to his leg. So I wonder if that means that it's Lloyd this weekend and they were down the other run out last weekend. Makes sense. There we go, Lloyd. So our team, we're going Carey, Dutcher, Azerati, 7th, Eddie, second row, Mann, Young, Martin. Sounds like a really weird program. Bevan and De Beer, 9th and 10th. And then back line from 11 to 15. Cabango, Ben Tonnes, Nathan Grady, George Adams, can win it. Ben Sher, Evan Lloyd, Robbie Domichowski, Will Davis King, Thornton, Ben Donald, Falasow, but you know, Beeson, they're going to be happy with that. So these are two, sort of like, cover and stuff. I mean, yeah, we probably could do with another proper entrance seven, but... That's a hell of an 11 to 15 there. If that back line takes, that could cause problems for a team who do seem to struggle to connect their forwards and their backs. Yeah, it's just young Welsh talent, as well as what everyone asks for all the time. But I mean, they are some seriously talented... I mean, that could be a Wales back line in the not-too-distant future. I would have thought Adams would be a senior head at that point. It feels like only yesterday he broke onto the scene. He's the senior head, but also the most likely to start a fight. That's a bit like Glasgow when they had Ryan Wilson as captain, isn't it? Right. So, I think that's all. We do have some... So, Gowan, you put out on the Twitter as about, you know, what sort of, who we should sign. Welsh internationals, realistic, cheap person, other international quality players. Do you just want to give a quick round before we sign off? Yeah, there's a lot of response, so thank you very much for that. It was basically me putting it out there on the back of our pod last week and Dan's brilliant spreadsheet, which I have still been perusing over and trying to work out if there are any. I think there were about 20 million people suggesting that you'd forgotten things or missed things out, but it was all good. Yeah, I think this week when I put it out, I was trying to think of what position was most likely that we need and I think the general consensus is a second row, which I think Harley and I have said several times I think it's fair to say over the course of the year, Harley. Yeah, I think I said reading Dan's work for many years, it's something that's been a recurring theme as well. Yeah. All Cardiff fans can get it tattooed on their arm, we need a second row. Less tarty backs, more fun. Yeah, so there's been a couple of locks or a couple of I do like the idea of Cobus Reinechen, don't think it's going to happen. That was a really left field one, especially when they said a Springbok, you know, there's rumours of a Springbok 9, which I don't think we will sign a Springbok 9, but I feel like Reinechen is one who sort of edging his way out, maybe his price tag's coming down a bit now. Yeah. That could be an interesting one, as, you know, in terms of like in a nippy 9, I'm not going to say the line or the commentators say, but you know, he was a very quick man. Yeah. I really like him. Another couple of shouts that I really do like, Louis Hennessy, I really like that shout as a centre, I think I might have mentioned it last week, if I didn't, I mentioned it in my brain. Alan Davis again, another one that I think I've mentioned a couple of times, I think that was you Harley last week. I think it's just because I think he's out of contract. That's the reason I thought, well, he's well-qualified, which does sort of help with the signing side of things. Yeah. And James, good suggestion, Johnny Green. I didn't want to bring it up because it's James, but it was a very good suggestion. I can't wait to get the message when he hears that bit as well. Any particular suggestions for yourselves? Yeah, so Dan, any names jump out at you? I retweeted it and didn't actually consider the question myself. I mean, the general theme is that loose head second row nine centre. Well, I like Louis Hennessy. I also like Bryn Bradley as a second centre option as well. Just a young Welsh guy. Obviously, Harlequin's are losing Andre Esther Hazen, but they're talking about replacing him. If you're Bryn Bradley and looking at them bringing someone else in ahead of you, you're kind of thinking, hmm, am I getting the minutes here or not? It's difficult to say. The problem is, it's difficult to say who's realistic for Cardiff at this point in time because how much money do we have and do people want to come to us as well? None of the names jumped out that I thought were particularly top, top draw. I do like Ali Davis as an option. I don't know if he's exactly what we need attacking wise, but certainly as a kicking option he's very, very good. And that is perhaps what we've lacked in nines at times, well, post Lloyd anyway. So if Bevan becomes the new Thomas as the kind of more attacking nippy option and then Ali Davis as your finisher, your game manager last 20, that's a really nice option. With respect to Ali coming back, I don't think he's going to re-force his way back into a Wales squad necessarily. With Reuben Morgan-Williams and Archie Hughes coming through, Dame Black are sort of still there or thereabouts as well, I think he would be available for most of the season. So I don't mind that as an option at all. One thing, as I said, Bryn Bradley was one of the names that jumped out for me. I would quite like to see maybe a dip into sort of maybe the Rugby Europe Championship and Rugby Europe Super Cup type taking up maybe picking up one of the sort of like the Romanian or Georgian type 5 forwards. I know when his contract was up in the air before he finally re-signed with the top 14, so he's great and suits the Jordan side. I'd really, really like to work with him. I've got a feeling we've definitely got to be able to do this once his short-term deal is done. We'll just re-sign our head and see if he'll play loose head. Or open up one of the tight heads. Knowing all this, we'll end up with Marstins from Portugal. And he'll just end up as a back row option of the Cardiff move. I'd love to see it. I think he's spent a lot of time at second row. To be fair, he's a fantastic line-out option. He's a second row seven hybrid. If ever there's a Cardiff signing, it's Marstins. The questions are coming in. I think Louis Hennessey jumps out to me. Whenever I hear Bryn Bradley, I just think Blennyn Bowen. I think it's just the alliteration which just makes it funny. Not necessarily the worst thing. No. Before we had the reincarnation of Blennyn. Shout out to that fantastic comic book. It's still available. If you haven't got a copy, you should get one. Yeah. And then loose head. I do suspect they're coming from somewhere in the southern hemisphere. I think that would be a good move if possible. Otherwise, there's not a loose head out there that jumps out to me and says, and I'm thinking, oh, brilliant. That'd be great signing. Certainly not within Wales. We're in a ditch or three, and we're missing a big ginger. Yeah. Yeah. It's not going to happen. No. But, you know, it's just Yeah. We also want to sign first we want to sign. Give me a name. Any name. Jordy Barrett. I mean, he's free for six months. He's only going to be around for four or five months. Yeah. Is this lesser-known Springbok who's sort of trawling around Ireland at the moment? No one's really heard of him. Is John Clean there? He could be interesting. Yeah. I was having a discussion with someone the other day, and they mentioned as a nine. I don't think it was like we're going to sign him, but just the sort of level that we were looking at was Keegan Johannes, who's the Bulls back-up nine at the moment. I think he came off the bench against Northampton in their much-changed team of controversy. I thought he was pretty good. Yeah, he's 23, 24. Like a lot of things have to be designed game management wise. Yeah. To be fair, that really fits in with the Cardiff side. He's played relatively sparingly for the Bulls, but he's had enough game time to sort of develop enough and it works well with teams to be here, bringing somebody in from not a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South America and bringing them in from a top-top level South