Coaches, Connacht, and Cymru

Welcome to the Cardiff Central Podcast, once again, it's me Harley in the hot seat. I'm joined as always by Calwin. How are you doing Calwin? Yeah, not too bad, mate, not too bad. Nice to be recording a bit later in the week for a change, but yeah, it's good to be back on the pod. Yeah, absolutely. Unfortunately, we did have a special guest planned, Enders from Pirate Rugby. Unfortunately, he's had to work late. So I hope everything goes well for you Ender, and we'll definitely try and get you back on the pod at some other time. So, how was your weekend, other than the stuff we'll talk about later on? Yeah, well, that was a big part of my weekend, because I was working on the Cardiff fan Dragons game back to back. Clips on socials? For you. Yeah. That's the best of the worst. Well, there's an interesting part about it where you generally put only the Welsh side clips on socials, because obviously, it's S4C, Welsh medium. So, in terms of work rate, I had less to do in the Dragons game. So, there's that way of looking at it, which is the way I try to look at it. But yeah, that second half of the ball was actually better than the first, but the first half of the ball was just blinking horrendous, in my opinion, from the Dragons. And then, yeah, Cardiff, obviously, was bad, but in part, good in others, which I'm sure we're going to get into. And then Sunday, again, watching sports. I had a great weekend of watching sports, but that was, yeah, not... Some games were the prettiest, let's put it that way. Absolutely. I, myself, actually took part in a rugby game. So, yeah, so I came off the bench for a Sidner second against Newcross, played at Buckfastley Rugby Club, which is on top of a hill in the middle of Dartmoor. So, whilst everyone else was having regular rain, we had misty rain with regular rain on a pitch, which the best way to describe it is most pitches you play on at that level have a sort of gentle slope on them, and it had that. But what it also had is, from post to post in this gentle slope, was in the bottom right corner was a steep drop-off, so that when you're in that bottom right corner and you turn and look up to the clubhouse, your eye level is someone else's feet. So, as you can imagine, that was a great first half when we were playing downhill. Second half, guess where we kept having to exit from? Yeah, we did not win that game. But, I mean, kudos to everyone who pulled together for that one because the Wednesday night we had, there were 12 people on the team sheet and we managed to get a full 28, you know, with a combination of vets and other retired second teamers who just sort of went, oh yeah, go on, I can try Yeah, I was, you know, I had a fully taped up knee and I was one of the least bandaged there. A couple of people were resembling Hadley Parks in that quarter-final against France. Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think, was that the most taped play I've ever seen, Hadley in that quarter-final? No, surely. It was either that or the semi-final where I think there might have been slightly more tape. I'm trying to think about the other stuff. Manu always loved a lot of tape early on. There was always a big, like, massive tape around his hamstring at one stage. Well, you get the ones with, like, obvious visuals, I think the thing with Hadley is I think at one point he took his jersey off and you could just see, like, literally his whole body was held together with tape, you know. I believe Gav from Dragons Podcast, he says he's fairly similar when he plays these days. But he does play second row, so that's, you know, you need a bit more holding together there. Yeah, yeah. No, I'd probably be the same by now, but, yeah, I'd be all over my shoulder and ankle, that would be basically my strap in. My knees just started hurting just thinking of it. So that says it all about what the state of my body is in. Anyway, so we've got a few bits of Cardiff news. So I'll start and then you'll want to carry on with me a bit. So, first of all, we've got the news about Pentwin, so Cardiff Rugby are pulling out due to, after three years of trying to get agreement with the council, they decided to pull out and they're going to explore other opportunities. In the meantime, they're having a short term, they're going to train back at Cat and they're going to have a temporary gym built behind the North Terrace. It's not ideal, like all the plans for the Pentwin leisure centre redevelopment seem quite nice, actually. Yeah, it's a weird one, isn't it? Because that leisure centre is a bit out of the way of the pitch and everything. And I personally would rather see things more localised to Cat. I think that objectively looking at it, that seems like a simple solution, but it's not ideal for everyone concerned and it's not going to be ideal for a long time, I don't think. And I think, yeah, it's all about facilities, isn't it? And talking about facilities and that sort of thing is what we were hoping that the new owners would be something that could be smoothed out and sorted out. But we'll have to see what the facilities will be long term, because, as you mentioned, a short term gym is not the ideal permanent solution, is it? Well, actually, no. I mean, one point I would say, though, is the whole local thing. I remember that season after Covid, when we still had more of it in charge and we were training at Cap, I don't know if any of the players came out of it, but certainly along with some of the fans and some pundits pointing at it, it seemed like they couldn't get out of the training practice mentality when it came onto the pitch. It looked like they weren't game focused. So I don't know if they, you know, the whole thing with the pension thing is it's a separate thing. So when they come to Cap, it's game day, it's focusing. David, I don't know if you've got a thought on that? I can understand it to some extent. Yeah, I can understand it to some extent, I suppose. With so many teams training on their own pitches and things like that in off-season, I don't see that that would be a permanent issue. I think that would be quite simple when getting psychologists in to explain. And also, I suppose the counter-argument that a lot of people would have is you should be training to match intensity anyway, even though, let's be honest about it, you don't. But I'm sure if Sean Ekman was on this podcast, he'd be saying, well, they should be training harder than they have to play in a game anyway. So look, I can understand that point. I don't probably, having not played at that level granted, or anywhere near that level, I can understand that thought process, but I can't really concur at the moment. I don't know. I mean, it's just a lot of came to focus and testing. And it did look like it might be a good thing for both communities. I know Dan from Rugby Life is quite upset about it, because with how much money that place is losing, actually redevelopment on that might actually be a thing that keeps an essential community facility as well. Yeah, that is one part of it, isn't it? It's a big part of that community. And it's an important thing, but if it's not being redeveloped by Cardiff, who's it going to be redeveloped by? And that is a concern, obviously. I can understand that, because it is a main part of that community. It's a big part of that local area, and an area where, let's be honest about it, could do with a little bit of love at the moment. Absolutely. Anyway, some signing news now, both on the pitch and off the pitch. So if we start with Stefan Emanuel, so former England under 18, sorry. Yeah, so former under 18 for Bath. So he's decided to come back home after his studies at Millfield. The Young Promising Centre, I'm honestly not too sure about whether you've heard much about him, but I mean, I think we can, I think everybody can agree that centre is probably one of our weaker positions at the moment. So we don't know what the situation is for Leo and have a whole lot at the end of this season. Grady's position is still up in the air. So, you know, it's leaving us quite thin there. So I think then the only other centres in contract to his team are Millard and Thomas, Ben Thomas. Yeah, is Millard even, is Millard, oh yeah, he's just finished contract. But, you know, it's, I don't know anything about him, but it's another player coming from Millfield, isn't it? Him and Sheedy, obviously. Sheedy haven't been their captain for a few years, but a few years apart between the two. Sounds like a positive signing. Like I say, I don't know much about him. I wouldn't want to say that it's going to be breaking it back, but it is also nice to see Welsh players coming back to Wales. You know, we've had so much narrative about these Welsh players leaving Wales and not coming back. It'd be nice to hear a bit more narrative of these players returning to Wales when they've finished their studies and had their experiences at English colleges, which, let's be honest about it, historically have been breeding grounds for talent going on decades, if not nearly a century now. So I can understand completely why you'd want to go there and experience that. But it's great to see them coming back as well. Yeah, I mean, it's not something that we really have in Wales that can offer it really. I mean, Cavic maybe, you know, they're a decent enough side that, you know, they've been invited out to go to South Africa for like the school's cup and stuff, which they played well, but they struggled. I mean, let's make our bounds about it. Like some of these colleges and stuff, they'll have these kids on there and they'll basically be like training like professionals. That's the thing. Yeah, but he was forming Cardiff Academy, moved to Millfield and sits home. He's finished there and now wants to come home. And I think that, you know, that needs to be commended. I believe he's primarily studying at Cardiff, but that's all. Yes, I know. Then the other big one is obviously we've strengthened our coaching staff. Would you like to go through on that? Yeah, obviously South African, former Italian international, Cornelio van Zyl will join up with the Blue and Black for next season, as Cardiff Rugby tweeted earlier today. Yeah, earlier today. That's actually the thing. Yeah, you know, obviously it's something needed. There is needed to be strengthening in that squad. We'll come into that question around coaching staff later on, but I think it is a positive sign to see that we are looking to the future and building up the coaching staff and adding staff into it because it needs to be done. At the moment it's a bit of a threadbare coaching staff. Yeah, so again, couldn't say whether it's going to be a blow. It's not blown me out of the water, but it's a positive sign, I think. If you look at how well Ealing, I know a big part of that is the money that's front of Ealing, but their pack is pretty dominant throughout the championship. They've scum caused Leicester Tigers a few, admittedly it's a premiership cut, sorry, that Leicester Tigers put out. But you know, it still caused them a few problems last weekend. So it's pretty good. And Cheetahs are no mugs either, so they certainly weren't up front. So it's going to be, hopefully it's going to work. But I mean, people are saying the same thing about the guy who scarred Simon Massey and steal their forwards. I mean, I'm guessing Scott Andrews is going to stay as a scum coach. It's not said anything about him, or at least stay with the transitional team. Because I think actually, Oba has done a decent enough job of the forwards, but maybe having a fresh pair of eyes on, hopefully get some more aggressions, some more grit. My love of a bastard in the pack isn't quite being filled at the moment, although Teddy is doing a fantastic job of that. Yeah, I think, let's be honest about it, the pack has always been the weaker area of Cardiff's arsenal to the blast, for a long time. Yeah, I was going to say that. But I think the back row looks really strong now. The second rows that we've got are a good combination of different talents and different skill sets. Yeah, I think I agree with you. It would be nice to add a grunt, someone else into that pack. On the front row, I really have been impressed with Litoric at tight end, as a rafting team to be good for strength to strength with both Wales and Cardiff. So that's great to see. Likewise, Tomasz Ciawski on the other side, the bouts are going really strong. But it would be nice to get a front five and lineup that is just tickety-boo, just does the job. Because once those get sorted, it's a really dangerous side then of front football. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, a lot of them, you know, jockeys, the thing that makes us remember him so fondly is the sort of first phase and two-phase moves that he's developed over the years in Cardiff. And a lot of that needs a strong set-piece. The only thing we can do is to reinforce that. Although I would say our lineup hasn't been as bad as other seasons. It does seem to have... I don't know if that's having the likes of Alex Mann at six a lot, so you've got that extra line-up there. And then, you know, to Marnie, we're not using so much of the second row anymore. It's him shifting to wait Kevin Faletto. It means then you've got two good jumping options there. I think continuity has helped that as well. If you look last season and the season before, it was switching between three hookers every other week. And now it seems Belt is number one, Daniel's number two, Lloyd's number three. It seems to be, like, that's our pattern of play. So then who are the first option, second row? Who's the second option, second row? Who's the third option, second row? That seems a bit more straightforward where you've got... when Thornton plays, he's normally running the lineup a bit more with... or Seb is running the lineup. And then you've got your secondary and tertiary options there. So I think that has helped as well, simplifying it and just saying, right, this is the drill. You train that drill, you learn that drill, and you're sorted. And yeah, lineups have borne out of repetition to be a bit as well, and reading the opposition a little bit as well. But I think having that continuity is a huge influence on a more successful lineup. Yeah, absolutely. And actually, to be fair, on ball, it's been going quite well as well. But I think just having someone else looking at it is always a good idea because you do get a bit stale if you think how long this coaching set-up has been together. It's only really Jockey and Ritchie are the senior coaches now. But yeah, I think that's good. Unless we can think of that. I'm sure we can. Oh, yes. I remember what it was just then. So good news for friend of the podcast, Steve Coombs. So Blevins has been... they're now displaying a copy of the fantastic Blevins comic book in the Aire Cardiff Jockey Room, which I think is an excellent testament to the work that not just Steve, but James Stafford and a couple of other people have done to just try and find a new way to present some unique history of the club. Yeah, it's great. I mean, it's just unique. I was looking for it then. I was wondering if it was upstairs. It's actually downstairs. I love it. I should have been more prepared and brought it upstairs. But it's nice to have that. Yeah, like I say, a new fresh... we're speaking of forward coaches. But similarly, it's nice to have a fresh take on history. And the way that it's been done, I think it's really clever. It's really smart. And it's nice to see that it's getting that... getting firstly the response that it deserves, but secondly, the private place that it deserves. And it deserves to be regarded as a brilliant historical piece of literature, but also with an added bit of maybe fictional flair on top of it and artistic flair especially. And it's really nice to see that's been given a place in Cardiff's private place. Absolutely. I think we've put this off long enough now. Actually, no, I think we've got a Christmas question, which I think we can slot in next. So let me just get it back for us now. So this is within talks about the issue. Yeah, I imagine it's with all the issues that have gone around with Doreen Peel and Dan McFarlane being removed from posts. And Cog Criticisms with Dirk Lannigan as well. So, Andrew Buchheiger, apologies if I've put you to sin in again, please just send us a message. So he's messaged us on the Facebook page. So remember, that's your Cardiff Central podcast on Facebook. If you like what you've found, give us a like and a share. So Andrew says, with ShareRat being an experienced head coach, do you think Cardiff should bring in a DOR to work with ShareRat to fine tune the game plan, game management, and also help build a solid playing culture down from the seniors to the rising stars? So I'll give my two cents, but I'm just wondering what you'd take first. No, that's my two cents. I'll go into my explanation. I think there are more important priorities. I think getting a defence coach ideally, it would be nice to get Gethin on onto contract because I think he's done a decent job this season, but getting a defence coach to be permanently there and there five, six, whatever days a week, rather than two, three days a week and not go to away games would be preferable. I was watching club rugby on Saturday, working on it for the Dragons game and Andrew Coombs, I thought summed it up pretty well on the situation at the Dragons, where you've got Di Flan, Flanagan's obviously there, and then they've brought in, oh his name's gone off the top of my head, above him. Paul Stewart? Paul Turner, thank you very much. So we've brought Paul Turner in above him, with him to mentor him through the process, but there's no defence coach there. And that is baffling to me. I think the quote that stood out for me is, you can't have a professional team that doesn't have a defence coach. And that's what Andrew Coombs said on Saturday, and I stand by that. I think that's a bigger priority. I think Sherratt has really endeared himself, you're talking about other things that DORs do, media duties, he's endeared himself to the media, the media want to talk to him and enjoy talking to him because he's insightful, but also fair, he's honest, but he's also respectful of his players and wants his players to do well, and that's something that comes across really well. And then you add in the experience he's got behind him, I think with someone like, when you're talking about having a system, a top-down system where everything runs the same, when you've got someone like Griff Rees below that, the academy role that Griff Rees fulfils, and we are still working on getting Griff Rees on, I'm just, both me saying that to the listeners and to Harley, but Griff Rees, someone who's been and done that at regional level, but now has the experience to impart on academies, and I think that system is working well. Also, I don't see anything that Sherratt's done wrong this season to not deserve to still be the top man. So yeah, that's my short two pence on it really, but I've run a long-winded way of saying my initial answer, which was no, we don't need to see a GEOR coming above Matt Sherratt. I find what I'm doing through you, and it doesn't come to a taste, actually if you watch the Cardiff age-base and the ranks, we all have a very similar side, but it's all about having mobile forward paths and moving around. Maybe that's not what we quite need to get them up to this level, but it works. Actually, if you look at the under-18s games, that's how both the boys and the girls under-18s tried to play. Not the success of other teams, but I think that game-manager is already there. Also, Sherratt, he died number two whilst he was there, and when players and coaches were stuck in South Africa, Sherratt sort of took over the side there. He'd been left behind for reasons I couldn't figure out for some people. He was one of the coaches that I entrusted to train the returning world internationals and a few academy boys during that South Africa trip. Part of what Dianne came back to do was specifically to nurture the coaches that were at Cardiff so that they can step up and take the role. So then the idea was for Dianne to eventually jump up to this GOR role. I think Sherratt's doing a great job. Yes, we've criticised some selections and substitutions at times, but that's something he's going to learn with experience, and actually, with successive games, for the most part, I think he's starting to get that right. I think there are a few... We'll get onto it a bit more when we go onto the game, but for me, I think some of the issues are more... Now we're just trying to get some bad habits out of players, and you can see that he's got these players so close to being very competitive and winning. I'll go through some of the team stats again in a bit, but I think that we should be positive. I agree. I don't think we need to do Sherratt full-time. From what I heard from the CF10 Q&A, Merlin is basically working full-time. He's just only being paid part-time. I don't know. I'm guessing if he's not going to away games, having someone like him actually here and speaking to them on away games would be helpful. I don't think we haven't really had that many away games. We've pretty much looked at all our home games again this season. Again, there's a long-winded way of just saying no, but I think it was an important thing to talk about because it's something other teams have been discussing as well. The other thing I'd say is it's a very different situation than the other sides. Obviously, when any club is, especially when the regions are rejigging their coaching staff, you're going to look at it in other systems. The situation at Scarlett, they've said that now Jared Payne is going to look after the defence along with attack and other things. Then Dwayne is going to look after the attack, which were their roles when they were at Ulster anyway. That's partly not surprising. You should look at Scarlett at the moment. They've got people doing the roles that they were designed to do. I personally as well would add, you look at football and the top football managers and having man-manage, I can't express. When I was doing press at the early start of the season, pre-season, the narrative around it was a lot of positivity around Matt Shearer. A lot of positivity around, oh, I'm really excited to be working with him. I'm really excited to have him back and have the opportunity to work with him. It seemed just a general narrative that everyone had. I don't think that's changed. I think everyone is still enjoying his management, which is good to hear. Absolutely. I think that's been one of the positive points. The players seem to respond to Jocky. Again, his interviews are always really frank and honest. He's quite introspective. If he thinks he's done something wrong, he tends to run up to it. He's not afraid to pick up the players, but also points out where he knows. I think that's all we can ask. He has been frank with the public from the start. He said, this is probably not going to be a great season. Taken from where we were, maybe we're actually being a bit ungrateful for how much, particularly the moments we're about to have. I apologise to those who want us to be more positive, but I've got a feeling we might have some issues with that. He's been open and frank with it. It feels like he's very good at guiding you along, picking up and saying, look, this is where we are. I'm going to talk you through every step I can't think of anyone who you'd bring in above him to do any better, really. Not really. There's obviously a few names, similar few names that I've seen have been talked about with the situation at Scarlet now, where it doesn't seem obvious what they're going to do long term. Same Welsh names that are going around, but have been going around for decades. You know, you're Lynne Jones, there's people like that. I don't think it's needed. That's the basic opinion I have on it. I don't see the point in bringing one in for the sake of it, if it's not necessarily going to improve the situation. Sorry, not to cut across, but one of the other points that Coombs was making on the club was the budgetary requirements and what's Paul Turner on compared to what they need financially for the defence coach. He said he knows that Dai Flanagan is being told that he needs to save money going forward. If the clubs are having to save money and the reasons are having to save money, then spending a fortune on a DOR that is possibly not needed, I don't really see where that's going to benefit. I do think it might be different with the Dragons. I do feel like they need a little bit of help. I feel like I said, I think Josh has been coached into being a head coach. He's been given a lot more of those opportunities. I think Dai Flanagan came over to the Dragons to be an assistant coach, then shit at the fan and now he's head coach. Maybe he wasn't quite where he wanted to be there. But I say we could just go round in circles and basically it's a very different situation. What I will say about that is, I would say the more pressing priority is they need a defence coach on the weekend performance. That's my point. They do need a new defence coach. That's not me, the stats said it all, so I don't think there's much need. 39 missed tackles, 21 of which were in the first half or something like that. At one point they were missing one tackle for every two they made. I mean, I don't want to question it. Seriously, I mean, the Dragons lured us in enough of a post-mortem of that game. But I mean, was it a try within the assist? Was it the fastest ever URC try as well? I don't think it was quite the fastest URC try, but it was up there. Certainly the fastest this season. Oh yeah, sorry, this season, yeah. It was 33 seconds. I can't remember if it's fastest ever. No, I think there was one quicker. I'm trying to remember, it was set on club as well. Whoever it was escapes me, but Cat and Hannah did try and ask the question to Coombs and Dan Evans, but they couldn't. Interestingly, they couldn't know who that was, because I'm pretty sure it was another Scotsman. But yeah, we digress. We seem to be avoiding talking about the game. I thought, shall we warm up then? So we'll go with some three-word reactions we had after the game. So these are the ones directly to the page. I'll be honest, there were a lot on the Cardiff Rugby fan page. I'm not reading any of them out, mostly because most of them were much, much longer than three words. And we do ask it, trying to keep it snappy, and some of them around a topic which I'm not, we'll go into later. So Andrew says, brave but frustrating. And we've got, stop whistling refs. Static taking ball, which was a fair one. Red room game, again, disagree. Actually, I think it's a very good game. Right, and then from the Twitterers, we have Tony, who's always commenting and we very much welcome that. Poor execution again. Garrison McGill's raid. Discipline, boys, discipline. Someone called Dr. Harley-Worthy commented, game management voice. I don't know who that is. Sounds like an idiot. Rod Hill blew it again. Rob Williams, game management errors. I think there's a theme going on there. I don't know what you think about that. Yeah, it's a theme we've heard plenty of times, isn't it? Let's be honest about it. We will get into the red card, but I thought the disappointing thing for me was the first 14 minutes, actually, prior to the red card. Because actually, I thought that was a really slow start by kind of standards. Because I kind of have been coming out of the blocks really well. I thought that was a slow start. Let Connacht into the game quite nicely. Connacht got settled really a lot quicker than Cardiff did, even though there weren't any scores. And yeah, I've got to be honest, the first half was a bit of a drag. But I think it was already a bit of a drag before the red card. So I don't quite concur with the red ruined game. And then, yeah, team management at the end of the game is something that's been a point continuously made throughout the season. We've made it continuously throughout the season. I can't pinpoint one moment where I thought, that's all big game management, I must be honest. It wasn't something that I went, that was bad. I'm sure Harley has one or two, but that wasn't it. For me, it wasn't that, but it was just a general feeling. There's one major one. There's one major game management. There are a couple of other instances, but there's one very stark, obvious one. So we are 7-3 up. We've received a kick-off. Oh, we were on 22. 30 seconds left to go and 8,000 shapes to Fox kick. We infringed at the ruck then to go in 7-6, when really what we needed was another fix. And it's not like the forwards behind him, who then called in the ruck to make the catch there, were there ready to make this ruck. And it was, that was infuriating. The other one, because it happened a couple of times, is a bit of kick tennis. We were probably losing the kick battle. You know, we're on the edge. Really what we needed to do was boost it out. And instead, what happened is, you know, one of the players, I don't know if it was necessarily Beetham or Lane, it was either Beetham or Lane, or one of the other wingers. Lane, who I thought did a very good job covering the wing and losing 6-5 minutes. But he did have a couple of brilliant shots. I just, you know, I don't want to go much further than that, but, you know, one of them was, he caught the ball, what he needed to do was boot it, but instead holds it for a few seconds, then passes to De Beere as the Connocks chase him to De Beere and De Beere gets charged back, when really what we needed was just to boot that straight away. But it wasn't just him, it did happen a few times. I mean, the Connock chase was excellent for most of that game. They just didn't quite boost it back and, you know, a few of those moments, I feel like it's, you know, a cooler head, a better game management because, you know, we'd have just cleared ahead and it would have gone fine. But I thought for the most part, we played that game really well. I was going to say on the Alice Devon one, because I forgot about that, but that is one that frustrates me because referees are so, if you're doing that two, three phases and just trying to kill the clock, I think ever since, it reminds me, do you remember Wales 2005 Grand Slam, just closing out games from like 10 minutes out, just with one or two phases. And ever since then, teams have been penalised for that. And especially recently with staying on your feet and that, the mandate that they have on making sure players stay on their feet towards the end of the game. It cost us a Grand Slam. If you think about the 2021 game against France and Liam Williams going to get, I think it's, no, sorry, I think it might have been Corey Hill gets yellow cards, gets penalised because he seals off as well as we're trying to kill the game. And then France managed to score at the end. But I think you've got to just, when it's one phase, you've got to say to yourself, do you back yourself to do it sensibly? I think you've got to back yourself to do it sensibly. That's my thinking. I think, yeah, that one was frustrating in the first half and that seems to be a theme, isn't it? I think if it's been a minute or two, then it's in. But because it was 30 seconds and like 15 seconds by the time he actually kicked the ball, that one more phase probably gives us half-time. But as I said, because Conor didn't get the ball, we didn't really chase very often. I don't think anyone's expecting him to kick. They sort of didn't get the momentum. It was a four-point game. I think I remember the score was 14-16, not 12-16. Yeah, that was one thing that was a common thing I saw on some of the Facebook groups is people moaning about De Beers' face kicking again, which unfortunately, I think it's a bit unfair because I think he actually had a very good game, despite being on one leg. Yeah, I didn't think it was his strongest game, I must be honest. I think he did well, especially when he was hobbling through most of it. Yeah, he was hobbling through most of it. The face kicking is harsh, I've got to be honest. I didn't look at that and think, oh God, he's missed a sitter there. It was fairly wide out. I mean, it wasn't like right on the touchline though, still. And it was horrid conditions. That is not the sort of face I could have wanted to play rugby. No, no. And as I said, I played it on top of the hill in Beltmore. I didn't want to play it there, to be honest. I was questionable as to whether it was that. The other moment I will say is Le Petit's yellow, to my yellow cards. I thought that was just a bit cheap to give away. I thought it was just a bit cheap. I know it sounds bad, but cheap and obvious. You know Caelan Blade is going to do what Caelan Blade did. He's that sort of nine. He's going to nip round the sides, so you've got to be more ready for it, rather than grasping it thin air, and that's what leads to the yellow card. I didn't think it was as bad as it maybe looked, but I can understand why a yellow card was given. But yeah, I thought that was a bit cheap, a bit naive really, especially from a player who's nearer 40 than he is 25. So yeah, that was the other bit of, not game management as such, but game now is probably the thing. Yeah, I feel like it's one of those things where, I think if we'd been winning more games, the mistakes we probably wouldn't necessarily have made. And I think we'd close that game out a bit better. That's the other thing, is people are talking about kicking the ball away with less than a minute to go and things like that. If you look at the Ospreys game where Jack Bosch puts in one of the most baffling kicks of all time, and it bounces the right way and Stockdale carries it into touch, and you go, that's a great bit of tactical play by Ospreys, and then they go and slot a drop goal from 40 yards. And they're making their own luck at the moment. The bounce ball is going the right way, they've won it five on the bounce. They get the interception, they get a decision which Adam McFarlane was a bit miffed about, but honestly, that can do with that. But my main point is, they're making their own luck, whereas Cardiff don't seem to be able to get that one win over the bounce, to get that rolling momentum and get that luck bouncing the right way. It's just a little bit. And maybe there's a lack of faith they're getting in there. Maybe there's a lack of faith for thinking that you can turn these close games into wins, and it needs something to just turn the right way for them, or a bit of a message to get through to them that, yes, these are winnable games that can be won, and this is how to do it. Which I'm sure will happen, to be perfectly honest. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the way Ospreys play does remind me of Wales in 2019. And actually a very classic gap in Wales is, they will just keep trying the same things, and they'll make their own luck and they'll win. And it's something that winning, when you start winning and you start believing in what you're doing. I don't know, it's not the British rugby. I mean, the last great Ulster game was absolutely turgid to watch. That's good diabolical. But, I'd have taken that. If that had been us, if we'd been on that side of the scoreline, I'd have taken it. Right now, sitting on, is it three wins or three even? I think the only two games we've lost by more than seven. But I'd have taken it, just to have my actual win on the board. Yeah, I agree. Because when you think about the team, you know, like the one team, no disrespect to the Dragons, but I mean, I'm going to disrespect the Dragons here. The only team really that we've beaten this season are the Storks. And you think, they are a team that are URC playoffs teams, and it wasn't a particularly weakened Stork on the side. Or it wasn't their strongest team, and they were toward the end of their tour, but still. We were able to beat them. We were able to stay toe-to-toe with the Bulls for a thing. You know, we're staying in these games, and it's just like, it's only just by law that, by chance, one of these games has gone our way. Maybe that is what this game was, but it's just getting really frustrating now, just being like, well, I mean, I'm getting fed up on the rap chat, I'm getting the, oh, but at least you're restoring pride in World Cup history, and it's like, f*** off. Please just f*** off. I'm less frustrated about it, more just thinking the time needs to turn. I think that's my main feeling, and I just need a bit of confidence, I think, just to see how it goes. I hope it comes before next season, but if it takes a next season, not reset, but mini-mindset change, just to say, right, this is how you see our game from this position, and successfully do that, and then replicate it, and then replicate it again. The position Cardiff could be in this season is brilliant, but they're not there for a reason, and they need to turn those losses into wins in short, basically. I said, just sort of one perspective on why I think that game went weird. Weirdly, that's actually probably one of our worst games. Right, so basically these are against all 16 teams in the URC, so we scored two tries, that's like junk eight in the way they're sort of placing it. Overall, we're an average of 3.1 tries a game, so we're a bit under there. I do think, though, with the tries scored and the points scored, the Dragons game really skews the average for us. Probably need to have a look at the median or whatever. So we scored 12 points, which is a 13th highest, but then on average we score 23.9 a game, which is fifth. But actually, that, to be fair, sounds a bit more, that does sound quite right, because we do, most games, we do score about 17. That's one between like 20, 25. Problem is, is the other teams score about 30. Carries, yeah, so we were the bottom two metres made, we made 194, and we were 12th, so 167 metres, 94 carries, which is 12th. Overall, we're 110, we make 110 carries a game, which is seventh, and 264 metres, which is about sixth. So none of you have really made many metres there. I mean, one thing we are good on is, so joint first turnovers won this round with eight, five of which were under Thomas Williams, which is, according to the URC stats, which I'd like to thank the URC for giving us access to their, all their statistics, is, you know, an out-and-out best performance, up to, disagreeing to say it's four, which make it the joint best. Just one quick thing, that was Thomas Young, not Thomas Williams, is it? Thomas Young, yes. Thomas Young, yes. That's exactly what I said, and anyone who said it differently is worth listening. No. But yeah, so, yeah, so we got eight turnovers this round, which joint, joint Thomas, well, maybe the Dragons had eight turnovers in their game, which I, yeah, but yeah, we're first overall with 7.4. Just as a point of context, Connick got seven turnovers, and then I think a few more at the line-eight as well. We averaged two points per visit to the 22, which was better than Connick's. Yeah, so we basically scored 20, we scored, we managed to get into the Connick 22 six times, but only came in with 12 points. Maybe should have been 14 with that. Connick averaging 1.8, but normally we're averaging about three points per visit to the 22, which would put us in about six on average. So again, not really our break, and yeah, we kick a lot. We kick more than anyone else in the USA. I don't think that's an unusual stat. I haven't got a great number of sort of kicks we use, but we do also tend to kick from those metres. But yeah, that's the key stats, really. I mean, this wasn't a good game for us, just like, just on the numbers, it didn't feel that much. I know the Connick supporters are really annoyed because they feel like they should have really put the foot on the throat in Denver 13, and like I said, again, kudos to our Rangers. I know wet conditions probably didn't mean that we were going to be slinging it, teams were going to be slinging it wide, but still, very hard job, especially for someone who doesn't really play 13 that much anymore. Yeah, I think, to be honest about it, a lot of those stats in the metres made, that's not surprising against one, a Connock side that like keeping the ball, but two, when you're playing with 14 men, that's not surprising. I think the turnover stat, again, that's one Thomas Young being brilliant on the night, he was absolutely superb, fully deserved his player of the match award at those. He's by far the best player on the park. But additionally, it's something you go into, you go into this sort of siege mentality and try and jack off the ball and attempting these things more when you're down a man, because you know, well, logistically wise and defence wise, you're going to be stretched defensively, so you've got to take advantage of slowing down the ball, you've got to take advantage of trying to turn the ball over to get line up, to get set pieces, to get that sort of set piece systems going and basically to get some momentum and gain somehow through the pack, especially when you've got an eight in the pack and you can go level to level. I think the stats, I'm a bit more led afair with my lack of stats. I think watching that game on the weekend, the slow start was the thing that really frustrated me, as I mentioned before, but then I really liked the response to the red card. I thought, brilliant, how good was that response, you know, going back and scoring a try straight away, then Thomas and Thomas Yeo performing so well, but moving forward in that game, then parts just didn't quite gel as they should have, I think. It's hard playing against Connors with 14, it really is, because they just throw the ball around so well. I mean, I think the weather did help limit that a bit, so that was quite handy. Yeah, I thought things were a bit, I think we handled it very well. Jockey even said in his thing, say like, you know, with the red card, we had to change the way we kicked. You know, we couldn't do the kicking we wanted to, because we couldn't really go for contested balls because it'd be too far open. He said that we can't use the break, we didn't go as hard at the break down as we wanted to, and we still got eight turnovers. So I think that could have been interesting. You know, and things like the attacking fans and shapes, you know, I know Lilo, you know, we always have him popping up on the wing, you know, he cuts those angles and stuff, that does... No, it's a bit annoying. Yeah, it's a bit annoying, I feel like it's another one we could have won but didn't. But I mean, I'm saying this pretty much every week now, so I might just do it, I might just clip a little bit and insert it into the podcast for the next few weeks. It is a little bit the same, isn't it? A couple of people making a big deal of the internationals, by the way, I'm not sure. As good as the players who could have come back in, I don't think there's any real facet they're getting. They necessarily could improve, maybe Mason Grady can run the wing just for the impact. I mean, you know, being past, literally putting the ball in his hands and letting him run. But I don't know, I mean, I know Thomas would have probably, Thomas has made the exact same mistake this season as, you know, well, not mistakes, but you know, that thing with the referee's there. I feel like the team that could have played as well as, you know, it's not like we were battered up front, really. We didn't, our defence wasn't too bad. The one thing I'd add to that is, it was a noticeable depth issue, I would say. Not issues, that's too strong a word, apologies for that. But you notice when the bench came on, when Jared Butler especially came off the corner, he added a real lot of impetus, good ball carrying, bit of know-how, line speed, he was brilliant off the bench. And I think that was lacking a little bit. I'd also say first half, going to the line-out and going to Shane O's Hughes all the time seemed to be worked out a lot too quickly and then it took the half-time change to think, right, let's go to Seb. I think it should have been a bit simpler and maybe if you've got Teddy in that 23, or at least on the start at 15, that's eked out a bit more. But again, this is international window, it's just what happens, you've got to take it with the punches. You said it last week, it was going to be difficult against Conor because Conor don't lose many players and have that continuity week in, week out. That's nothing new, there's nothing new. So, yeah, there's two sides to it really. You've still got a side that are going to be the backbone of the team for the rest of the season and going forward into next season. So, I don't quite get the narrative of it was down to international players missing. It's just how it is, I think, as well. I suppose it's a depth thing. If you had Dominic Ciauski available then you're not expecting Carrie to do, because I'm pretty sure he did another 18 on his ship. I don't think Barrett came on, or if he did, I don't know. And, you know, Ciara's been very reluctant to use anyone other than Dominic Ciauski or Carrie and then if one of them's unavailable then the other one does the full 18. Maybe that would have helped. Because I thought actually Will Davis King played very well. And I don't think Kieran Parker did anything horrifically wrong. I don't think he set the world on fire. I feel like, literally, being injured was probably as much a loss as having a rafting. And, you know, you're always going to have injured players. There's the two combined, isn't there? If we had the period, then that's another thing. And maybe the scrum was a lot more of a weapon. Yeah. I think it was Parker. One I think will say for Parker, and I'm so glad he had another opportunity, because it had been a long time since that read. To be fair, I think, because he saved his band by then, I think, because you had Azarasi and Listeric playing so well, you just weren't going to stop any, you know, they were both going to keep playing. Yeah. I said, yeah. I said, I mean, Evan Lloyd, he was released. I'm pretty sure he was back then. But then you've got Belcher and Daniel, so I don't think. I think the impact, I think the problem with this is we had one of our big impacts off the bench quite early on with Mackenzie Martin coming on so early for you signing, who we basically, it got announced with the team sheet, because it was like, oh, here's a player you've not heard of, you've not heard of, but I'd best say we signed him then, Ben Donald, from the former London Irish bluster. Back five forward, I believe he's pegged our son. So it kind of makes sense that, you know, we were quite limited with how we did our line-ups, because we had a new component there, and then when big Mack comes on, he's not really a line-up camper either. No. He's a player that is hopefully, you know, long-term is going to excite, because he's a big lump, and what is he, 6'4", 6'5", I think Sherrod said pre-match, and that he can shift as well. So that's a good, it fits into the Cardiff philosophy of what's needed. That line-up jumper in the back row is never to be shirked at or looked at in the wrong way, and with the situation with certain players for next season, maybe, you know, I'm thinking Tavani, thinking Turnbull possibly, whether or not they're going to be around that much longer. So it's a good signing, I think. We've not really seen Turnbull a lot, and I feel like maybe he would have been quite useful in those last seven. Do you remember we were leading at 77th minute? Yeah, because one of his only games this season, Turnbull, is the game against Stormers, where he came off the bench. Yeah, he came off the bench then, and he started a couple of others. So then you're not going to get that experience without playing. And again, Ellis Jenkins, Noel Ellis Jenkins as well, I don't know if he's picked up another injury, or what he had. So, yeah, I think Jenkins has picked up another side knock, so that's not ideal, obviously, but that is what it is with Ellis, unfortunately, with injuries. He's not had any luck at all with injuries throughout his career, but this season as well. Yeah, absolutely. I don't really have too much more to say about this game than about you. We move on to... I mean, we did, we were hoping to preview this with an Irish guest, but obviously that's not better. So shall we go on to our next week? First of all, just want to do a little bit of under-20s. They're playing tomorrow night, as we record. Eight o'clock kick-off, or half seven? I can't remember. Ooh, let me just double-check, I'm pretty sure... I should do that. Anyway, I imagine that will be on BBC Wales, or maybe SLC, I don't know if they do the under-20s, or if it's just BBC Wales. Quarter past seven. But quarter past seven kick-off, right. I'm glad you told me that, because I would have completely missed it. Anyway, so as far as Cardiff can, you know, Cardiff interest, Harry Wells continuing on in the ten jersey, and Lucas de la Rua is getting his third start in a different back-row position. So he's packing down at eight, because I believe Morgan Morse took a bit of a knock against Ulster, or even that, who's just been rested. Being rested. But yeah, you know... Yeah, he's given the opportunity to stay at Ulster and rest, I think, is the official line. To be fair, he's played a lot for, you know, World's Affected, he's still a young man. But yeah, so Lucas de la Rua getting to show what he can do at the base of the scrum. Selden to Dan Thornham, he says that, you know, he's basically switched across the back-row, and he sees him as our next Jim Boatham, you know, our next N'Bidi Jim Boatham type player who can cover, so that, you know, could be a good experience for him. And again, something with, again, not knowing about Tamani and Panacea as well, I believe his contract is due up at the end of the season. I'm not entirely sure what the details of his deal are, you know. Having extra players, you know, having some more players who can cover eight on the end sector there, especially there, is a good thing. So, main Welsh squad, eight room blacks, plus a former Cardiff boy, Dylan Lewis, and former academy, Ewan Lloyd. So, I mean, there's not really a lot to say. I think we were all expecting, I think we were expecting seven of these eight, but maybe one of the ones on the bench was maybe a bit of a welcome bolt out of the blue. Yeah, it's a great story as well from the Boys from Ely. There was some talk a few weeks ago about who, how many other Ely players, well, Boys from Ely have made it in rugby. Phil Steele is one of their alumni, and that's, obviously, he's probably more known for his commentary than anything else nowadays, and there's bits on Scrum 5. But, yeah, obviously a great story with Mackenzie. He's played so well this season, and it's easy, I suppose, outside the Cardiff bubble to forget how well he's performed when all the talk's been about Morgan Morse as well, and his performances for the under-20s in Morgan Morse as well, the try against Cardiff. But Mackenzie's been brilliant. He's been a breath of fresh air, you know, that first 20 minutes performance or whatever it was when he came on and did brilliantly. For me, I'm excited by his opportunity off the bench. I think with Mackenzie going forward, he needs to learn or needs to work on being a bigger influence in games for longer periods. I think as an impact player, he could be brilliant. He could be absolutely brilliant, and I'm excited to see that go this weekend. And it could work out really well for Wales with him. I assume the plan would be for him to come on for Wainwright and Wainwright to shift to six, and Mann to come off. Yeah. Yeah, and that's what I would assume would be the obvious change, just because Mann seems to be tiring towards the end of games at the moment, which is understandable for a young kid at international level after playing, what, 10 or something in regional games. But yeah, I think Mackenzie's clearly a hot prospect, and having gone through, what, 5, 10 years or more of just saying, well, Falotau, and if not Falotau, then who? God help us. Now you've got Wainwright, and behind Wainwright you've got Morgan Mawson, Mackenzie Martin snapping at his heels. That's not too bad at all, is it? And Falotau's still, well, when he comes back, I'm sure, will be straight in his step from proving that he is, as ever, world-class. I mean, there's also an option of it just being a straight swap between Martin and Mann, where he did pack down at six for Cardiff when Ben Doyle came on. First down, rather see the gate. I think that explosive carry-in would be much better suited, and Wainwright showing that he's got, you know, he can adapt to the work rate. That gap he wants from his six, and, you know, just tackling everything that moves. So, just quickly running back, running through the whole, Cardiff season as a whole. Starting in the pack, you've got Gareth Thomas, Eddie Deane, Kieran Vazirati, Simon Jenkins, captain, Adam Beard, Mann, Raphael Wainwright, then Thomas, Sam, Stella, who comes straight back is Will Rowan-Lloyd, who moves to the bench. Rio Dyer, Tompkins, North, Josh Adams can win it. Bench is Elias Tomachowski, Dylan Lewis comes in to the institute, Archie Griffin, Will Rowan, as we said, Mackenzie Martins into fashion, and then we've got Harvey Lloyd and Mason Greedy. So, do we think that's a team that could beat Ireland? Well, at the very least, is that Is that a team that can have a good performance against Ireland? My pregnant pause is not helping this, is it? I'll answer it in a different way. This is going to be a political answer, almost. I think there are many changes I'd make to that side. I'd have maybe debated bringing Will Rowan back purely for his bulk. I'd have maybe debated giving Mason Greedy a turn on the wing because I don't think Josh has had his best two games in Wales yet. But apart from that, I think it's much of a muchness. The thing is, I just think this Ireland side are so, so, so strong. But what is a good performance? Is a good performance performing better than Italy did? Then, yeah, I think there's hope to do that and offering more of a threat than Italy did because Italy didn't offer a single threat, really, in that 36-0. They might as well be minus 10 for Italy because they didn't lay a glove on Ireland throughout that game, I felt. But I just... This Ireland side is a joker nut at the moment. The loss of Keenan is huge for them. Frawley's a brilliant footballer and all that jazz, but Keenan is, in my opinion, the best all-back in the world. I was actually gutted to see that he wasn't playing because I just love watching him play. I was gutted to see him go down against Italy. But if you can target Frawley, get a bit of joy out of that, that's probably one of the things I would try. I would try putting Josh Reo, with his kick-chases, brilliant, and George up against Frawley. Try and win the aerial battle against Frawley, see if you can do that. As well against Calvin Nash, who isn't the biggest and is still inexperienced at international level, so putting a few aerial bombs on them. I think Johan's unlucky, but I'm not surprised to see Sam come back in at 10. I don't think anyone is. I think Sam is Gatland's man now going forward for a bit, unless Johan can prove otherwise, or Sam can prove otherwise, that Gatland's going to stick with him for a little while at least. So, yeah, I just look at the island side and you look at that bench as well, on a 6-2. That's good, Mackenzie Martin, they've had to put two extra back rowers in from the bench. No. It makes me feel better. I'd love to agree, but I just look at that bench and you've got, in fairness, it's a bench that shows that they're respecting Wales, because it's a bench that says, right, we've got players to close out the game if it's tight. You've got McCleskey, you've got Connor, and then you've got your Bairds-Ryan combination with Conan, which is closing out the game. You've got your game sorted. If it's close going into the deck, I'd still back Ireland because they've got the bench to see it out. I just hope that Wales can be in a position where they're in the game after 50-60. That's the main thing, I think, and that would be a performance. I worry if things go pear-shaped early on, it could be a really long day, because if Wales try and throw the ball around, as they did against Scotland in the last 30 minutes against Ireland, I think it's not going to work and I think it could be a really painful day. So, it's about being disciplined in that first 50 just to stay in it, stay in the fight. I'd love to say there's a brand of rugby that I can see beating this Ireland type, but I just can't see it at the moment. I think, I mean, other people have pointed out that, really, their weakest point, really, is probably, potentially, the scrum. And even then, that's down to referee interpretation. I don't think we've got the pathway to take the picture to Dominic. Kicking game, if you try and kick long to them, they'll do what they did against France, from James Lowe, Thunder, Tuatha, 80 metres, and we're buggers, because we will not win a long-distance kicking battle. We don't have the kickers, we don't have anyone that can do it. Ostello, O'Neill and Lloyd are very good attacking kicking. Their attacking kicking is excellent. They're brilliant cross-field bombs, very good with the dinks over the top. But long-distance kicking is not their forte. So, again, if contestable, we might have a chance. I think, you know, we've got to really slow down their ball, you know, try and just, you know, even if it's just throwing down Jenkins or adding Beard, I've put the Frenchman every line in, just try and give them a moment of hesitation, just to try and slow down that initial phase every time. And, you know, Tommy Rettles is going to have to have a 10-out with 10 games, because we need to stop that red and orange sort of breakdowns, and try and give Jameson Gibson Park as uncomfortable a zone as possible. However, that is easier said than done. I said, if any team is loving the fact that referees are favouring the attacking side more than the defending side, their breakdowns are excellent. The Tommy thing, I think, I know I've banned this from every Blinney week, but I think it's... Islam will have a plan to deal with Tommy, so I wouldn't be surprised. Pardon? So, I wouldn't be surprised if they put two men on him, just to clear him out. Palmer will probably be on him, but maybe Van der Veer as well, probably Doris will do with Peter as well. So, therefore, it leads you to what you do then, and there needs to be another player, an Elliott Dee, a Domachowski, or Gareth Thomas, or someone to step up and say, right, okay, if he's taken out, how can I impact the turnover and slow the ball down? So, hopefully, they can do that and act in... You know, act in pods of three, and it tackles you, but you don't mind tackling your third over the ball, but it isn't just always Tommy as your third. There has to be another option as a third player, whether that be a man, be an Alex man, or be a Wainwright, or be an Elliott Dee to impact on the opposition ball. It's one of those moments where you almost miss Liam Williams because he was so good at getting over the ball. I said, are we sure De Beers hasn't got a Welsh cranny, and I'm not saying necessarily it's him, just hide him somewhere on the pits and he'll just get over the ball, and then just quickly hide and turn, and you'll be like, oh, it's Stello, brilliant red. But, yeah, I think you're right, I mean, having just one out now, Jack Offer, is going to be hectic, but, I mean, Gatland Stones have been great at slowing down ball without necessarily being classic over the ball and with tackle selection. Adam Beers is fantastic at that, actually. His tackle selection is usually excellent. They really don't hit. We do make the least so much tackles in the sixth nation. I also don't think our defence necessarily wants, necessarily wants dominant shots, dominant shots to help. That's granted, in ten momentum, but this current defence in the Mike Borgshire was almost greater in the face of trying to cut off options, but then what's happened, they always want to try and isolate the ball carrier and let him pass so you can get over, which is quite a risky strategy, admittedly, but, you know, that is how we're going to, you know, they've worked out, we probably don't have physical specimens to make dominant shots, so we do it in a different way, or, you know, there's a lot of attempted choke tackles with all sorts of rips, which, naturally, you end up in a more passive position when you're attempting them. Yeah. The one other thing I would say about defensive line is that defensive lines and kicks need to be so much better going into this week. If Keenan was playing, he'd have had a field day with the defensive line in the first two weeks, so it needs to be – it's been aggressive. I've really liked the aggression. You watch Tompkins, he's flying up, and Watkin was flying up as well when he played against Scotland, but then there needs to be that coordination with your blindside winger, so it seems to be Rio's flying up, Tompkins is flying up, and then there's this massive dogleg in the midfield between your seven, your ten, or whoever's acting in that role. So that needs to be addressed, and hopefully it has been, because otherwise, yeah, Ireland are going to pick holes through that, and Doris will pick holes through that. It'll be easy for him. Yeah, I mean, when you've got carriers as good as that, you really don't want to forgive them. And I said that, I mean, particularly against Scotland, our biggest issue was the kicks were just a bit too long, so there wasn't enough time for Dorian to get – by the time Dorian got to the capture, the ball had already been passed. And I do think that was better against England, but it needs to be so much better again. Yeah, I think that's pretty much all I want to say about that Wales game. Yeah, so just good for predictions. I'll be honest, I'm not optimistic in the slightest, but we can override this, I think, easily, Ireland by 20 or 30. Ireland by 20, yeah. Any news on the Welsh membership? Not major news. I'll run through the results from last weekend, which was obviously a loss for Cardiff, Cardiff against Pontypool 2013. A bit of a stomach blew that for Cardiff, because a win would have seen them looking very comfortable in that top four, but it's probably put Pontypool back in it. And then as well as that was Merthyr's loss on the Thursday night before at home to Newport. I was working on that one, and Newport just – there were some really stupid bits of play from Merthyr, I've got to be honest. There was one particular challenge that I wasn't too happy with, that only garnered a yellow card from Loch. I thought that was a red card, and it was a poor piece of play, but there were other moments where they just gave Newport too much territory too easily, and Newport capitalised on it. Their play in the driving wall was very, very good. Hooker, whose name escapes me, I think, could have scored about five at the end, but the tight end props died on the five equalisers at the dry line, so that didn't help things. But yeah, it was a bit of a disappointment for Merthyr, because they got themselves in a position where they looked like they could challenge for the top four, and I think that loss possibly has knocked the stomach out of them and maybe the wind out their sails a bit, to use two metaphors that were unnecessary. But yeah, the position's now Cardiff fourth on 54 points, and then Pontypridd are seventh on 43 points. They both played 18 games, and then Merthyr are a further four points back on 39 points with 16 games, so they've got two games in hand. So really, they are still in the fight, just I think that loss was a bit of a tough one to take, because I think the performance wasn't what they'd have hoped for. Yeah, that's it. Is there anything else you want to cover before we say goodbye? Not that I can think of off the top of my head. The only other one is Gwalior Lightning are away to Glasgow this weekend. I haven't got the details, and then next weekend then it will be a repeat of the first game of the season between Gwalior and British Montana, to sort out the bottom half draw of the inaugural, well, the second season of the Celtic Challenge, but first in this multi-team, two teams per country format, which I mean, I mostly thought, other than the disappointment of Gwalior after their great start, I think this competition has gone quite well. I'd have liked a bit more communication from the WRU around it, but especially when you see how much Glasgow and Edinburgh and the Wolfhounds and the Clovers are being tweeted by the Celtic Challenge, they're pushing, they're pushing, they're pushing constantly, and the WRU are facing quite a post-match. Oh yeah, by the way, they're playing next weekend. They could do a little bit more. I think the WRU have improved slightly in the last couple of weeks, but my main issue with this competition has been the lack of communication around the second half of this playoffs or whatever has been coming, because everyone thought it was going to be a playoff system, and then it's been quite unclear how to finish off the season, how it was going to happen. Yeah, and they've ended up with more leaks. Yeah, exactly. To explain what is going on this weekend, Gwalior are playing Glasgow at half-twelve on Saturday, this Saturday, so the 24th. That's in the Kings fan, so that sort of explains the situation, that it's sort of neutral grounds, but it's a bit of an up-in-the-air scenario. Not everyone's on neutral grounds, either. They just pick random grounds for each of these games. Yeah, I don't quite get how that's worked out, but that's my point of view with it. But, yeah, as a whole, in terms of producing players, it's clearly worked. You look at your Molly Reardons, you look at your Gwenan Hopkins, Nell Metcalf, who Nell's obviously had her opportunity in the Wales trip before, but Gwenan and Molly especially. Molly was a scrum half a couple of years ago, and now she's playing hooker in the Wales squad on the back of that as a hooker. So it's really worked wonders for a number of these fields, and that can't be stressed enough. Absolutely, yeah. Excellent. I mean, it's doing its job. I think that's the important thing. The primary aim is to develop talent to team Wales, and that's working. I would like to see this competition move a bit more. I mean, maybe if we just have a wait moment and just go straight for home and away. It's a six-team league, so everyone gets ten games, five games, five away. Maybe just do a play-off for the top two teams at the end, just as something nice. It'll be interesting what they do next season. There's talk of expanding it further, but we've chatted about that before. How far do you go with expanding is the question going forward. I agree. I mean, I think we've agreed. It's a great deal we've had on the course, and we were talking about it saying that, at least for our perspectives of Welsh and Scottish. Until we get to a point where they're all proud, and we've got money, and we're generating money to probably keep, for us at least, keep it at the two teams. And maybe, you know, go for an alternative kit. It's the same alternative kit for both, and you just change the badge. Just have a plain white kit. That would solve all the problems, really. Especially in the narrative that we've had this week around colourblindness and everything. There is colourblindness, but there is also kit patches that shouldn't exist. I remember the Champions Cup, so after we won the Champions Cup in 2018, we played Glasgow and we both had grey kits, and then it was foggy. And I'm convinced the reason we gave away a couple of intercepts was because players thought they were on their side. Because both teams were passing the ball to each other, so it's the other team, really. Speaking of the thing, it's something that happened last week, so I'm assuming you've gotten it, but Six Nations have dropped the precedent of a home team going to an alternate kit. Which basically means that for this game, in theory, Wales should have to change. But our change kit is black with green accents, and then Ireland are playing green. I'm not sure that necessarily helps. And then Ireland are very helpful with their alternate kit. It's just a tale of grief. One thing I would say is, talking to people who have watched before you could see colour on the TV, Wales or Ireland, one of them was forced to change their shorts, so they had a bar of your colour shorts, and that was how they distinguished. I don't see how that would be an issue, Wales playing red, but have them put the black shorts on. I don't know. I've got to be honest, and I don't mean this in a derogatory way of the condition, rather the opposite. I'm bored of the narrative around it. I think it's something that should have been sorted years ago. Not luckily at all. Fortunately for people that deal with this condition, deal with colour blindness, that is, it should be sorted next season when it would be mandatory to change the kits. That will also happen to be the same year where Wales will now have a deal with Macron. All this sort of thing. It's just the same narrative every year. It's the same problem that happens every year, and surely it should have been solved by now. We're in a bang of stupid drummers 2024. Come on. I'm really tired. This story came up in a professional capacity, and someone said to me about it, and I was like, this should have been sorted years ago. It's just a boring narrative to keep on having to say, and for the people that campaigned for it, it must be really boring for them to keep on campaigning for it. The flip side of that, which seems to be, oh, it'd be nice to see these teams playing their home colours, and the Six Nations because of the tradition. Well, you've got France playing against Scotland and changing their kits, and you've got Italy playing against Scotland and changing their kits, so why can't Wales, why can't Ireland? Come on. Simple. Absolutely. As I said, I mean, one option is the shorts. Yeah, because someone did point out that Wales quite often use green as an ultimate colour, so we're going to have to go back to that, so I said yellow, I think. Oh, no, please don't. Anything but that. No, actually, not anything, anything but that and grey. The light grey needs to go. That was disaster. I have a light grey training top from a couple of years ago. That's lovely, because it's a training top. Yeah, but playing in is just awful. Yeah, on that note, we just, you know, ended up checking on ourselves more than anything. Thank you all for listening. Just a reminder, please do like and subscribe to the podcast. Also, check out our YouTube, check out the Wrapped YouTube channel, so we're trying to push up those subscribers up to, so currently at 56, we're aiming for 200. Lots of stuff, so obviously you can see our wonderful faces on the podcast, plus all the other guys. You can see Carwyn again on the Welsh pod. I don't know if the closed captions translate to English for those who want to learn, but also we've got extra videos, so there's match reactions, team reactions. We've had to try like videos out now, and hopefully we're going to be doing a lot more in terms of clips and stuff as time goes on. Lee's spoken a bit about on the main pod, so watch that space. So yeah, once again, please like, subscribe, leave a review, drop a message to all our socials. So all that's left to say is thank you again. Thank you for listening to the Cardiff Central Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Please subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen to us, as it really helps spread the word. You can find us on all the usual social media channels, or email us on welshregionalrugbypod at gmail.com. And remember, whatever the question is, rugby is always the answer.