Cardiff Central - Reindeer horns and hairstyles

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss various topics including their experiences with broadcasting rugby games, their Christmas preparations, and the recent Cardiff rugby match. They mention the strong performance of Cardiff in the first quarter of the game, but also highlight the impressive scramble defense of Toulouse. They also discuss a missed opportunity for Cardiff to score and how the current laws affect momentum swings in games. Overall, they provide a lighthearted and conversational approach to discussing these topics. Welcome to the Cardiff Central Podcast. Hello and welcome to this week's edition of the Cardiff Central Podcast. It's not a new thing with me taking over Harley. I haven't booted him out or nothing like that. I'm just stepping in for a week. And we will discuss shortly why Harley is not here. But joining me, Leezy, as always, is Carwyn. Good evening, Carwyn. How are you, my friends? Yeah, not bad. Third podcast in the week. So, getting a bit used to seeing your face. This is the second I've seen yours. How many giants of scarlet can I get in this pod as well? It will be edited sharply if you try and get them in tonight, mate. No, it was a good laugh on Monday. It was a good laugh. I was saying before we started on Monday that last time Francisco joined us, it was after Portugal got knocked out of the World Cup and he'd done like a weekend of... He said to us like two or three weeks before, you know, at the end of the pool stages, I'll come back on. And then he'd obviously, like Portugal, played really well. And he was just doing interview after interview after interview. And he'd done like 48 hours straight. And it was a sort of Monday night and we started talking about something else. I could see him on camera going... And I was like, oh, we've got to keep him awake. We've got to keep talking to him. So, he was with it this weekend. And to be honest, I could have done with the sleepy one. I had an absolute kicking on Monday. Yeah, the last time I spoke to Francisco was over a BBC phone. Well, actually, I'm on mobile trying to get in touch with him while he was out in France, realizing he didn't have FaceTime audio call into the studio on a Friday night for Radio Wales. And him chasing around after Lauren Jenkins' move on to call in. I can't express how difficult that day was. That show should have been really easy and then it just went really difficult really quickly. But, yeah, it was nice to see his face and speak to him in semi-person, I suppose. So, what have you been up to this week, mate? Anything exciting, anything interesting to report this week? Nothing much. I was working on radio and online for the Scarletts game on Saturday. So, that was a bit annoying when you're not able to watch the Cardiff game and you have to listen to the Cardiff. So, I listened to Kenneth Davies' commentary. He was brilliant, obviously, in both languages. But I was listening to his commentary and wishing I was watching that one while watching the Scarletts out in France. But, yeah, it was quite a fun day. Obviously, we spoke on the wrap about the frustrations of Scarletts. But, yeah, I listened to Cardiff's less than perfect performance. I think that's a fair way of battling the boring. So, it's interesting to hear, but maybe I'd rather watch it if I could have gotten away with that. A long time ago, I say a long time ago, a couple of years ago, I was working on a Saturday night. And so, I was following, you know, like some of the national newspapers of Wales do a play-by-play kind of guide to the game, don't they? Yeah. And all that kind of stuff. But it was obviously a guy sitting in a studio in Bristol or Gloucester or somewhere watching about four games. Because I had like three or four different things all on my screen. So, I had Scarletts in one, I had Gloucester in another. I had Harlequins in another. Oh, I can't remember who it was. Anyway, at some point during the game, he got confused and put the wrong bit of commentary in the wrong game. So, in the Scarletts game, I was following the... But obviously, I didn't tweak for a while because I was following all of them. And there was something from like the Bristol game suddenly appeared in the Scarletts feed. And I just went, okay, yeah, yeah. And then after a couple of minutes, you kind of go, hang on a second, hang on, scroll back, scroll back. Comment deleted, copy, paste over to the other one. So, yeah, I wouldn't want to do more than one game at a time. That's what confused the hell out of me. Yeah, I nearly missed my update from You and My Tribe. Because the producer said, oh, we'll come to you in ten minutes. And I thought, okay. Sorry, we'll come to you in five minutes or something like that. And this had been like a quarter of an hour after the Tribe. But the problem was, the Tribe came like two minutes after the previous update. So, when they came to me, I was like, to be honest, I haven't got much to say. And then I went, oh, wait, I haven't actually mentioned You and My Tribe. The highlight of the game was Scarlet. I haven't actually mentioned that bit. But, you know, it was a good Tribe. I don't think this guy's a Scarlet fan, you know. I don't think he's a Scarlet fan. I'm not taking that. I'm completely neutral. It's hard being neutral, mate. It's hard. I take my hat off to you being neutral. Because I've tried doing it. And I cannot do it at all. When there's a team, either your team or, like, so I'm a Scarlet. So, if it's a Scarlet or the Ospreys, no. I'm either one side or the other. I can do it for Cardiff. I can watch a Cardiff game and enjoy the rugby. I can watch a Dragons game. You kind of enjoy a Dragons game because you're always thinking, yeah, that something's going to happen and, you know, underdogs and all that kind of stuff. But, yeah. And then I watch some of the English stuff and it does just bore me. Yeah. I kind of get your point. To be fair, the Scarlets one is more for me. I like winding people up. But especially my family and my partner's family. Because my partner and her family are all Scarlets fans. My family pretty much all are Scarlets fans. So, it's more that I enjoy. But I get the opportunity to just go, oh, so Osprey played well. I'll go again. Darby results haven't exactly been ideal. Although, I was there at the Swansea.com celebrating when that happened. Which was maybe not what I should have been doing. But it was nice to rub it in a little bit. You do know we've got Christmas coming up, don't you? And, you know, Christmas is full of, like, the family time. Where you're going to have to sit in the room with all these people and talk about rugby at some point. And they're just going to keep reminding you about how many times Scarlets have beaten Cardiff this year. Yeah, so we're going to the Boxing Day game at the Osprey. So, I'm really hoping for Osprey to win. Oh, this is going to be difficult. So, yeah, that's basically my Christmas. Getting through Christmas Day and then praying that the Ospreys win on Boxing Day. Just to have something to brag about. Even though it's not here for my team. That's awful, mate. That's awful. Well, let me tell you about how my Christmas is going so far. So, tree is up. Decorations up. Lights are up now. Yeah, and all of that kind of stuff. And then, so we went to see Luminate last night at the Botanic Gardens. That was really cool. First time I've been to see it. That was really, really cool. So, I've done all of that. Lights downstairs. And then my wife's developed an obsession with, like, the lights inside ornaments. You've got to switch them on individually. Yeah, so, and we can't have one. We've got to have a display. And then you can't have a display on one side of the room without something to balance it on the other side of the room. So, I've now got to, like, switch the tree lights on and then spend 10 minutes going round going, click here, click, click. And then, like, you've got to, like, switch everything off at the end of the night. But then I forgot that we've now got baubles with sodding lights in. So, I switched everything off, about to leave the room when you turn round and you go, well, there's a light. Where's the light coming from? And then you go, like, in a tree like this, trying to find where this sodding bauble is, which is a Father Christmas on a parachute. And you go, oh, there we go. That's that done. I'm in trouble now because my wife was just here to be talking about switching all the things on. So, I just literally stood there going, oh, yeah, she doesn't want to look at it. She doesn't want to look at it. There you go. There's my wife on the pod. They look really nice, don't they? They do look really nice, mate. They do look really, really nice. Are you on the pod, love? Oh, my God. I'm in trouble now. Good timing, wasn't it? So, let's stick to rugby, shall we? Let's do some rugby. So, yeah. Bit of a tonking on the weekend. Let's start it with that. Tell me what you think about the first quarter of the game and then tell me what you think about the rest of the game. Let's go with that. Yeah, we'll come to the headline. The headline is biggest loss in Europe in 17 years, which doesn't look great. But the first 20, 25 minutes, I was really impressed with Cardiff's performance. In between the 22s, really good. Solid. Didn't do anything flash. Didn't do, you know, there were a couple of nice passes, a couple of nice bits of play, but there was nothing that I thought, oh, you're pushing the boat out, you're trying too hard. It was really simple play. Getting to the 22, quite regularly, you know. The entries into the 22, getting those opportunities, getting within five metres. But the big difference I found in that start of that game in particular was, you know, yes, we know Toulouse are accurate. Yes, we know they've got world-class players and players on another planet. But Toulouse's scramble defence versus Cardiff's was on a different level. That was a bit that I really noticed in the first part of the game. In particular, you speak about little moments in the game that could turn the game around. You know, Kevin Daniel gets held up from a tap-and-go penalty five metres out. And in the current laws, the way that, you know, since the drop-out law, that is a huge momentum swing. But, you know, previously, going back to Scrum 5, it's not actually that much difference. You're basically back at square one so long as you've got a half-decent Scrum, which Cardiff did on the weekend. But now, you've gone from five metres out, held up over the line. You've got a 40-metre loss, because that's where the kick ended up and that's where you end up carrying it back is the 10-metre line, pretty much. So that was a big momentum. The other one was Tom Aramos' tackle, which is brilliant. So it's a break down the right-hand wing. It gets really close. And then King James Hughes cuts a brilliant line. Like Hadley Park... I assume Leo will appreciate this, but sort of Hadley Park desk off Niner. Out-to-in line, cutting against the grain, trying to target Tye forwards. And he probably thought, oh, ideally, I've found the 10. I'm going to barrel through him. Tom Aramos grabs him, OK, with a couple of Toulouse forwards, drives him back five yards, after a line break. It was brilliant. And that was a key moment. Cardiff's 4-0, they're back in the game. And I thought... You look at the small things in that game that you think Scrum went well. Scrum really did go well. I thought Parry's Scrum went really well. Aserati's Scrum went really well. I thought Aserati had a very good game, actually. Then you look elsewhere. There were threats. Mackenzie Martin was superb, scored a try. Teddy Williams was everywhere, it seemed like, in the first 20 minutes. It was the sort of performance that you went, oh, fair play. Like, Cardiff are coming here to really contest. It's not just chuck the ball around and hope for the best and get a bonus point if we can. It was, we've come to really compete, see if we can test the Toulouse side that haven't actually tearing at trees in Top Qatar. So why don't we test them out? Unfortunately, small bits of play just weren't right. Little handling errors and that sort of thing as well. There was a couple of moments where Mason Grady beats two or three defenders, which is just what Mason Grady does. And then knocks the ball on afterwards, which you talk about net gains and net losses. It's a net loss. So, yeah. Looking at that first 20 minutes, there's a lot to be really hopeful for and proud of. And then the wheels, funny enough, straight after McKenzie tried when the wheels didn't quite turn as well, that's kick exit. I don't know if you're about to ask about it, but kick exit was one that really frustrated me. I think I mentioned it on the wrap, but you've just got to try. You take it up into a rut and the ball comes back about 10 yards to your fly half who's got your whole half inside of him on the left-hand side of the field and he's kicking to the right-hand side of the field with a centre and a wing basically on a two-up against Toulouse. It's Tom Aramos who this year has been one of if not the best counsellors out there in world rugby. And you're saying to Ben Thomas, who's a good defender, but he hasn't played that much international rugby, so he's up against Tom Aramos having to make a one-out tackle and yet he misses the tackle the kick's too far, a bit aimless Tom Aramos runs back in, Osler's back into Blake Inghorn who scores his lovely first try in Toulouse and has his celebratory moment. It was just too easy. There was a try in that game that frustrates me, it was that one because it was just very in Cardiff like this season, to be honest. Too easy. Overall that first 20 minutes and 25 minutes I was like do you know what good performance and you're 24 points to 7 down but that's what Toulouse do. You can't be surprised at that but I was actually really impressed with the performance for 25 minutes and some of those players played really well. And it was quite a young squad as well. We banged on and on about this this year that we're going to bring young players through and we've got to be prepared for a bit of development and all this kind of stuff but for me the big missing from Cardiff now is leadership. Somebody to go somebody to say actually from this kick off let's just screw this down a little let's put it back in touch, let's do the simple things, let's not try and go for the kick and go the wrong side of the pitch. And I think scramble defence again it's led by somebody screaming at you on the pitch and having that desire on the pitch and that attitude up, next, up, next, come on do you know what I mean? Is that what's missing? Is that the key to unlock everything else in Cardiff at the minute? A bit more leadership on the pitch? I think that's crucial. I think that's massive. You look at that back row, you're missing OK Shane Lewis who's back who has a bit of experience but has been through various reasons, has not played as much rugby in the last couple of seasons as he or Cardiff fans would have liked. So apart from that you have De La Rua on his debut game in the back row, you have Mackenzie Martin, they're both 20 or younger that's a young back row I mean that not disparagingly at all to what I would have said I just said Mackenzie Martin had a superb game but I think we said it on the wrap but it was the worst possible time almost for Ellis Jenkins to get suspended because you look at Toulouse and to a lesser extent Bath, what do they thrive off? Quickball. And who's your key player to stop Quickball when you see that he's not there? Who's your key player to stop Quickball when you're 7? And what do 7s thrive off other than athletic ability which I dare say De La Rua is probably a match for Ellis Jenkins but it's that know-how that bit of dark art some might call it streetwise to slow the ball legally and illegally and get away with it and it's that, if you've got an Ellis Jenkins I dare say he might get rewarded a bit more just because he's Ellis Jenkins versus De La Rua that is a thing whether it should or not be, it just is a thing I dare say he probably times his efforts better because he's got that experience and he probably knows how to get away with a little hand slowing the ball down here a little foot just grabbing the ball back and it's those little things that would have a huge impact on the game I'm not saying it would have reduced the score that much but it would have slowed down to lose his ball and then you add on the leadership element which anyone seen that Scrum 5 we talked about a couple of weeks ago but he has that ability to just give clarity and he showed that the clarity he offers to Mackenzie Martin and that line up moment that Scrum 5 shows that he just did Mackenzie Martin said, well you're the plus one and pull out that's all he needed to know he just went, you're the plus one and pull out you don't need to know the rest of the move, don't worry about it and not out of disrespect, just to set in, that's your job do it to your best ability lead the defenders off and then down we score yeah it's no coincidence that when Josh Turnbull comes back, Ellis Jenkins his leadership is like that Cardiff win a crucial game against the Stormers that's not coincidence it has been missing, the leadership that back row is still missing at both of them look at that back row that's missing Thomas Young is unavailable so it's difficult there's a lot of quality in that back row that is not on the pitch at the minute there's virtually two international back rows that are not on the pitch yeah that's for Ellis, that's just greedy to be honest the fact that you've got that many there you should share them around a bit more do you know what I mean that's a massive dent into your side that's where your quality is and that's where you're looking to build your game around build that game around quick turnover ball an aggressive out wide defence that can turn the ball into a turnover and a decent attacking opportunity and then you've got them all either sat at home on a ban or sat in the physio's room going menia it's and your back rows are what stop their position it's no coincidence that the last two games it's the fly half the mean man on the mat it's not a coincidence the reason Johan Neid is a very good player and I'm not just simplifying it but the reason he had so much space to do is what he did against Cardiff was because Arsene was off the pitch so you haven't got a hair shaking putting him under pressure Johan Neid couldn't have got out of that pressure but at the same time it did make things easier similarly you didn't have a full back row on the weekend but maybe if you've got a bit more of an experience head in there maybe you get a bit more pressure on Ramos maybe you lay on him bordering on late just to that sort of thing let him know classic retaliation in first maybe not quite Paul Ringer-esque but something bordering on but you also maybe get a bit more pressure on Dupont yes he's ridiculous and otherworldly and all that sort of thing but you maybe manage to get a bit more pressure on him it's great seeing Shane Lewis using a six jersey again but let's be honest it's at the expense of Alex Mann who I think it was last week or the week before we were talking about being our forward so far this season so that's the frustration and that's the difficulty at the moment is if you're losing so many players in that back row it's about getting those plays through and getting those plays played regularly because that back row has never played with each other before when are they going to play with each other again? I don't know because Mackenzie Martin is going to be an absolute all-star I've got no qualms about that he's quality De La Rua is an absolute quality seven Shane Lewis uses an international six let's not forget that and has been showing his quality in the second row this season but when you've got players coming back off the quality they've got with the added experience and the leadership that we've mentioned has been missing it's a problem at the moment but a good problem to have long term that's the best thing and the ridiculousness of it is that this is also a side that lost Josh O'Healy last year as Faletau had long term injuries it's bonkers, it is absolutely bonkers but it was probably one area that was noticeable on the weekend that the opposition had a bit too much time and space I think that's fair to say If Cardiff had a seven a side team and it was just made up of back row players it would be awesome and they wouldn't get injured so much then and they could play in all the nice sunny places, they could be in Las Vegas and Dubai and Hong Kong, sunny places where it's lovely and warm and there's a beach and all that kind of stuff I think that would solve a lot of your issues Go from playing 15s to play 7s, get rid of the rest of the squad just keep your back rows and go play 7s have a bit of fun Hold on, Grady's getting in there Imagine Grady on a 7s circuit Yeah, see I'd put him at 10, I'd put him at outside half or first receiver, whatever we call it now at 7s, just so you've got like the big one as first receiver and just go, give it to him and just let him run and that will sort your back line out Do you know what I mean? Of course he can't win it as well I'm getting excited about it, maybe this is something Harley and I need to do for next season If Cardiff wrote me seven a side team what would it be? Yeah, no I'm definitely not But you'd have to have a token prop in there, just as a token Do you know what I mean? There'd have to be a token prop in there You'd have to have like a Reece Carey or something What do you mean token? This is how I'm getting on I need your issue Yeah, I reckon a Cardiff 7s Going back to normality Who stood out for you? I mean, when you're losing 52-7, it's hard to pick up you know, this play was amazing because the scoreboard tells you differently Who were the standout players for Cardiff that maybe let's say, didn't get the recognition that they probably deserved on TV? Yeah Mackenzie Martin got the recognition, I think, on the weekend and he fully deserved it That's the first obvious win for me He has been a breath of fresh air, even though we mentioned there the back row difficulties, he's been brilliant. Since he's come in looked brilliant in pre-season has been brilliant whenever he's played He did not look out of place against a Toulouse back row that had that's the biggest praise I think I can give And then you go into the players I thought, Teddy Williams Honestly, the guy looks at different levels, the player that left at the end of last season to go to the Wales squad He looks fitter He looks gnarlier I don't know if that's not a word I know it's not I'm not being a system tooth Does he just sit there and look in the mirror and go I'm going to see if I can look meaner now when I come But it's what we what Cardiff needed, that's the best part, is you look at it and you think What Cardiff's second row has been accused of and it's probably been a bit too nice since Bradley Davis left, I couldn't tell you who was the tough nut, horrible second row. Seb's a really athletic, talented footballer Rory Thornton's a good line-out operator but I wouldn't have said they're horrible players and I think Teddy's starting to become a horrible player and he's got the athletic qualities as well and then to add this into his game I think is brilliant I thought his ball carrying was superb on the weekend he was making multiple effort his tackling was very good his cover defence was good I just thought he was superb in a losing side I thought he played pretty much as well as you could expect and then you look at that front row, the front row went really well for the first, well most of the game to be honest Winning penalties winning scrums, okay there were a couple of early shoves whether that was Toulouse falling off, whether that was Cardiff pushing early, I could not tell you I don't think anyone can tell you other than the 6 men that were involved or the 12 men by the end but it was, I thought the scrum was solid and then Tino's beer I've been pretty critical of in the past in some ways in that he tends to go missing for 10 minutes or has a habit of having a couple of moments where he just doesn't quite hit the same steps as he does for the rest of the game I thought for his 60 minutes on the pitch he was very good one kick aside okay but as mentioned that's probably more of a structural thing than an individual error thing in my opinion but he I thought he was very good, showed some great gas for some line breaks would be nice to get a bit of support there around him for those moments if he's going to make the half break he makes dare say maybe if Gareth Davies' scrum half he's already on the half turn ready to get on that in the inside maybe that's something that can be worked on getting that support playing quicker all in all there were a lot of good performances, there were players Jacob Beetham playing playing full back against the Toulouse side that has Blair King on and Tom O'Rourke what an experience for him coming through okay he had the odd error, he had the odd moment but he was mostly solid did his job and made some really good calls defensively at times, stopped a couple of tries to be fair there were plenty of individually good performances and plenty of good team areas like the scrum as I mentioned, the line out wasn't that much of a problem, maybe second half it deteriorated a bit after substitution and stuff but I wasn't too disheartened despite the scoreline and maybe maybe that's a sad realisation of the fact at the moment of that's where Welsh rugby is versus French rugby or the top of French rugby but I still thought the overall performances wasn't too bad despite individual errors at times and Mason Green was still swatting away players for fun so he's doing that against Scarlett and against Luton so it doesn't matter who he's playing against, I just thought I'd get a little jibe in there and yet you ended up on the losing side in all three games so you know, what's to say there I need to remember I'm on the Cardiff podcast, don't worry I'm not going to rise to your bases is what I'm not going to do mate Yeah, so a couple of things that I was jotting down okay, so one, Mackenzie Martin here, and now I mean there's a mullet and that I don't know how to describe his here because it's almost mulletesque but then it kind of disappears into some kind of hedge on top Yeah I'm impressed with on a certain level the fact that the guy can carry it off and can be quite proud of the fact, but then when he goes to the hairdressers I'm assuming he goes to hairdressers by the way, it's not his mum does it what on earth do you ask for when you're sat in the chair, what on earth do you ask for when you've got a hair like that I feel like neither of us at this point are having people with haircuts I don't know if you wanted the same thing, which is maybe a three on the side and then take a bit off the top Someone's coming, make it a number two if you will, thank you very much as close as it gets or as I did once I'll have a one on the side Baba looks at me and goes you sure? I go no I'll have a two I went for a haircut once genuinely it wasn't my normal hairdresser that I've been going to for 20 years or whatever and there happened to be somewhere else I need a haircut, right okay chomping away and so on, yeah usual stuff and I said take it as short as you can on top please and I swear to god she turned round to me and said I'll leave a little bit on there to cover the thinning what? you'll do what? and she was lovely she was quite young, yeah I'll just leave a little bit, I think she thought she was doing the right thing so yeah haven't been back there since but yeah if we're honest I once got refused a haircut long story short I lost the bet so I had to dye my hair blonde because that's what guys do in the UK I was told it was non-permanent but very much not the case and basically I'd got to the stage where it was just bleach blonde horrible I'll find a way of sending it but it was a horrible bleach blonde and I wanted to get it out and I went into a barber's down by Bathlow, what's it called the posh one down by Bathlow, do you know what I'm on about, by the church in Cardiff Centre, anyway someone will know what that is but you phrased it as the posh one mate, that's me out straight away that's not me I walked in and the guy was like so what can we do and I was like what I had a very nasty feeling as I was coming in and stuff any chance you could then take it off and stop laughing at me sorry, that's not something we can do and they won't come back to us when it's all grown out I will be fair that when I bleached my hair I was also in Cardiff but I didn't do it for a day I just did it because so I think we should have a competition to see who can find a photo with bleached hair first so if anyone's got any photos of Carwyn with bleached hair and if any of my mates can find any photos of me with bleached hair let's have them because that will be I had a goatee when I had bleached hair, so I had a black goatee and white goatee very strong Edward Norton sort of vibe isn't it isn't that his look for a bit to be fair at the time I was about 19 and a half 20 stone of solid muscle so I don't think anybody was really going to tell me to not, oh I like your hair I like the look Lee that's great carry on and I just had a whole load of ID done with no goatee and dark hair oh come on I'm trying to get into nightclubs and they go have you got any ID, yeah and they go looks nothing like you no it doesn't does it no the beard, the hair absolutely nothing like me but there we go so yeah let's move on and discuss Harley's absence taking a week off just before Christmas week away with the wife and kids come on Harley I mean and then he's sending us photos of a variety of beers that he's drinking, this is my beer of the week fella come on, I mean that's shocking you need to give him some real serious hell next week when he comes back mate you know what I mean Liam's already cracked with about 6 questions so we're going to run through all of those next week I think he's got, given him a few questions to answer whether it be some really good questions actually so we've got questions to answer both me and him I think yeah I'll whine Harley up for that it's shameful to be honest it's almost like he looks at the result and went hmm don't fancy that one this week almost yeah almost cos it's strange that, cos Jamie did exactly the same thing when the Dragons played gosh as well as South Brookensides so I think it might have been actually and it was like oh I can't make it this week no it was Lensda, that's what it was it was Dragons Lensda we spent 20 minutes going Newport are going to get absolutely tonked they're going to get stuffed this weekend Jamie went yeah I'm not here next week by the way straight into that so yeah Harley needs he needs a fork Harley is still shirking his baby sham fine from the rap pod he owes us a baby sham we introduced the baby sham fine for anyone who I can't remember, I think it was just we wanted to tuck someone up for doing something stupid in the week we'd find them a baby sham so the drink of the week had to be a baby sham so I think next week on the Cardiff pod he has to have a baby sham a baby sham fine because it'll be Christmas so yeah sounds good let's talk about the coming game then mate first off 8 o'clock Saturday night normally Saturday night 8 o'clock kick off would be a bit of a downer but I think this one is going to work in your favour the crowd is going to be absolutely bouncing everyone is going to be on the session from about 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon by the time you get to 8 you'll just be at the fun bit you'll be at the fun and excited and cheer everything I genuinely think that's going to work in your favour this week I think the good and the bad in the opening of every rugby shape, form and size are going to be there some of the best days I've just come off the Welsh pod that's why have been against these big sides be it Sale, be it Lents be it Stormers twice these big results that happen at the Cardiff Arms Park I realise I was a bit negative on the rap my prediction wasn't the best this is a proper bat unit this isn't the bat side that came a few years ago I jested on the pod and joked about it a couple of seasons ago I went down to Scarlet and they lost quite convincingly I think it's a much improved outfit, it's got a pack that work together a unit and as individual players by the way, our brilliant Benny Cabano at least said you've got your Enderhill, Barbieri at the back row, you've got your two solid second rows in there, I think it's Stukenellis isn't it? or it was maybe actually, sorry no it's not it was, it was and then you add in your back division which is just brilliant, I love Ben Spencer as a nine, I think you've got your Finn Russell, Red Puff Lawrence Cochrane Seager and Muir on the wings, it's a really quality outfit that are performing well that like throwing the ball around then you've that are facing the Cardiff side that like throwing the ball around, both sides to be honest, probably no more for their attack than their defence especially the back and I'm really excited for it, I think the weird one is trying to work out what sort of game I'd want to see, because as a neutral, you want everyone to throw the ball around, but as a Cardiff on the Cardiff pods, following the Cardiff team, wanting the Cardiff players to do well do you want an open, expansive game that does play into Cardiff's hands, but also plays into Bath's hand? I'm not sure, because all those big results that I've named have been when the forwards have fronted up and it's been tight, horrible affairs, let's be honest about it they have been scorefests maybe less than the better ones, but it's been tight, horrible sale especially, think about how horrible that game was really it was just two packs just going at it the whole 18 minutes I don't know the task is an interesting one, because I think front five although they've got individual players and they are scrummaging as a unit and working as a unit, it's not something I'm that afraid about it's not like a it's not like a Marachal pack coming down, let's put it that way it's not that sort of front five size, so I'm thinking yeah Azarafi can take that on, Domachowski Parry could both take it on if Parry's fit Teddy on his performances has been playing well as well take that on with anything the back row, yeah they've got real agility and gas and that's I don't know it's a really difficult one to call how you play this game I think keep it tight and try and take advantage of any mistakes rather than throwing the ball around as we did against the Bulls and Kim had stuck a bit there in that game so I expect a very different kind of performance this weekend than I saw out in Toulouse and the big difference is this is a game Cardiff will attack and think they can win and I don't think they're wrong to think that at all just that this bat side are probably flying much quicker than anyone expected, I don't think anyone expected them to be that good this year I think they were expecting maybe next year to be the year the bat kicked into gear or the end of this year but Finrush will hit the ground running for them so yeah I'm excited about it, it's going to be a real test I just do favour that, I think that's our favourite and I do fancy that but but I said the same for Stormers I said the same for Leicester I said the same for Sales so yeah I think any Cardiff fan will be saying bring it on So Travis has said today that Tamani is fit and available for the game on Saturday Where do you bring him in? You can't leave him not playing can you? Realistically you need a player like we were talking earlier about leadership, he provides the kind of leadership that says follow me, watch what I do do more of this sort of thing he's that kind of guy, he brings a physical element to the game I think he's been playing quite well at number 8 in all honesty I think he's been doing what you need a number 8 to do in certain games which is give 5-10 metres for every time he's got the ball so do you bring him in at 8? Do you bring him in at 6? Do you stick him back in the second row? Where do you put him? That's a really good point actually I'm glad you reminded me of something I thought during the game that I forgot to mention which was when I was watching it and watching Mackenzie Martin and I thought he's done some brilliant things but towards the second half I wanted him to just have that Xavier Rush thing of I'm the guy who's going to take you forward five yards I'm the guy who's going to do the job it's me, I'm your number 8 I'm your primary ball carrier, I'm going to do it and in 1920 he's not going to be doing that yet, I fully appreciate that, but that's a development moment, that he has 20 moments a game, or 20 carries a game versus 10 moments or 10 carries a game that's the development process and that's what Timani has been doing he's been carrying the ball a lot he's also knocked the ball on a lot let's be honest about it, he has made a few errors but it's because he's always prepared to do it it doesn't matter if he knocks the ball on he's gone, right, oh I've knocked the ball on there ok, next time, there we go and that's a bummer that's more the Ted Lasso, the goldfish that's the sort of, you forget your five minutes, the last five minutes, you just carry on going, carry on, because that's your job your job is to carry the ball you've made a mistake there, but make up for it next with the next carry he's he has been brilliant this year yeah I don't want to say bring him straight in for McKenzie because McKenzie has been playing really well but on the flip side of that he's a player that would be nice to see on the pitch and on the form that he's playing in you could put him at six but if man is fit, which I'm not 100% sure if he is, it would be nice to see him back, I also you know, I'm more more than happy to see Shane have some more game time at six so yeah, I'd say bring Tamani in at eight, and then the great thing with Tamani is that he can play second row, play six, and if you've then got McKenzie Martin off the bench for 20 minutes to just rule, I'm just going to crash bang my wallop and break through about 16 tackles in one play I'm not going to complain about that at all I think, and then move you've got your Swiss Army Knives in and Tamani to cover in any eventualities that may arise so yeah, I think Tamani comes back in although with a heavy heart I think maybe I think everyone has grown to love McKenzie Martin over the past three weeks, and it's quite a testament to the young lad that he's got this cult following after such an impressive three performances There'll be McKenzie Martin wigs by the other side of Christmas Eve, mark my words on it, you'll be able to buy what they call it Christ only knows, but you'll be able to buy McKenzie Martin wigs, I don't know why we can't buy Steph Evans wigs yet, with a mullet and a rat tail, I'm not sure why that's not caught on, you know maybe I'm just not down with the kids anymore but I'm convinced that there will be a McKenzie Martin Does it come with a complimentary yellow card or is that just It comes in a yellow pack and you just get used to seeing the colour Oh that was cheeky wasn't it Sorry So before we do predictions and wrap up and all that kind of stuff for tonight I just want to mention a couple of things that we've got coming for TARDIF and the WRAP podcast and all that kind of stuff So I can't say what it is but there's a surprise coming on Sunday and there's a surprise coming on Sunday that will take everybody through Christmas because we're not going to be here over Christmas because we tried doing it last Christmas We tried doing this last Christmas with just the WRAP pod and trying to get there were four of us so trying to get four of us in the same place at the same time sober, coherent and having watched all of the games nigh on impossible so and then we did it and nobody listened because nobody was in work and they were all spending time with their family hours and hours and hours of organisation to get it in so we're going to go right, we'll do next week's pods which will be the same for TARDIF so we'll do next week's pod as well and we can have a little bit of a break until after the new year but there's something coming on Sunday that will be special and it will be on YouTube and there'll be something special for TARDIF fans and there'll be general ones and all that kind of stuff so everybody keep your eyes open for it go and find our YouTube channel now and like and subscribe because once you get to 500 subscribers YouTube likes you and it starts giving you money for all the adverts that get shown so you've got to wait until you've got 500 subscribers before you can get any money for adverts but they're taking the money for the adverts that are there now you know, I'm not bitter about these things, I'm not bitter you know, Grandad needs a new set of cans for Christmas but you know, we'll cope so yes, anyway, that's coming so next week we'll cover all of the the Derby's so you guys have obviously got Dragons and then Ospreys yeah? Yeah I think so yeah, I mean as well yeah, so I think you're at home against the Dragons and then away against Ospreys and you yeah, because Ospreys are with us so yeah, they'd be at home against you so that's that's what's coming, that's keep an eye on and if anybody in the meantime wants to send Arlie some abuse for daring to take a week off and then come back for a week and then have another two weeks off again well, you know, you crack on, you have my support for sending him as much insults and accusations as you want you crack on, I'll support you on that right let's get back to the Bath game then and let's get some predictions from you scores yellow cards, red cards type of game how many people will get kicked out for being bunking disorderly running around pretending to be a mascot let's get you, let's get all your predictions out in one so I think risking the wrath of Arlie again because he's already sent me a message criticising this prediction, but I'm going to say Bath, but maybe I'll say 5-6 because I think it is going to be tight I do think I think Cardiff will be in the game I just don't know, this Bath side seem to be on a roll, it's a huge game for Bath as well, I don't think that can be overstated because in recent years I think it's fair to say they have been seen as a bit of a soft touch you know, sides have gone down there and smashed them, sides have also had good periods, don't forget like the George Ford era and they had good periods then but sometimes that soft underbelly could fall off and you know, in Europe especially not be the side that perhaps they were in the league I I just think this is maybe a little bit of a better iteration of Bath than it has been in previous seasons, I do think it's maybe, considering the injuries, considering the back row that's missing, it might be a bit of a difficult task for for Cardiff to win, I'm more than happy to pee on that, and I think Carly will rub it in my face if Cardiff do prove me wrong but I just do see it being a really tough game and a good game and I mentioned all the drunks and everyone else everyone gets down to the Cardiff Arms bar because it is going to be a big game on the weekend and a really excited one definitely one to watch and definitely not one to miss out on but you know people have been sharing clips of games gone, games years by, seeing Mike Catt and I think it was Gus Scott in a Bath jersey against it down at the Cardiff Arms bar, it wasn't bad to see so, you know, I don't know I was going to compare Catt and Gus Scott to Finn Russell and Red Pat and that doesn't sit as well with me actually but you know what I mean with less international success, they are Mike Catt and Gus Scott, less international success, there you go that's the angle of Scottish fans as well and Cardiff Arms but yeah, you know it is a really exciting team to look out for and there are some pure international size for both teams and I'm excited to see how, I'm interested to see how Thenis Beer stands up because I didn't think he you know, although Tom Aramos was one player of the match and was superb I didn't think he looked out of place in that one, how does he go against Finn Russell defensively I've been really impressed with I don't think he's been lacking in that area at all so see how he goes in that fixture up against Red Pat and Lawrence and I assume Lawrence is going to come down his channel pretty early if you're back that's what you're going to look at isn't it going to go, hmm, young newcomer 10 run down his throat, so yeah, excited look forward to bring a pint have a good laugh and enjoy everyone's Christmases and hopefully Cardiff can prove me wrong and leave us with a well, a last win before Christmas OK, so you're predicting Bath by how many points? 6 OK, so you know, I've listened to what you've had to say there and I'm not saying that you're talking out your arse or anything, but I'm actually going to go for a Cardiff win for no other reason than I'm on a Cardiff podcast and why would you do anything else? I genuinely think that you'll have a really, really full ground and I'm going to throw this out there now to see how many people are listening Antlers are the hair piece of choice for this weekend, so a nice big kind of antlers there, so when you nod in and they're doing all of this kind of stuff, I think that's what you need, you need plenty of them, you need to make it a fun kind of experience, you need to make it enjoyable for the crowd, so it's just constant, do you know what I mean? When the Cardiff crowd are alive it's constant and it feels like they're right on top of you because it's just the way that the ground is, so I think if that happens then the players sense it and the players kind of, you know, when we were talking earlier about that scramble defence that having that crowd, that constant crowd noise is enough to get you up and going that constant crowd noise gives you that emphasis to go those extra five metres, that noise gives you that you know, we talk about Chomani taking it and, okay, I might knock it on right, get up, I'm going to go do it again, I'm going to go do it again, I'm going to go do it again and it'll affect the ref and it'll affect everything, so yeah, for that reason and that reason alone, you know, I think Bath will get just put off by it because, you know, yeah they might be used to playing in front of bigger crowds and all that, but they're quite quiet crowds, they're only up when Bath are playing well and all that kind of stuff and the rest of the time they're on the bloody prosecco and scones and hospitality like, you know, so yeah, get down there, make some noise, get your antlers on, bring the drums, bring the trumpets, just shout, just get in their faces and shout and you know what, you're not there to be you know you're not commentating on the telly, you don't need to be an independent and neutral type of person get in their faces and shout, you're there to support Cardiff and let the boys know, because I genuinely feel Cardiff by tenth is doable you know, genuinely without, if you can make it happen this is when it's going to happen and it will be a big springboard to go on, and you know the only good thing you've got from that is that you don't have to play the Scarlets for the rest of the season so, you know you're bogus either, Scars Yeah I'm going to avoid that one you never know but yeah, I was just thinking there what you said about the we should bring trance into Rofi, and the only one I could think of was, you've got a crap Christmas market walking in a winter wonderland yeah, I think you've got a crap Christmas market walking in a Cardiff wonderland, if someone can sing that and get it here on mic I'd listen to that so we've now got antlers drums, trumpets any musical instrument and you've got a crap Christmas market walking in a Cardiff wonderland there we go let's see how influential the pod is I will be watching the game they're not really fussed about what's on the pitch, I just want to see what's going on in the crowd yeah one question for you Lee before we finish everything Cardiff Rugby and Football on Twitter has said it's a good question, which I promise we will answer next week which was if Cardiff could take one player from each region, who would we take I promise Harley and I will answer it next week but, as we've got Leon from the Scarlets pods, I'll ask him from the Cardiff perspective, who would you take for the Scarlets team, who would you take from Cardiff Rugby and then as if I wouldn't take anyone hahaha you're welcome to Steph Evans if you want to purely for the hater no, I think it's hard at the minute because the obvious one is Yeo and Lloyd from the Scarlets but we've actually got quite, we've got strength in depth at 10 at the minute with there's three, four, we've got Dinky Jones out, we've got Costello out and we've got Tit coming through as well so you know that is a position of strength at the minute, in all honesty I'd say Gareth Davies from the Scarlets I know you've got a whole load of guys, oh no we've got Thomas Williams but at the minute just on form he's the guy to take Ospreys given your back row options that's where they're kind of excelling at the minute is back row given his performance last weekend I'd take Debbie Lake just because he can throw a ball straight and you boys I think you must train on a wonky pitch or something because throwing a ball in straight to a line out and like see the guys in the black shirts after working on the Scarlets game over the weekend I'm not We're not talking about the Scarlets man, we're talking about Cardiff, we're talking yeah I'd say Debbie Lake would be the one position that you could really do something with in a line out and then Dragons, who do you take from the Dragons that's a tough one on his own isn't it yeah I mean again Wainwright is the outstanding player and Basham I like Basham just because he's your resident psycho but I mean you guys have got your cupboard full of those but I'd find the position, I'd stick him at full back, I'd stick him at scrum off I'd stick Basham up scrum off just so we could run up people and just yeah just kind of like and then you've got Gareth Davies to back him up when he gets sent off after 20 minutes for headbutting the referee or something like that so yeah that's my three there's my three and who do you take from Cardiff as a Scarlets fan a Scarlets fan yeah I mean your back row is totally stocked so Thomas Young for me is just a game breaker he just does things on a pitch that are you know as a back row player myself I just love watching him because he's going to turn up somewhere what's he doing there and all that kind of stuff yeah I think probably at the minute the front row is the weak area for Scarlets but then we have got younger players coming through so it's having maybe I don't know maybe bringing one of your props down would give us a little bit of a help but yeah it's going to be something like that I'm not going to put too much thought into it mate because I know what will happen it will get on to social media and all of a sudden it will be Les Kickley again so I'd rather not put that to finish thank you very much I wouldn't say I was counting it but what is your answer to that again it's fair what you say about Thomas Young like last season obviously probably the player of the season by a fair distance I think brilliant I thought last season but this season hasn't really featured started I think one game in the two games so has been obviously out with injury and things like that but also just not selected it's a bit of a surprise but at the same time when you've got six options at seven you've got a bit of a tombola and to use the Scottish rugby positive for it but yeah they call it two-y tombola but yeah a bit of bingo to pick out whoever is going to be selected yeah I can understand that one I'll take what you said on board about the other I don't know if I'll take from Sky I'm still struggling on that one but yeah I think it's an interesting question worth answering and we'll see what we come up with next week yeah absolutely mate so I'm going to go and abuse Harley some more I'm just going to why he gets a week off a week before Christmas just unacceptable so it's been a pleasure tonight mate having a chat it's been great and yeah I shall be watching the Cardiff game on Saturday, I'll be watching the crowd at the bare minimum so yeah have a good one mate enjoy it and I will catch up with you again soon all the best you can find us on all usual social media channels or email us on welshregionalrugbypod at gmail.com and remember whatever the question is rugby is always the answer