Don't mention the hamstring incident!

This week on the Ospreys Iries podcast, Yestin fills in for Robbie who is taking a week off. They discuss meeting Robbie and their rugby-filled weekend. They also talk about their work placements and upcoming interviews with the Wales Women's Rugby team. They mention some Ospreys players staying and others going to the Cheetahs. They also discuss potential signings and injuries within the team. They anticipate more news to come. Welcome to the Ospreys Iries podcast. The podcast is probably going to give away an interception during this recording. I am joined this week by Yestin. No Robbie this week. We've given him a week off because he had a long week last week. So we're giving him a week off. So Yestin, how are we? Yeah, good. We can see why Robbie had the week off because I actually met him Friday night, which is a really cool experience. Thinking, oh my word, that's the bloke that does the Squid Rugby YouTube videos. Then it clicked, realised we actually do the same podcast every week, which is just even more bizarre. But yeah, I think he had a few things going on. So we're going as a duo this week and yeah, I'm all right. Don't lie. You put in the group chat that you met Willow in. Yeah, I met that as well. Yeah. So you met Long Eton's most famous player. Well, to be fair, I met Robbie the first time after we won in Welford Road. So that kind of like, yeah, that's probably, that explains the message. Did you have a good weekend? Was it rugby filled? Yeah, it was. Obviously the interceptions galore in the first 16 minutes on Friday. And then it was Ponte Prive against Aberavon on the Saturday, which wasn't that bad. Samo Ponte have won three games on the spin, which is quite interesting. And Samo's still in the top four race, which is quite, quite remarkable. And then, yeah, this week we've been back out on the older work placement. Yes, you've been tearing up at Wales Online, some good articles on that. Yeah, there's been a couple on that. There's a couple more tomorrow. So for those who are listening on the Wednesday night, some point Thursday, there'll be a couple of pieces up. And hopefully a trip to the Vale tomorrow as well, so on Thursday, to cover the Women's Press Conference ahead of England-Wales, which is quite exciting. Who are they sending out for media, do you know? I don't know. I think it's Joan Cunningham and Hannah Jones, I think, are facing the press. I'm also entertaining, like, give me Gwen Crabb or, like, give me, Ciara Bevan is always a good one. I think we had Jasmine Joyce on Tuesday, if I read, so, yeah. I think it's mainly because of the team announcements on Thursday, so they probably just want head coach and captain. Or Kelsey Jones. She's good. She's a Port Talbot girl. It's a really good interview with her in Rugby World, actually, this month. Though I have no idea if she's in a relationship with Sarah Beckett. Oh, you learn something new every day? I learn something new every day. Brilliant. But I am a fully paid-up member of the Gwen Crabb fan club. So, I do have no idea if she's... If you put her in here, it's Cecilia Tuopolofti in the men's squad. We'd be world champions by then. Right. What did I do? I played some rugby this weekend. If you listen to the rap on Monday, I played on Saturday. I played an eight-minute tight and loose. It's a Channel Bayner recentry. Picked up play of the match. Hard-fought victory, all but wrapped up the league. It's just good vibes all around down south of England. There's probably definitely a better pick-me-up than watching Ponte Prieto against Al Brabham on Saturday afternoon and nearly winning the league. I don't know. I love watching Ben Bunnell and Jay Baker and Harvey Nash. Oh, Harvey Nash has played very well. Jay Baker didn't play, but Harvey Nash has had a really good run of form over the last couple of weeks. He has had a really good run of form. I tipped him for big things in the last race. He was okay in the 20s level as well, but I think he was just a bit congested. Yeah, I remember Rodri telling me about him when I was in sixth form saying, oh, they've signed this scum from the Blues. Obviously, he was the Blues back then. He said, oh, they've signed this scum from the Blues, Harvey Nash. Yeah. I'm glad he's doing well, though. Okay. So, news-wise, there's not much news. We say that every week. I genuinely am. There is no news. So, two of the three Cheetahs boys, I'm sorry, I broke the news yesterday. I broke an exclusive that the Ivani Varshav is staying until at least May. So, a big thank you to DJ Russo for sending me that exclusive. I'm really grateful to him. Again, give him a follow on Twitter if anything Cheetah is related. So, he's going to stay. He's going to miss their quarterfinal of the Round of 16 game against Claremont and Verne. Then he could stay as late as May. More interestingly, actually, let's say thank you to Victor Sekicete and Jean-Jerôme Rudolph. They were both really good. They're welcome back anytime. More interestingly, three Ospreys players have been registered at the Cheetahs, with one of them being a prop. Now, as I said on Twitter, a list was passed to me at the end of February with potential names that are going out. I'm still not going to name them just until I get more. I might name them later this week. But three young players going out to cut their teeth in Buffontaine in, I believe, the FA Cup. Is it the South Africa Cup or something like that they're going to be playing in? It would be the Curry Cup, wouldn't it? It's quite close to the Curry Cup season now though, isn't it? So, it'll be in that environment anyway, which would be good. So, what's your thoughts on the whole situation with Boshoff staying and three of our boys going out? First of all, it's good to see Boshoff staying. I think he's been a really good addition. You know, he looked quite good against Munster. I thought he was very good up in Edinburgh the couple of weeks before. It's nice to have an extra option of 13. Obviously, with injuries towards north, which looks rather serious after what Toby Booth said post-match. Yeah, it'd be nice to have someone alongside Watkin and Florence as options to play 13 and are out to out 13. So, yeah, that's good news. Of course, obviously, we don't want to see anyone leave the club, do you? So, Seketete and Rudolf, they've played well, I feel. They've gone around the park and just done their stuff. But, you know, the Cheetahs have got their own competitions to play in as well, with their under-16 at the Challenge Cup. Who knows, it could easily be, I'm not sure if they're on the other side of the draw or not, but it could easily be later on in the competition, could be the Cheetahs against the Ospreys, who knows. That'd be heartbreaking. That'd be something really interesting, seeing Dan Gassendi up against Keelan Giles. I think that's a good battle to watch. Someone commented a rumour on the Facebook page that we've signed him on a two-year deal, which would make me incredibly happy. I mean, it's very unlikely. Yeah, and is the winger probably the top priority at the minute? That's the question. No, I've said this, and I've said that Thirteen and Usai Prop are the signing priority. Speaking of signing, your mates at Wales Online dropped a bomb in the day that Kieran Hardy is basically all but done. Kieran Hardy is supposed to have signed. He's played 93 games for Scarlets. He looks to be on his way out, he's doing deals, looks to reshuffle. Of course, he has cousins. We have Luke Davis, and Luke Davis is a younger cousin. So Booth is clearly building a family army, because it'll be a pack full of fenders and a backline full of Kieran Hardy and Luke Davis. So what do you think of the Hardy signing, though, if it does come to fruition? Obviously, it's not fully confirmed. Steph Thomas at Wales Online is normally quite reliable and quite good at these exclusives. So yeah, it's an interesting one. I think it probably provides some good competition for Reuben Morgan-Williams as well. Someone else alongside him has maybe battened it out for first choice. Obviously, no disrespect to Luke Davis and Cam Jones, but you just felt at the start of the season that Reuben was going to be the first choice, and then everyone else would be sorting themselves out for second choice. But yeah, some international experience doesn't go amiss at all. Hardy's been quite unfortunate that he's had to play alongside someone like Gareth Davis at the Scarletts for so many years, especially when Davis was reaching his peak. He just felt like there was a starting role for Hardy. So maybe this move could easily change that, and Hardy could be within the shot of being the first choice, and we'd be able to see where he's like that. Oh, I agree. I think he fits into that system that we want to play—reliable, kicking nine. I said on raffle Monday that if he was younger, probably a bit less expensive, that Toby would go out and say that I'm a Davis. I think that this is the next cab off the rank in terms of that type of signing. He's not going to cost too much. Solid, reliable. There's more pros than there's cons to this signing, so fingers crossed. We've had no re-signings this week. I'm still confident that there is going to be more to come. Well, we know there's more to come. Obviously, the fallout from the Nicky deal has happened. Cuthbert is injured. We don't know the severity of it, but it looked very Dewey-Lakey to me, like Dewey-Lakey against Perpignan. Anyone else? Nicky's fit. Do you think he'll be fit? He popped a rib that game. I'm not too sure, because he had a little cut to the head as well after one of the scrums, so I thought originally it went out for blood. Then, obviously, he realised he might have done something to his ribs. We'll probably find out tomorrow at some point when the Booth press conference is. Are you in that press conference? I am not. I will not be, because my work down the Vale, so I'm not sure who's covering that exactly. I think most of the regional press conference is tomorrow, so I think all the news will probably come out tomorrow afternoon at some stage. Expect news tomorrow, but now you know we haven't got Cardiff. We haven't got a Friday game. The Dragons are on. They had their press conference yesterday, didn't they? Yes, so I think everyone else is on Thursday. I'm not in. We can't really get any longer, can we? Do you want to do a good play of this, or should we just get it? I may as well just delve into this and get out of the way. Ospreys versus Munster. The game finished in the most dramatic fashion possible. I don't know where to start, because this game was a farce. It finished 17-27, right? So Ospreys got three tries. Actually, let's start with some magic numbers. I'm going to steal Hugh Griffin's thing. Ospreys have the worst kicking percentage off the tee of anyone in the league. So they have the lowest success rate off the tee in the league, 65% after missing another four points in the week. We have now missed 43 points kicking a goal this season. Unfortunately, a lot of that is Owen Williams. Dan Edwards, the Gentleman, ironically, is in the top four for kicking, still. How do we feel about that? I think the slight annoyance of it is that most of them have become quite crucial games as well, if you look back throughout the season. Obviously, you had Owen Williams who missed a conversion away at Conor at the start of the season. If that goes over, there's an extra point. You know, I can't remember about the Glasgow game, but... Scarlett, he missed one. I know it didn't matter, but... You know, if you miss one, then you come to be in front. They don't really tend to be noticed. So you've got the Connacht game, you have... Dan Edwards missed one in the Ulster game, which obviously, we wouldn't have had that last-minute drop goal. Things like that. So, yeah. Is it a worry going forward, do we think? I think a little bit. I think in terms of probably the lead position and how all the points have managed to work themselves out, it probably is. If you're looking back and you're thinking, oh, there's a point missing there. Duncan Weir with Glasgow, from the Glasgow game, he was pinpoint off the tee. I'm pretty sure he's 100% that evening. And, you know, kicked the penalty to give them the lead, and then the conversion, so now the Ospreys are losing bonus points that night. And then if you look at it from Friday night, you've got the, you know, if you go in at 14-19, as it would have been if the second conversion went over, you're thinking, right, it's a bit closer. And then Munster turn up for about five minutes, nine-minute scores, and you're chasing the game again. So, you know, there's little moments from missing kicks and things like that that you kind of, you probably look back at the start of the season, and you think, right, it's not, no, first game or two of the season, all right, it's not that much of a worry. But then when you're in the business end of the season, you're fighting for the top eight or, you know, Champions Cup rugby, and you're thinking, oh, if only that kick went over, if only that kick went over. But goalkeeping's quite similar to other mistakes that happened on the field as well. You know, there's countless chances that inside the Munster 22, where the Ospreys either drop a ball or a pass may not go to hand, and things like that. You know, one example where Owen Williams tries an offload and it bounces off Sam Parry's head, which is rather unfortunate, or Morgan Morris loses control of the ball inside the Munster 22. So they kind of, you know, they all add up, don't they? So, you know, as everyone looks at the kicking stats, in a way, you kind of need to look elsewhere as well. But yeah, you know, if you lose by 10, and you've missed four points, you kind of think, ah, you know, you kind of missed out on the opportunity of a point. But at the end of the day, there was obviously one chance that would have been an extra two points. And I don't really want to talk about it. Let's go through the game. We started in the worst possible way. Sorry, I've lost, I've gone on a rabbit, I went on a rabbit hole of looking at appearances. So Shane Daly goes across in the third minute on the first Munster attack in the game. We just defended far too narrow. I can't remember who shot it, but it put someone in no man's land. And Kieran Jones has just had too much to do. Really, that would have been had Mark Jones having kittens. Because we have defended narrow this season. That's not new. I don't necessarily agree with it. It's the blitzing and then not being able to react to a team getting the ball wide. That's slightly annoying me. So we go, we lose that. Then two minutes later, we attack the blind side in front of the East End. Probably not far in front of you yesterday, I'd imagine, is it? No, I think it was the other side. Was it the west side? Yeah, it was in front of the west. So Sean O'Brien intercepts, goes the length, poor Kieran Jones tackle. They go over. Annoying. Then the most comical try I think I've ever seen. So Sean O'Brien gets the ball. Hacks it through and it's literally on the touchline, like anything but touching the touchline. Actually, I think if you went to TMO, you could probably frame by frame break it down, right? Justin Tipper gets back, goes to dab it down, just misses the ball. Owen Williams then goes to kick it, misses it completely and Sean O'Brien puts down the pressure. At that point, I was just, I was honestly, my jaw was on the floor. I was like, we are the unluckiest team in the world. So how did it feel in the stadium? Um, I think everyone's a little bit shocked, but even by the first try, you know, it's quite rare that the Ospreys, you know, can see the try off first phase and especially really early on in games. You kind of like, it takes a bit of time before anyone kind of cracks and, you know, it all came from a scrum penalty as well, which is probably a little bit annoying for Booth and Jones. Yeah. The Smith goes in on the angle of trying to assist dominance, but doesn't get, doesn't, well, obviously doesn't get what he, what he wanted because he, he, he was going in against, he was boring in, but, um, you know, when you give away the penalty and you're thinking, hang tight, all right, it's an early chance for them. And if you remember the game against Elster, the Ospreys defended really well, especially early on in, in that match. And then Munster all of a sudden put out this first phase move and they, they score and, and you're thinking, well, that's a surprise. Then the Owen Williams intercepts, which is, um, well, that was a bit of a blow at the time. And then, um, Kieran Williams thinks this, uh, thinks it was a good idea to do it again through a few minutes after that. And you look at the scoreboard and it's 19-0 after 16 or 17 minutes. And you're thinking, oh, this, you know, we've seen what Munster can do to, to other regions. You just want to make sure it doesn't end in about 40 odd points and just make sure you get off nil to begin with. It's so ironic that everyone this season has been calling it for us to play more expansive rugby. And as soon as we fling it away twice, we lose, we get intercepted. Yeah, both of them were, you know, they were very, you know, if the passes went to hand, there's a chance on the wing. I think Giles was there for the first one. I don't know, I think it was Kieran Williams was there for the first one and Giles was there for the second one on the outside. So if the pass went to hand, there's a chance, maybe a half-brick or maybe something more. But, um, yeah, it's really ironic that everyone mentions, you know, the Ospreys play this forward-oriented style of rugby. And, but you can just see when you try and run it from, well, just inside your own half or somewhere around there that, you know, you can't, you have to be rather safe in what you do, especially in attack, because the fences are so good. And I think O'Brien, it was, who got the tries, those interception reads were really good. And especially how he picked the second one out because that was rather impressive. But, um, yeah, I think Boothby mentioned it post-match about how, um, how maybe that was maybe a bit of a tactical element that maybe they didn't get, because obviously they knew what they were going to expect from Munster, you know, lots of physicality up front and, you know, a World Cup win in the second row obviously helps. And, you know, the set-piece was going to be a big battle and, you know, maybe they tried to maybe evolve from that, you know, forward style a little bit and use the backs a little bit more. And they got caught out in the first quarter and kind of sorted that out rather quickly in venison. Yeah. So from there, um, it had a bit of a mountain to climb. Uh, it did get worse, um, when Justin Tipric received a yellow card on 38 minutes. Uh, so we did score a try actually for this, 33 minutes. Keele and Giles goes over, um, in a really lovely try actually. Goffshaw hits a lovely line, um, gets a hit, makes a little cap-flap offload to Keith and then Keith just very calmly passes the ball to Giles and we go over it and see like, right, 19-5. Okay, let's just go into halftime, reset, come back. We're on top of the scrum at this point, by the way. We just had to point out that we've sorted out the scrum, we're winning penalties. We just can't convert. We're getting into 22 and we cannot convert. It's probably the first, and it's credit to Munster, because I remember Munster are champions. Yeah. Munster are statistically the best team in the league. They just won the league. 38 minutes in, um, Ollie Davidson awards a yellow card to Justin Tipric for a professional foul. It is a yellow card, unfortunately. Can't really argue with it. I haven't watched it back. Um, but we ride up the storm. Uh, Brice Davies puts a lovely turnover and right to halftime, which leads me into my next stat. He won two turnovers that night and he's the only lock to have won 11 turnovers this season. No player has won more. So I think he's well up. He's still in the top 10, might even be in the top five. I think he's jumped top with a couple of other players. I think Thomas Young is one of them as well. I read this afternoon. I can't remember who else. I remember reading that Thomas Young is definitely on 11 and Brice Davies is as well. But Davies was the only lock that's got more than eight, I think, because that was the next second row in line. But Cardiff told me that Thomas Young is on 864 turnovers this season. Well, I think that's one for the central podcast of the bit. Yeah, they're probably, they're probably just shooting me. They called me out to public last week. Did they? Yeah. Here's Damon Andrew Ford. Shocking. Inflammatory comments. After that, we come out, um, we're dominant week, all the possession, all the territory, Sam Parry eventually goes over, um, for his 965th try in North Springs, Jersey. Um, it's already been 1912 at this point. Nope. Yeah, 1912. So you're like, come on. Hello. But then RG Slayman goes and scores five minutes later, which shouldn't have been a try, by the way. I'm not going to talk about the neck roll, right? The neck roll should have been pinged, right? But that, the Rhys Henry holding on penalty, man. Gee, how, there was clear lift. He was on it for a good two seconds. And he's, our refereeing decisions were not as egregious as the ones in the Dragons game, right? Um, but you just, you just want consistency. That's all you want, I think, as a, as a player and as a spectator. How did you think Holly Davidson did? I thought, I thought on the whole, she did okay. You know, every referee makes the odd decision that you probably disagree with. Um, you know, the Henry one, for example, you kind of think, you know, maybe another day she might have given it, you know, and a different referee might have given it, you know, the same way. And, but, um, you know, my bear with the URC at the moment is probably how only the referee and the team are from the same nation. And yeah, Gwynne Morrissey, she runs a convent at the Liberty State level. And you've got text messages from the WIU and no offence to them, but you go and watch the Welsh Prem and you see maybe one of them in the middle. And you're thinking, you know, he's making the odd area in there, you know, in the seventh professional league. And you're thinking, why are they running touch as the other rugby has not got a full set of officials to come over? I remember they did briefly have, have that, um, I think it was just before COVID where they managed to sort out that they'd have a group of four to go to, go to games, but obviously COVID kind of held that back for a while. Um, and now they've, they're slowly building that back up with now two. So, um, yeah, it's, um, you know, I didn't think Davidson had, you know, had a particularly bad game. I thought she reffed it very well. Um, but I think Dai Flanagan said it right, you know, it's a, it's a job which, you know, four people need to be, you know, on course with that. And maybe at some occasions in the ORC on a whole, not just this particular match on Friday, but on a whole, maybe just, just the one, unfortunately, I think it needs to be a bit more of a collective effort between all four across, across the league. Yeah. So how do you, Simon goes over after not really sustained pressure, but just banging the door. 73rd minute then Alex Cuthbert powers over. Um, and you're like, hello, this, this could be spicy. Uh, just sort of finish it. Um, at this point, what are they? 27, 12 up. Alex Cuthbert goes over. We missed the conversion. Um, 70, 78, 79 minutes. So we have a ruck. And as we, if you look at the TV, you have a ruck on the far left-hand side. Um, we have a penalty advantage. The ball spills out. Cam Jones makes a dart the side of the break. Um, very quick off the mark, actually, really, really quick off the mark. Alex Cuthbert's in on support, gives a simple two-on-one. Alex Cuthbert, you know, has walked in these trains for years and years and years, five metres from the line, his hamstring goes, goes like he cannot move. And Mike Haley puts in a tackle. He does well to get the ball away, actually, but it kicks out. So we bomb that. And then Owen Williams misses the kick. What was worse, if we could have taken the scrum option, it would have been a scrum five to us. Would I, because when I was watching it live, I was thinking, doesn't that, because Cuthbert tries an offload back inside the supporting run of Giles, who had just backed off because everyone had thought that Cuthbert was going to score. Yeah. Don't blame Keele and Giles for that at all, because I think everyone in the ground thought that Cuthbert was just going to, you know, stroll in the last five metres and score, but obviously rugby's rather cruel like that. And when a hamstring goes, goes like that, it's rather unfortunate. So I thought Cuthbert, give the offload back in. I thought Haley booted it out. He booted it in. I thought he booted it in. So I'm pretty sure we have the option. I'll have to watch it back. I'm dead certain he's kicked it dead, because Holly Davidson clearly said, you have the option. And we went, overcooked it, then we lose the game. Just a stinging way to lose the game. It just hurts. And I'm over it, right. We lost. They're the champions. It's probably right, 10 points. It's just about right that we didn't, you know, we could have, we say this all the time, I'm going to take a leash on Cardiff, but we could have rolled over and taken a 50, right. And teams in the past would have done. We did half find a way and we deserve two points at that game. It just hurts in the manner in which we didn't get two points. Um, because statistically we dominated. I thought a forward carried really well. I thought Rafi and Davis had a really good game together. Well, Rhys Henry was brilliant when he came on. Again, unironically brilliant. Um, Morgan Morris was industrious. Uh, Tipperary probably had one of his quieter games. Um, Deeves came on and was tapping everything. A Boshoff was great. Giles, I think for me, the player that stood out the most was Jack Walsh when he came on. I think Jester Hopkins didn't have a bad game whatsoever. I just think he didn't get the opportunities that he probably needed. Jack Walsh came on and he really showed up at 15. He looked the best under that ball he ever has. It's just ability to find half gaps. He's just so good at that. So yeah, I'm over it. It stung. It really did, but we deserve two points. We didn't get it with 10 points where it's off. Playoff dream is most likely dead. It will know definitely after this weekend. I was a bit tough, um, you know, when you, when you're walking out of a ground and he, and you, you know, the, the way that the last few minutes has happened, cause you're thinking, you know, you know, even in the small moments, like if Owen Williams doesn't kick the ball dead and once they don't have that scrum where they win the penalty from and kick three points, you're thinking, and obviously if Cuthbert's hamstring doesn't go, if you look at that and you're thinking, wow, it's a, it's a one school game. There's a chance for a penalty of a late drop goal and with two minutes to go, you're thinking, you know, this is anyone's game. Even if, even if Cuthbert just scored normally, you're thinking Lions away is about to reappear all over again. And the Ospreay is about to grab a late winner. And, but obviously there's going to be times with this young squad where results like that, comebacks like that don't happen. And I think maybe not over-expectation, but you kind of like, with the way that the coaching, the coaching staff has been and the young group of players have been, you, you kind of like felt like, oh, they're just going to rock up and win because why not? It's quite similar to the Edinburgh game where they had that chance near the end. But you just got to think about it with, with all the mess that the Welsh rugby's been through, that they're still competing at this ridiculously high level, you know, you're in top eight of URC. I think we're a season out of where we want to be in terms of, you fix them simple, fixable mistakes. All of a sudden we're competing a lot more. So you're like, yes, come on. If, you know, would have, would have Anna Beard made a difference to that game, a Gareth Thomas, definitely I think would have. That's to say Rhys Henry played really well, but Rhys Henry was actually the replacement play type, not the loose end. So yeah, it's just small margins like that, you know, it's, it's, it's tough. The boys will bounce back. It's a shame about the crowd. We've sort of said our piece in the crowd before. I'll keep saying it again. We can go in circles all day. We have to start turning up. It's tough. I know it is, but we have to power through and we have to start turning up for this team. You know, it breaks my heart, but it's what we have to do. Right. We've got that out of our system. Oh God, that was depressing me. Shall we talk? Go player. Oh, we may as well. Is there anything else to talk about? So because we're playing Lions this week, the only Lions games that we've played are this season where we've beaten them, which we're saving for another episode. You've got the one where we lost by one point two years ago, which I didn't particularly want to do because that just irks me because of the scrambles. And then the one where we lost at 42-15. Was that the one where Michael Collins scored a second off interception? Pretty sure it was. And it was like, oh, hang on, there's, it's like 30 points to 15 and the Lions just came back and scored 2-0 in the last quarter. So we tied with the idea of doing some cheaters games. But we sort of looked and we looked at a cheaters game very early on, I'm pretty sure. But we sort of talked about, oh my God, the cheaters have about half a spring box on their team before they're a spring box. So yeah, so then I went into the room and found some old match programs. And these are just three of them that I picked up and looking at one because we've done a few already. So we've done Osprey Northampton, we looked at Osprey v Poe with a George Northland, but I do want to come back to that game one day. I've got an Osprey v Ulster game, which we lost by like three points. Osprey v Chaviza, which I'm pretty sure we won by like 44-15. I'm pretty sure Nicky Smith got Man of the Match. But instead have chosen, so this is for those on YouTube, Judgment Day 2018. Now, I will put it out there, I wasn't actually at this game. I just got given this by my family who did Judgment Day as like a family thing every year. And I was still, I was still a volunteer actually, living in England. I actually might have been in Rome when this happened. But yeah, so 2018, it's quite a big program. Yesterday, were you at Judgment Day? Yeah, I think I was. I think I went to watch both games that day. Yeah, good day. So let's quickly go through the program. So in our contents, so for the, you remember the Judgment Day photo shoot they used to do? Yeah. Do you know who did it this year? Was this Bradley Davis's one? It was Bradley Davis's one. So it was him, was Toffoli Sedef from Cardiff? No. Pretty sure it was Kirby Myhill. No, Christine Dacey. It was Christine Dacey. And obviously fresh off his Lions tour, Christine Dacey. I'm trying to think of the others. Scarlet and Dragons. Could have been a new one from a new one of those. So it was a young Leon Brown from Dragons and Reese Patchell from Scarlet. Good kits this year. Yeah, I was about to say the kits for those seasons weren't that bad. That was a cracking Osprey's Love Old Rugby canterby kit, which actually, do I have it to hand? I'm pretty sure I do. I have the short. Oh no, I do. Here's the jersey. So I actually have it in mini form for the baby. That was given to me as a birthday present by my partner. The shorts are there somewhere. It sits underneath next to the hat, the OSC bucket hat, which I watch every Osprey's game in. Cardiff at this point was sponsored by Land Rover. Good kit. They were still the Cardiff Blues when they had Heritage. Dragons. This is the last year of Newport Quaint Dragons, I believe. Or did they just do the rebrand the season before? Was it just the rebrand? Well, it was. It was the rebrand the year before. Yeah, was it the same season where Gavin Entom went back to them? We'll come on to that later. And then, decent Scarlet's kit, actually. Yeah, it's before they were treated with sponsors, isn't it? Yeah, so we've got, you know, welcome from Martin Phillips. He doesn't age well. Guinness Pro 14 final. Where was it this year? Oh, the shock. It was Dublin. Oh yeah, they did one in Glasgow the year after. I think it was. When it was Glasgow Leinster and Stuart Hogg were taken out in the air or something. Yes, I remember this. Leinster won by a score. It was a yellow card when there was a lot of debate. It should have been red. Oh no, I wasn't at policy. I was in university at this. That's why I couldn't come. I had exams at university. The team photos. You know, they have all the teams laying in front of the trophy. Shall I see who I recognise? Cool. Ian Henderson. He didn't want it. Ken Owens. That awful Edinburgh kit that we had, the collar. Not a very good kit. Who was the off-stage representative that afternoon? Dan Lyddiart. So Ken, Dan Lyddiart, Corey Hill. Oh, Ryan Wilson's there as well. I think it's Mark Bennett as well. Good player. I like Mark Bennett a lot. This is the pre-ramble. So we were the late kick-off this day. This is the pre-match site ramble. When Cardiff Blues and Osprey met in the Pro 14 at Liberty Stadium back in January, they were separated by just a single point. It was a titanic duel in the 29-28 from the hosts Sabre. That was the game in which Justin Tipperley scored off that cross kick, didn't it? Yeah, it was the Dan Biggar masterclass, that was. That was a fantastic game. That performance from Biggar was mental in just ridiculous proportions. That would have been an excellent attempt of a good player as well, but now we're doing the... That's going to be late. I haven't seen that game then because I watched the highlights of the day. It was a boot of club record-point scorer Dan Biggar that spied Osprey's victory that Saturday afternoon. Two tries from Rhys Webb, one from Justin Tipperley. Cardiff did have that late rally. Owen Lane and Garen Smith going over. Garen Smith, good player. I really like Garen Smith. Underrated. Good block as well. Yeah. Who was Cardiff's coach at this point? Oh, no, it was Preem Overhill, wasn't it? Who was before? My mind typically goes blank. It's going to really kick me. It was Danny Wilson. Oh, yeah. Yes. Harlequin's line-out coach. Yeah. Good coach, is what I remember. Good coach. We had some preamble for the World Cup in 2018. I wonder how that turned out. Good World Cup, that. Good World Cup, yeah. So, they do a little... I don't know if you have this programme somewhere, but they have an interview with someone from the club. So, for the Dragon, they did one with Bernard Jackman. It's entitled Visionary. I don't know who they were watching. I like Bernard Jackman. Great analyst. Not a very good coach for the Dragons. Excellent pundit. I'm sure he's going to be a good pundit. Yeah, he's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. He's a good pundit. Not a very good coach for the Dragons. Excellent pundit. I'm pretty sure he's got his programme somewhere. I'd like to check the stats your programmes have got. So, rather than go in through the team sheet that day, because the team sheet doesn't really change much. We've established the team sheet before. We're going to go through the Cardiff and Ostrich squad list for the 2017-2018 season. We will go through the Stardust and Dragons list later, but we'll talk about the game first. So, the squad list for Cardiff Blues 2017-2018. See how many of these are still relevant. Scott Andrews. He's around at Cardiff. He's coaching, yeah. He does the academy as well. Gareth Anscombe. His last game for the season after. The season after, yeah. He went on the year of the World Cup, didn't he? Obviously, the injuries happened. Kieran Azerratti. A very young Kieran Azerratti. Welsh international. Good player. Yeah, good player. A lot of potential. Sorry, as you said this, Robbie's just put in our group chat. I 100% agree with what Justin said. Is he in the call? No clue. I'm going to say we're actually on about Kieran Azerratti. This is good radio. Next, Dane Blackett. Yeah, good player. Yeah, I actually quite kind of rate him. I underrated. Fully expect to see him at the Ospreys to complete the league. Jim Botham. God, he's been around a while. Good player. Good player. Do you know who's grandfather is, by any chance? That's like the Flamont-Rofescus playoff. Right. Sean Bennett. Not a clue. No, I don't know. Callum Bradbury. Wasn't he supposed to be the next big thing? Callum Bradbury, I'm pretty sure he was supposed to be really good. I can't remember. Rhys Carray. No wonder I'm into him. Yeah, I think he's retired then. Macaulay Cook. Want to prove the lineout guru, because he's very good at pinching lineouts in the Welsh Premier League. He's a good player. He set up a triumph last weekend, actually. Yeah, I liked him a lot. Yeah, he's showing gorse, isn't he? Good player. Yeah, no, I fully like Macaulay Cook. Alex Cuthbert was in a rut at this point in his career. This was his last season. This was just before he went to Exeter. This is before he went to Exeter. It's maybe when it was his last game. Seb Davis. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Seb Davis. I thought this was pre-being positionally abused. Yeah, pre-being moved to the back row. Yeah. British and Irish Lion, Christian Basie. Yeah, British and Irish Lion at the end of the day. Yeah, a legitimate British and Irish Lion. Corey Domichowski. Loves his family. Good player. Good player. I liked him a lot. I take him in a heartbeat. James Down. Famously played in Russia. Yeah, he went to Russia. Yeah, I can remember when it was. He had to come home because of the sanctions. It's the weirdest thing, because it's kind of just named, he came from this random Russian club. George Eale. South African. We're getting Scarlett for years. Oh yeah, I think another one. Yeah. Hard bastard, second row. Jared Evans. Whatever happened to him? Means playing in the Gaelic Premier League, I suppose. He's not even playing. This is the problem. Despite all the raving claims that Jared Evans should be playing for Wales. Theo Felice. Good player. Man mountain, love him. The fish. Oh, Dan Fish. The fish. Yeah, he was a part of the interview group. They interviewed him after the Cardiff Newport final last season. Everyone has been interested in Reece Gill. Three aquatic-themed Cardiff squad. Reece Gill. Willis Aloholo. Yeah, good player. Tom James. Great player, I love him. I remember when he got recalled to the Welsh squad. When was this? Yeah. 16, 17? Crazy, 16, 17, yeah. He was in that Wales kit with the gold trim. Yeah. It was obviously at a time where Qatar was getting the stick of the boots. Who else have we got on the squad? Oh yeah, Tom James is still around. But really good player. Really good player. Ellis Jenkins was in the form of his life pre-injury. Yeah, just before pre-injury. Yeah. He got injured this autumn, I think, didn't he? Yeah, South Africa, yeah. Yeah. Geth. Good player. Last season for Geth, I think it was, wasn't it? No, he retired in 2019. Is it 2019? He did go to the World Cup. No, I don't think he was in contention for international honours, but I think he played a Pro 14 game against Zebra, which they won, like, 37-0. And he kicked a conversion. He kicked a conversion. I missed it, didn't I? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Ben Jones. Not a clue. He was a fly half. Never heard. And then we move into Lewis Jones. Scrapped my half. I asked Harley and JV Phillips, in my opinion, on Lewis Jones, and they come back to see me. Oofed. Owen Lane. Very square head. He seems okay. He took his try well in Bridgend, but did he score against him? He scored. Yeah, the first one got disallowed this year, and then I'm pretty sure he scored the second time. Ray Lilo. Still playing. Still playing, somehow. And Cameron Lewis. Still playing very well, as well. Cameron Lewis, again. He's the same age as me. No idea. Dylan Lewis, with hair. I wonder where he's at now, similarly to Jared Evans. Right, Shane Lewis-Hughes. I thought he was a lot younger. How old would he have been at this? He's my age. He's sort of a mate seven, so he would have been 20. No, he would have been 21 this year. Jeez, he's old. Custard Slice. Ethan Lewis. Yeah. Preece Aresons. Wonder where he's at now. He's not on the injury bench. Harry Millard. Harry Millard. I always rated him. I know he hasn't had much of game time with Cardiff, but every time he plays, you think, oh, he's had quite a tidy game, so a good player. Handsome bugger. Good player. Wales' answer to the number 10 jersey, Matthew Morgan. Wait, who wrote that? Andy Harwell, did you write this? I think he came off the bench a full back that day, as well. Yes, he probably did. I think he played rather well. Katie Myhill. Now at Ealing Trail Finders. I think his brother plays for Carmarthen Gwynedd, I think. Torrin Myhill. Torrin Myhill, yes. Good player. Josh Navidi. Phone of his life. Free DJ, Josh Navidi, as well. Free DJ, yes. Pre-disc jockey, Josh Navidi. Free British and Irish Lion, Josh Navidi. From Josh Navidi. Anton Pirkeveshvili. I was assuming he was a Georgian lad. Let's have a look. I thought all Georgians played in the top 14. Why is one at Cardiff, mysteriously? Yes, clearly he was never good at scrummaging. Maybe he just thought that Cardiff played in the French League. Who knows? Anton Pirkeveshvili. So his current team is not Cardiff Rugby. Oh my God, this bloke has had more clubs than Tiger Woods. So he played... How many games with Cardiff? He didn't even play that many games with Cardiff. He played... What's that? Nine. Sixteen. Didn't he play less than 30 games for Cardiff? Oof. He played 26 games for Cardiff. Yeah. Started 16 of them. Picked up a yellow card. Had eight caps for Georgia. Played for Ulster as well, apparently. Went on loan to Ulster. Oh, I better think of who he was. What side of the scrum did he play? I'll take that, I think. I think his name runs about. I have no memory of him. I think. Now that you said he's played for Ulster, I think it does run about. I might be mixing up someone else's mind, but who knows? So, moving on to that, we have somehow Maxi Rees. He definitely would have retired. Yeah. Jack Roberts. Centre, again. No idea, but he was quite old. He was born in 1981, so he was quite... No idea. No memory of him. Blaine Scully. Great player. Great player. Very good player. Great player. Stephen Schindler. Now, Stephen Schindler held a record back to this date. Do you know what that record was? No. It's a Judgment Day-related record. Most points scored on most appearances at a Judgment Day? It's most points scored. I'm just trying to find it in, say, Programme. I'm pretty sure he scored the most points in a game. The good thing about this one as well is it has every team sheet in it from Judgment Days past. Oh, that's a good piece. So, where we beat Cardiff the first time, then we beat Jargon's, then we beat Cardiff's, the first time, then we beat Jargon's, then we beat Cardiff again, then we beat... So, currently, at this point, we were undefeated. No, we lost one Judgment Day, 2016-17. Yeah, because I remember a couple of weeks before, it was that Stag game, and then everyone made a fuss about the Ospreys being beaten at the Millennium Stadium, and then all of a sudden, within the space of two weeks, they... Oh yeah, we did. We lost 35-17. So, we were on the way. Yeah, we had to pick it up. Yeah, Dacey, Nick Williams, Lloyd Williams, Kyle Felice, Anscombe. Yeah. So, we were out for blood. So, Stephen Shingle held the record for most points at that time. Now Ealing, he's our Ealing women's coach as well for next year. We go there to Garen Smith, great player, Alex Summerhill, still knocker about. Still going, he's a good player, yeah. Brad Fire. He's okay. Where is he playing now? Is he still at Cardiff? Brad Fire, no, he's not at Cardiff. I want to say he's at Ealing or something. You might be right. My English championship does sound right. Ex-Glasgow, somehow. Oh, he did join Ealing, yeah. Yeah, Pontypridd, boy. There we are, could be back at Ponty soon. Who knows? Of course, he's a co-owner of Fat Dragon Coffee with Dylan Lewis. So, blood, hey, it's all going off. So, blood, hey, it's all going off. Josh Turnbull, good player. Yeah, still going, good player. The best Grand Slam on winner's medal rate to cap ratio ever. Someone who definitely did retire this season, Sam Warburton. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent player. Did, no, did he play a game at Cardiff? I'm trying to think what year it was. This was 2017, 2018, wasn't it? Yeah, because 2017 would have been the Lions tour. Did he, did he? He was cropped, wasn't he? Yeah, he got injured. Did he ever play again? Not sure. I remember there was a big story about him trying to get back to fitness. Yeah. Someone who's definitely still not playing, Damian Welch. Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember the one. There's a lot of talent in this Cardiff squad. Yeah, there's some really tidy players in there. Lloyd Williams, good player. Another one of his, yeah. Nick Williams, big Nick Williams. Great player. Great player. Yeah. Rune Williams should have been the best statement. I think he played a fullback in that 2016-17 defeat as well. He was also the fullback in the 2016 dynasty and the 20s team. One of the best. Should have been the next big thing. And then finally, Mr Thomas Williams. Yeah. All right. All Cardiff team, right? All in. Not often I say that. Let's move on very quickly to the Ospreys. Corey Allen. This was just after his really good run of form in the Challenge Cup, so good player. Yes. One thing I will say is the team photos and this make them all look like they work in the same PE department, like an academy school, because they've all got collars. So Dimitri Arhip, he's been back in the news this week. Yeah, he's back in Welsh rugby, which is excellent, I find. Absolutely brilliant. If he trots out for the Dragons at some point at the end of the season, I think it would be... But there's genuinely a possibility he could come back to the club. Yes. Yeah, there's still a game to be played. Oh my God, I'm coming back down for that. If he's on the team, I will run if I have to. I will bring my new born child. Could you imagine number 17 to the Ospreys, Rhys Henry, and number 18 to the Dragons, Dimitri Arhip? That actually fits. Even if you're only for 10 minutes, just that bit of that piece, I just want to see. I will never forget Dimitri's break down the wing. Is it Scarlet or Dragons away? Scarlet away. And he puts a lonely little step off his left and then puts Eli in, I think, isn't it? Yeah, it was. I have an unforgettable memory of when Dimitri Arhip got a really poor scrum against Roderick Jones once. That happened. I think it was like his first scrum back in Swansea since he'd left for, well, supposedly Montpellier, but that's all broke down. And Roderick Jones somehow managed to get under him in the first scrum, which got the biggest cheer of the afternoon. Oh, I love him so much. Oh, right, there we've got Lloyd Ashley. He's moved up because he was Lloyd Pears before, wasn't he? Yeah, he's still going in the last round. Yeah, good player. Great, great serving part of the Leinster team, big Leinster. Dan Baker. This was just after his injuries, wasn't it? Yeah, so I saw Dan Baker just before Christmas. He's coaching now, coaching and playing at Astrid Cunliffe's rugby. Yeah, nice guy. Should have been, should have had more Wales caps. Just unlucky Toby Follett, I was afraid. Yeah, Scott Baldwin. This would have been pre... Getting his hand bitten, didn't it? No, post. Then you've got Adam Beard, who looked very young in his photo. British and Irish Test Lion. Not at this point, should have been, but not at this point. Someone who should have been a Test Lion, Ashley Beck. Great player. I think he started on the bench this afternoon and came on after about 12 or 13 minutes for some really weird reason, because Fonatio went off and just Beck came on after like 14 minutes and I still don't know why. Dan Baker in his final game for the Ospreys. Or one of his final games. No, one of his final games. His penultimate game. Penultimate game, yeah. That play off with Ulster in the last game, wow. Just unreal. Like, he had a brilliant year in a struggling Ospreys team. Lion, you know, played really well on the Lions, or just happened to be in a time where Farron and Sexton were so good. I honestly think that if you'd put Dan Baker... If it was the Lions to win 2019, Dan Baker would have been starting 10, by far. Oh, it depends on who they've been taught, because I think the way that Gatland managed to work out Anscombe and Bigger by having Bigger coming on in the last game. No, I think that for a Lions team, I just think he would have had Bigger. 85% goal kicker, boot the ball up. Yeah, oh, I just love him, man. Like, what a nice guy. The most horrible... Must have been the most horrible bastard to play with. Especially when... Oh, probably one of the worst players to play against. Especially when he's playing well, just kicking things everywhere. Do you remember the game in which he shouted at Ryan Jones? Were you there for this? No. It was a home game. Ryan Jones was captain, I remember vividly. Breaking play happened, and all you could hear was Dan Bigger chewing him out under the post. Like, Ryan, don't fucking do that. It's not a hero. I loved him. And he was so good, so good. Olly Cracknell. Player? I think he's not at Leicester. Still at Leicester, yeah. Still had that period at London Irish. You're like, yeah, at London Irish, he's quite right. And then weirdly got picked up by Leicester, and then was starting ahead of Jasper Wieser. And you're like, what has happened here? How have you done this? Oh, Bradley Davis. Enjoying that career renaissance. He's played very well. Yeah, he had a good spell, didn't he, for a season or two? Was this the last year of Sam Davis, or was it 2019-20? It was, ooh, I don't know. 2018? Was it 2018 was his final season? Might have been, yeah. Sam Davis still in that cameo role. Davidson. He made a brilliant start to this game, as well. Dan Evans. This is peak Dan Evans as well. Peak Dan Evans. The best regional player to ever exist. Malfufia, he's great at this point. Yeah, just coming off the bench and just being useful, he's good. Kieran Fonatea, squarehead. I remember my dad always used to say about Fonatea, when he joined the Scarlets, and he had a couple of friends from work who were big Scarlets supporters, and they were saying, oh, Fonatea's been really good, blah, blah, blah, blah. And my dad always used to reply saying, well, you never did that for the Ospreys. I like Fonatea. I didn't mind him at all, but I think my dad was probably a little bit aggrieved with all these Scarlets supporters saying, oh, he was the best thing ever. But yeah, no, I didn't mind him. Remember that try he scored against Glasgow in 2017? Yeah. In that performance where Luke Price won Man of the Match. That was a really weird game, that was. Got Luke Price, Man of the Match. Keegan Giles was injured this time. Yeah, he was. Was this the Ashton Hewitt injury? Yeah, yeah. Nasty one, that was. That was the first real setback he had. My granddad still mentions that. He still hates Ashton Hewitt to this day because of that. It was a horrible challenge. Swansea RFC and Swansea Uni RFC head coach, Hugh Gustafsson. Yeah, good coach for my injury. Good coach, nice guy. Never really worked out as a player. Tom Haberfield. This penultimate game for the Ospreys. Yeah, it was. You're right. Speaking of penultimate game for the Ospreys, Geoff Hasler. Yeah, the try scored against Connacht a few weeks before the interception. And he just did a big dive on the posts. Everyone just thought, oh, he's just diving because of the sake of it. But that was like his last home try, I think. What a man. And I would pass on the next one, but he's done it for me. It's Mr James Hook. Good player. Good player. Maybe not at this point. Daff Howells. He never really worked out for Daff Howells, did he? No, he had a really good spell when Giles was creaking into the Welsh squad. But he just went under the radar and played rather well. But yeah, he was... He played a rather good career for you, didn't he? Yeah, a couple of my friends were telling me about that. So, yeah, he was playing out there. Tell me who was playing well at this point. Paul Jones. Yeah, it was near the end of his career, wasn't it? Yeah, he played another... Because he finished on 183. Because he finished on 182 games. That's the reason they came back and then went into 200 club. Ben John. Good player. Good player. Was... Unfortunately, he wouldn't meet his end at the end of the year. Excellent content creator. Excellent content... Nicest guy. Alan Wynne. He had a good game. Yeah, I remember him playing well, actually. Yeah, he had a good game. Roger Jones. He used to scrimmage both sides. Couldn't really get back then. Will Jones. A really good player. I remember Will's on... Really good. But where did he go? Did he go to Plymouth? He went to university somewhere. I can't remember where. Yeah, and then sort of stayed down there. Yeah, excellent open side flanker during the Anglo-Welsh Cup. That's just... James Kane. Good player. This is the... The man. ...nearest to me. Good player. This is the nearest peak as well. This was near his peak. This is when he was known as the tightest bloke in the Wales squad. I just pinched line-ups every... Yeah, he could play everywhere in the back five. Yeah. The bald menace, Brendan Leonard. Yeah. Leonard's nephew. An old black. An old black. Led a player-of-all-trades against his hand. Communist icon, Brendan Leonard. Er, Dan Liziot. Yeah, good player. ...as we said. Rob McCasker. Oh, the Saracens game where you give away... In New Roof, where you give away a really silly free kick from a scrum. The dark, dark McCasker years. That still haunts me to this day. That free kick says nothing about the rest of the game. That free kick says... Speaking of dark years, Guy Mercer. Oh, I can't think who we traded for him. I remember the signing announcement as well, when he was thinking, oh, you know, a flanker from Barclay. They'd been really nice because, obviously, he just pinched underhill. And then Guy Mercer appears. His first game away at Glasgow, he was like 30 points to 10. That was hot. Rube, young Ruben. It's breakthrough season. Brian Majorty. Oh, yeah. Didn't he get a suffering injury? And then they just... Yeah, he's an original rugby YouTuber. Yeah, really good rugby YouTuber. Georgian international, I'd say. Yeah, a Georgian international, I suppose. You've never played for the Ospreys, though, didn't you? Nah, never really fitted in. Scotland, Sam Parry, Luke Price. What a line-up. Solid. Scotland, I miss every day. Bring me back, my chip-and-chase man. Love the line-break. Nicky Smith and Gareth Thomas. So, I think Gareth Thomas was like fourth-choice prop. Yeah, you had Nicky Smith, you'd have... Well, I can't remember when. No, no, Rod... Roderick Jones. Oh, Roderick Jones, yeah. Yeah, he'd just converted back to loose head. Then you'd have Gareth Thomas, third choice. And you look at it now and you're seeing Gareth Thomas first-choice for Wales most of the time. Again, that was so weird, but obviously a really good player. Major League Rugby legend, Joe Thomas. Yeah, formerly of Leicester, now at the White. Morrison, Morrison's finest. Speaking of Bonnermine, Bonnermine's finest, Rory Thornton. Cardiff, now. Cardiff, calling the line-out. Cardiff, calling the line-out. And Academy, I don't think anyone wants him too much. Justin Timberlake, less so, but him the better. Two yellow card appearances this season, whoops. Eli Walker, who weirdly doesn't have a photo. This was his last year of rugby as well. He'd have just retired midway through the season, I think. He did, yeah. Owen Watkin. Oh, breakthrough season, Owen. Breakthrough season. Oh, take me back. And then Rhys Webb. Was his last season? Yeah, he was injured from around Six Nations time. So I think his last game was away in Claremont. That season in Europe. So I looked at the actual team sheets, right, and there was a few surprises on there. Do you know who those surprises were, by any chance? Trying to think of the teams. We've been... So, if I go through the actual teams from the day. So Cardiff, from 15. Matty Morgan, Alex Summerhill, Gary Smith, Stephen Sheenbrook, 12. Not exactly the first choice. Blaine Scully, Gareth Anscombe, Lloyd Williams, captain. Gil, Myhill, Felice. Welch, James Down, that's not a very athletic second row. Jesus. It doesn't get much better. Macaulay Cook. Macaulay Cook, six. Olly Robinson at seven, though. He's not listed in the squad list. Good player, though. Great player. So he's not in the squad list, which is weird. Didn't he go out on loan to an English guy? That was after. That was way after. And then Nick Williams. So, yeah. Then you've got Ethan Williams on the bench at Hucker. Don't remember him. Domichowski, Dylan Lewis, Ben Murphy, Ellis Jenkins, Lewis Jones, Max Llewellyn. A very young Max Llewellyn. Max Llewellyn is about 12 now, so you can only assume he was like a pre-pubescence. Max Llewellyn is 25. He's not young. Max Llewellyn is not young. So this must have been his debut. He was a rather young one back then, I suppose, a few years ago. The Glantard boy. This was his debut. Yes. Didn't score his first try until 2021. And then Owen Lane. Now, for the Ospreys. Pretty standard-ish team. Dan Evans, Jeff Hassler, Fartia, Beck, Dirksen, Bigger, Haverfield. Standard back line for the time. Nicky Smith, Scott Overton, Dmitry Arhip, Bradley, Alan Wynne, Gary Mercer, Sam Cross, James King. We had Sam Cross this season. I remember Sam Cross had a really good game this afternoon, if memory serves me correctly. He made his Wales debut this season. Or was it the season after, in the autumn? It would have been... The All Blacks win in the autumn. No, it was 2017, it was. You scored the brace against Saracen and then got drafted into the Welsh squad. Also beat up Owen Farrell, didn't you? Yes. Well, allegedly, but yes. Allegedly. So, but on the bench, then. Ivan Phillips. From the academy that season, yeah. That is supposed to be very good. Best player. Not that I can understand him, because I'm not blessed with him at the time. He made his debut in 2017. Yeah. Roger Jones, Matthew Feer, Adam Behan was on the bench at this point, which is mental, because he was Wales a year later. Yeah. Morgan Morris. Oh, it would have been one of his first few games, as well. I think he made his debut against Gloucester. He made his debut in Europe, didn't he? No, I think it definitely was the LV Cup. Oh, he might, or I can't remember. Did he not make his debut against, um, uh, what's it called? Unless he came off the bench. Saracen. Again, oh no, the Saracen game would have been a couple of years after. I think his, I think Morris's debut would have been Gloucester 2017 LV Cup. I'm thinking of Will Griff. No, he made his debut against Connaught. I think it was Will Griff who made his debut, because he's, Will Griff made his debut alongside, um, Guido Volpi. Yeah, so Morgan Morris was knocking about with Matthew Aubry, Sam Davidson, and we watched it. It's still really weird seeing the fun of Tia Wynne off. I mean, what would happen if we walked in? Bizarre. Who, who, uh, who reffed this day? Do you remember? Um, who, um, no, I don't. The Creeping Spectre, Frank. Was it? Oh, it was, yeah. I was thinking John Lacey, but I, no. I have to go through the Dragons team, right? Oh, here we go. A fucking belter, right? This is not the squad, this is just the team from the day, okay? So, first off, referee was Lloyd Linton. Wow. Oh, oof. Quinn Morris was kicking about, Adam Jones. Well, that'd be more like young Adam Jones, I assume, running down. So, 15, Hallamay Moss. Good player, I like Hallamay Moss. Ashton Hewitt was in my bad books at the time. Zane Kirshner, I said he was on there. Oh, Zane Kirshner, the Dragons. Zane Kirshner, 13. Oh, there was an old, I saw an old clip of him on YouTube when he was playing for Leinster the other day, and I realised, oh wait, that man played for the Dragons. Zane Kirshner. Mental. That's, it gets better. Uh, Conor Edwards at 12, who I have no memory of whatsoever. Harwell Robson at 10. Yes. He must have been about 12 at that point, didn't he? He's a Cardiff now, isn't he, so. Charlie Davis at 9. No idea. Thomas Davis. These are all made up people. They might, was it, oh, I can't remember if it was this time where Jackman just chucked in a few academy lads and just said he couldn't play. But then you see Elliott Dee, Lloyd Fairbrother, standard. Joe Davis, standard. Underrated Joe Davis. Reinhardt Landman, great player. Still knocking about now. Yeah. Um, Harry Keddy, Aaron Wainwright, James Benjamin. Go back, Robert. Solid, yeah. Liam Belcher. Oh, wow. I searched this up earlier, and I was just looking at some stats on Belcher, and I was thinking, when on earth did he play for the Dragons? And now I know. Now I know. Luke Garrett, no idea. No. Sausage. Dan Suter. Dan Suter, yeah, this is the time where he's at the Dragons, isn't he? Still going now. I think he's injured. Newport to me, yeah. Um, Max Williams. A lot of Piper on Max Williams. There was a lot of, yeah. I liked him a lot. Never really kicked anyone. He was coming through the 20s, wasn't he, at the time. Yeah, his ACL injury. Who was his partner in that, on the 20s team? I must have seen someone good. I'm going to work it out. No, I wouldn't have been. No, it might have been a bit too early for Will Gruff. Oh, mate, I'm not too sure. 2017, 18. I'm searching it up now. I'm not too sure. So I remember he used to come off the bench a couple of times in the 20s as well. So it must have been someone half-tidy in there. So he went out to Coventry on loan. I didn't know that. Yeah, anyway, I'll have to come back to that. But he, yeah, there was a lot of hype around him. Had his ACL, done the game, and came back to it. Tame Basher. Played for the Southern Kings, yeah, good player. Yeah, Adam Warren, still going now. Still going at the league leaders. And Joker Choke. Yeah, thank you. Didn't he play for Cardiff last season? I think he did. He might have. In terms of the Welsh prime. And let's very quickly go to that Scarlet's B, because this was a Scarlet's B that had just won the league. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just won the league. Yeah, and went to the semi-final of Europe. And semi-final of Europe. So, Lee Halfpenny. Yeah, great. Johan Niklas. Would have been quite young, Johan Niklas. He always kind of looks the same. No Paul Askwith. Scott Williams, captain. Hadley Parkes. Steph Evans. Steph Evans was very good at this point, so I'll give him that. Gareth Davis and Pat Chull. Made it nine and ten. Rob Evans, Ryan Elias, Samson Lee. Their best ever front row. They were playing very well. Lewis Rawlins. Four. Stephen Cummins, a five. Clive Byrne, James Davison, Will Boyd. At the time, a very good back row. Ken Owens was on the bench. Was this the year you had to wear like a different number? Like 56 or something? He came off the bench and scored. Wait. Might have been, but I don't remember that whatsoever. I think it was because there's something like some sort of printed issue. He obviously came off the bench. He had to wear like 56. I think it was like 10 minutes ago he scored a few more. Okay. I think you are right, yeah. He did, because they won 33-6. Werner Kruger. Very nice man. Solid. Wants to tip me in a pub. David Goldbrin. Great player. One of their best physical second row. John Barkley. He was knocking around. He was tail end of his career, wasn't he? Yeah. Was he on the verge of leaving or was that the season after? Must have been, because they would have got Blake Thompson in. Yeah. Jonathan Evans, Dinky Jones and Steph Hughes. It's a mental Dragons team, though. Their squad list is even more mental. Because you still have the likes of Dan Barbos in there. Dan Barbos? Oh. Isn't he like the youngest player to represent the team in the league or something? Something like that. And what's funny is that there's a mascot section in this, where they go through and they've got a mascot from each of the things. And the Dragons, one of their favourite players is Dan Barbos. Yeah. So just some highlights of the Dragons. Rhys Buckley. Remember him? He was weird. No. Nick Head was still around, probably, at this point. Who else was around that I remember? Oli Griffiths was around. Obviously, Gav. Gav had signed. He was a bit old during this, though. Very old. It was near the end, wasn't it? Yeah. Max Williams. There's a player on here amongst Calvin Wellington. Now, Calvin Wellington. Do you know the story of Calvin Wellington? No, I don't. So Calvin Wellington was a player at Aberavon Harlequins Rugby, which is where I was playing my rugby pre... Sorry, I was in school. I was in school. So I went to the school at St John's, actually. Calvin Wellington was the other person signed by St Helens when Raven Grace got signed. And it never really worked out for Calvin. Really talented player. Played... Loved rugby league. Played a bit for Sheffield. They've got various other places. Picked up with the Dragons. Um... Never played as far as I'm concerned. And then went back to rugby league. I don't know what he's doing now. But he was a really talented player. But he was always remembered as the other one. Because Raven Grace obviously went on to have a glittering career. Let's have a look at Calvin Wellington's doing. He's in Manchester. Doesn't look like he's playing. That's sad. Zane Kirchner was in there. Actually, Zane Kirchner was still signed at the Dragons. He hadn't even left. Yeah, he was starting, wasn't he? He wouldn't have left if he was starting. Might have been one of his last games, actually. Yeah, and Aaron Wainwright was probably injured. Tavis Noyle was still there. Yeah, mental. I think... I can't find it. Right, that was a good player. That was a great trip down memory lanes. Those were day 2018. Beautiful time. Um... Shall we talk very quickly about the Lions on Saturday? Well, we may as well. It's probably a really big game. Saturday, three o'clock kickoff. It's going to be a tasty one, isn't it? I hate to be picky, but I think kickoff's at five past three. Oh, shut up. The teams are five to three o'clock. I hate to be picky. I might be wrong. It is five past three. I've just left a bit more. Um, yeah. Five past three kickoff. We'll know more tomorrow. But looking like Baird and Gautam get back in. We have a potential, but a very, very strong squad. I expect we'll see Dan Edwards back in. But I wouldn't, equally wouldn't be surprised if we see Owen Williams stick with the 10 jersey. We have to win, first and foremost, right? You know this. You wrote the article on it. Five points is what we need. I mean, a win is what we want to do. Five points is what we want. A win is what we need, essentially. Do we have the capabilities to win this one? I think they do. You know, even just by looking back at some of the moments from the January game, where it was just all kind of chaos and things like that. And it's going to be interesting to see what Booth does do with selection. Because if you remember last year before the Saracens game, there was a derby against the Dragons where you kind of wrestled a few players, give other players an opportunity, and then kind of reverted back then for the Saracens game. But I think this time it's a little bit different than the European game the following week. I think it's probably just to get an 80 minutes to make sure no one gets injured again. And, you know, to get them all back playing with each other, you know, the internationals settle back in. Even if we only saw Gareth Thomas for 20 minutes off the bench, it's still better than nothing. I think Booth will probably start because of how important he is in the lineup and that particular set piece. But yeah, like you said, 10 is a really interesting one because you've got, well, you've kind of got three of them, haven't you? With Walsh, Edwards and Owen Williams. And you're kind of looking back at the months of the game and thinking, is Owen Williams going to start again? Is he going to bring in Walsh at 10 maybe to give him a run out before the sale game? Or are they going to stick with Edwards for maybe two really big challenging games? Or is that too soon for him and he might just stick with Owen Williams? So who knows? It'll be interesting to see what he does at the centres as well, because you just want to make sure that everyone kind of gets into the week that they play sale. Centre's a tough one. I've gone for Watkin to start. But it's interesting. I kind of feel like having Kevin Williams on the bench probably makes things maybe a bit different. Don't want to run him out for 80 minutes before sale just in case something, like an injury or something like that would happen. But even if you just had him off the bench, 20, 30 minutes, it's probably the biggest lines away, isn't it? Yeah, you had him, you had Walsh, you had Cam Jones all on the bench, you know, all adding a bit of zip in a way. And yeah, it's a really interesting one. It's quite an intriguing selection compared to last year, where you just knew they were going to make changes before the Saris came. But this one, do you like to stick and give them more minutes or do you maybe change it about a bit? I think what both of them are really consistent is that squad selection. I don't expect them to change now. What we just have to hope is that injury-wise we come off better and we don't know if social press conference doesn't happen. We might see that we have more available. So we're looking like a Will Griff coming back, Ethan Lewis, Don Morris, you know. I do think having like a Dewey Lakin and Ethan Lewis back makes a difference to the bench, just takes that pressure off Lewis Lloyd a bit. And, you know, I predicted a Peralta Rowe coming in on the wing with Cuthbert being out. You might even see a Hopkins on the wing. I just think having Peralta Rowe just makes it positionally a bit more sound. I genuinely think you could see a 6-2 for this. I don't think we will. I think he will stick with a 5-3, but a 6-2 is an option. Yeah, it's an interesting one. I just want to see us start well. We struggled with starting as Edinburgh and deafening as Munster. Weather the storm for 15 minutes, right? And then I'll be happy and then go from there. Build on that. That's what I want. That's where we struggled is we don't start well. We're really terrible at starting games and starting hard as well. So that's all I'm looking for, really. Can you give me a score prediction, Justin? One thing I was going to say, just make sure everyone stays fit before the sale game, because how big and important that game is going to be. One I'm really looking forward to as well. But this weekend, I haven't put much thought into it. They're going to come with a big pack, aren't they? They were on top eight. They won a very impressive away performance in Galway last week. Not many teams go to Galway and win like that in the way that they did. Not many teams will win in Galway, let alone... Yeah, well, yeah, you know, even if they do win in Galway, it's played like a point or two. But the Lions just ripped that script apart. So, you know, I'm probably thinking more of a Lions win, literally about one to three points. There's not much in it. As long as it's not as painful as the one at the start of last season, where we lost four to three. If that happened again, that would be rather frustrating. But it'd be something like 22-19, something like that. I think it'd be a really close game. But it just falls short. I think their pack's quite good. I think their inside centre, Marius Lowe, has got the highest amount of turnovers conceded in the league, which is rather interesting. Yes. And so... They also like to give away penalties. Yeah, as we'd have seen in the Challenge Cup game. But I think they'd probably come into this one as slight favourites, despite the heroics of January. Yep, you're right, they're definitely favourites. Our discipline was good against Munster. I know it's weird to say we've got a yellow card, but only conceded six penalties. Do that against Lions or force them to give away penalties. You have a really big shot there. Really, really big shot. If we can get our goal kicking on point. As well as going to the guys, we want the bonus point there. But win the game first. I'm going to go off straight away, six. Just the back of the boys. I'm definitely going to Sam Parry, try. It's coming. Yeah, we'll know more once we hear the press conference tomorrow. So check to Hitsborough, we'll update you on some stuff. But I think that's going to be it for tonight. I've got some work to do. Justin's probably got some Wales Online articles to write. I haven't actually, I'm quite busy. The two coming out tomorrow and then whatever happens with the Wales Women's Press Conference, which is going to be quite interesting, I think. Cool, so we'll see you next week, maybe. It's Easter, not holidays for me. So I potentially will be here next week to break down the Lions game. But mainly, we're going off to that for that sale game. So we'll see. Have a good one, folks. You can find us all on the regular podcast places, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. You can find us on X, Osprey's own podcast. At Justin underscore Thomas 21. We'll see you soon. Have a good one. Thank you for listening to the Osprey Diary podcast. We hope you enjoy 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, rugby is always the answer. Bye.