Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The podcast discusses various topics related to the Ospreys rugby team. They mention that there is not much news in terms of injuries, except for one player who suffered a fractured collarbone. They also talk about the possibility of sending three players to play in South Africa during the Curry Cup season. The podcasters discuss the phrases and mannerisms of the team's coach, Toby Booth. They mention that there are rumors about the Cheetahs returning to South Africa, but nothing is confirmed yet. They also touch on the speculation surrounding the future of player George North. Overall, the podcasters find the topics interesting and look forward to more updates. Welcome to the Ospreys Irie podcast, the podcast who I was going to tweet before the Ospreys Scarletts came. I wouldn't tweet that there's nothing in this Ospreys team. It is me, James Reece, as always, your host alongside Yestin. Yestin, how are we? Very good, thanks. It's going to be quite an exciting pod, isn't it? Not because there's been much news. It's mainly because of one particular result. And I think everyone here is very happy with said result. And much hope for our Starbies, that you'll wait all year for them and then two come along in consecutive weeks. Joining us once again is the infallible Robbie Owen of the Squid Rugby channel. How are we, Robbie? Good, good, good, good. Somehow surviving despite former Osprey centres fighting and bickering in my mentions today, which has been something that you never get used to, I've realised. You never get used to Josh Matavese and Ashley Beck bickering in your mentions. Ashley Beck was in there as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't see this. I mean, it was a whole thing. And I regret the tweet, you know, sometimes you just send a tweet off and then you're like, oh, no, I forget. You know, I've been in the situation before and learnt from it. And then five years passes and you accidentally knock Josh Matavese's confidence while he's playing in Japan. And it's something you want to learn from. But yeah, Ashley Beck was in there saying, yeah, you love the dummy anytime. And they had a bit of a back and forth. Very strange situation when you grew up watching these people on TV. Yeah, I didn't realise Beck had actually responded. I saw the man. I've seen the Beck reply. That's quite funny. Ashley Beck is actually a very funny man. Bring him back. Bring him back. Bring him home. Although he's open. Very niche knowledge. I'm pretty sure he's open like a children's play area in Worcester. He's very settled in Worcester. I know that they love him up there. He was coach of the women. He was a tack coach for the women. Yes, he was. That's just gone under. So he was very close to Kovic. Their partners are very close. Anyway, we're going on a tangent already about former players. Josh Matavese, please come back as well. Yeah, we did at one point have all three Matavese's very briefly. Sam was only here for like, I think, like, literally, because Joel and Sam were here. Josh, sorry. And then Sam obviously went on to pass his new. But we had Joel while he was about 12. Yeah, he obviously he bounced around as well. I remember Joel turning out in the, you remember when they used to do the sevens? Yes. Yeah. I remember Joel turning out in that and being really confused by Josh Matavese. He was much thinner now, just seeing Jay Matavese on the team sheet. Okay, so let's go straight into some news. There's not much news this week. In terms of personnel, we were quite lucky we picked up no real injuries from the weekend. It was revealed that Jack Walsh did tweak something in the warm up, but he managed to play around the 60 minutes and it was more proportion bring them off. He played really well on Saturday. So I'm really glad to see him. You know, not, not on the injury table for a long time. He should tweak something every week in the world. No, he did all right for him. It worked all right for him. It was his most controlled game. It was his most controlled game as Jack Walsh. Other than that, as revealed in the Scrum Fight podcast today, James Wright, he did suffer a fractured collarbone. There is no time scale on his injury yet. He's seeing a specialist on Thursday. Alex Cusper is back running. There is no time scale on his return yet. But according to the man himself, he is raring to go. The Ospreys, as revealed by Toby Booth, are looking to send three players to Blomfontein in March, which I believe is Curry Cup season. Yeah, that's the idea. They're going to go up to Curry Cup season, which overlaps obviously with the Six Nations. Well, Toby Booth did go on to say this is permitting in the Six Nations injuries that will inevitably come. They have earmarked three players. Obviously, he has not revealed them, but that is definitely happening. Sorry, just to go on. The post-match press conference, he did talk about Dan Edwards. They're going to send young player Dan Evans out. See how he gets on. No, Dan Edwards, when asked about him, he said he's a player that really benefits from going and playing Super Rugby and getting, you know, to use his phrase, if you want to play like Boofy Bingo, right, every time he talks about Dan Edwards, he would talk about him needing time in the saddle. And that is his phrase every time. He said it twice on Viaplay afterwards. He said it twice in the press conference afterwards. He said it again on S4C, again on Scrum 5. Every single time he's asked about Dan Edwards or Young Fly halfs, he will say they need time in the saddle. And he said he can get time in the saddle going and playing in South Africa. I imagine he's one of those three. I feel like we need Boofy Bingo every week. Oh, so this is my favourite game. I watch the press conference every week and have these little phrases. Bits and pieces. He says bits and pieces all the time. That's one of my favourites. There's another one. Mindful. He's mindful of a lot. Yeah. Find a way to win. There's another. Yeah. Find a way to win. You were in last season. I was actually there for the press conference and the contrast of moods between him and Dwayne Peel was staggering. And he even gave Tom Botha an introduction to the journalists off record, so he wouldn't have seen it. So as he opens the door to come in, he steps aside and says to the journalists, a big warm welcome to Tom Botha, everybody. The young, young, bold Tom Botha. I'm trying to think what other things that Boof always says. We're in the entertainment business. That's the one. That's my favourite one. We're in the entertainment business. The other one my brother pointed out to me is he says a lot, you know, sports all about so-and-so. And it's a different thing every time. But it's always, you know, sports all about this, sports all about that. He's like a man who, or like a teacher who's done the same assembly for five days and just changes up the script, like ever so slightly stop himself going insane, which I'd blame him. If I got asked eight million questions about George North, I'd be like that too. Which speaking of George North, there is no concrete fact about the way he's going to Provence or he's going to Japan. And Tom Botha said they will sit down with him. They will, of course, try and negotiate the contract. But if George is to go, which is looking like the case, there is no malice. I'm sure any fan of Welsh rugby and of the Ospreys would not, you know, tar George with a brush. He's, you know, gone for the money or anything like that. Of course, he's gone for the money. He's got a young family and, you know, all the power to him. The reason he wasn't involved in the game on Sunday was because he developed a knee infection and became quite ill. And which, you know, obviously, he's gutted about, but it only added fuel to the fire. And, you know, a lot of speculation came out of that. Then finally, there is no news on the legs of the Cheetahs by a state. To my understanding, they are to go back after Saturday's game, because if they play in the Challenge Cup, they will be cup tied. And of course, the Cheetahs are in said Challenge Cup. So to my understanding, they're going back, but there's lots of rumors going around that they're going back around Christmas time. And to my initial understanding, it was a month and a bit long. Yesterday, have you heard similar? Yeah, I think before we picked it up from the same story or somewhere, I think someone said something about before the Challenge Cup games, as you just mentioned about the players that were cup tied. But I think Daniel Cassandra probably already earned the lifetime contract. So, so that will be seen the developments of that over the next week or so. And of course, as you just mentioned, the players that could be going out to South Africa to play, carry cup rugby. So, you know, it's all going to be interesting when things get revealed and when players go back and when players go to South Africa. So certainly something to keep an eye on. It was the interesting thing about Scrum 5 podcast that when they interview Brett Sperling-Wood, Dan Cassandre, he does say I'm living in Mumbles rather than I'm staying in Mumbles, which maybe is a word I'm reading too much into it. But that sounds like a longer term stay. If I was leaving somewhere next week, I probably wouldn't refer to myself as living there. Yeah, I'll hold my hands up. I haven't actually seen the podcast yet. I've been a little bit busy today. So I'm with university and work and university work and all that. I haven't had time to come up with it, but it's next on my next on my listen list. But yeah, I think, well, after what you just said, it's really interesting. And it feels like Cassandre knows a lot about the Ospreys. It feels like someone's given him a book and said, read that and just become one of us. And it looks like he's read it multiple times over the course of his stay or maybe longer and has firmly become one of us. And the gif on Twitter is just going. As the postman, maybe he delivered it to himself. Yeah, I think that's a very good point. He watched that loss. Well, we lost by about 40 points a few years ago on repeat for the week. You know, sort of like he had his eyelids pinned open or something like that. And he just watched that for a week and decided now his only mission in life is to fight every man of Scarlet's jersey. Like he's gone and found Phil Price and had a fight with him somehow. Werner Kruger, yeah, he's had it as well. Even if a former Scarlet's player, they're all having it. That's why John Bathory won't appear on Viaplay anymore. He's scared of Daniel Descendé. It's why Stephen Jones and Bruce Patchell and Lee Harpenny have all gone to New Zealand. They're heading to the other side of the world to run away from it. It's absolutely brilliant. Well, let's move into, we'll talk about Daniel Descendé now because I did put up some listeners questions on the IRE Twitter account. You can follow us at Ospreys IRE on Twitter. And one of them was from the Cardiff Central podcast hosted by RAP's own Dr. Howie Worthy. And he said, are we 100% sure that Daniel Descendé isn't actually from Port Talbot? The aggro he was throwing around Scarlet's would make most diehard, actually all diehard fans of Ospreys proud. It's out there. I think, you know, jokes aside, I put out a tweet on Monday morning, I believe it was. And it's done quite well. It's the pod's biggest tweet. But it genuinely says that Daniel Descendé has been here for a month, right? And in, you know, the photo was him squaring up to, I think it's Ben Williams. And it's the way he's squaring up to that Scarlet's player, you'd swear he was born here and grew up like, you know, any other Ospreys fan hated the Scarlet's. And, you know, most people agreed, you know, Josh Gardner of the Blood and Mud, he was spearheading this sort of thing as well. And then, you know, I had some Scarlet's fans in my mentions saying, do they get a bit over the top, don't you think? And I won't say no, I don't think it's over the top. Because part of the issue with Welsh rugby is we sign non-Welsh qualified players. And that's brilliant. But they have to buy into culture, right? They've got to come over, you look at the players who came over during the Galapagos era, and even in the eras, you know, Josh Mativese, you know, Josh Mativese was loved by the fans, and he loved being here. I'm looking at, you know, Gerry Collins, you know, alright, he liked to drink, he was in every pub when, you know, Thursday 9am. Marty Holler, Justin Marshall, you know, he's very proud of the fact that his daughter was born in Wales. You know, the lesser celebrity was Tanner Ardron, absolutely loved his time in Wales. Jeff Hasler, you know, they bought into the culture they were in. And then the players, you know, I'm not going to name players who didn't buy into that culture. But you can see the differences in popularity of the fans and in performance, you know. I personally think, you know, shout out to Michael Collins, you know, who followed us on Twitter this week. For me, Michael Collins was one of the ones who bought into that culture and played like it. And he went really under the radar. And I thought Ospreys were at best last season when Michael Collins was on the field. And I know I'm not alone in that point. I think it's over the top. Daniel Cassende is what a non-Wales qualified player should be. Yeah. Do you agree? Oh, complete instant fan favourite, Daniel Cassende. As you mentioned, Josh, a blood of mud. And I did like, we've got an ongoing thing where we'll, you know, often speak during Ospreys games. Last year, year before, year before that, it was almost exclusively us just sending FFS Webby to each other over and over again. And then being more annoyed when he scored a try immediately after making some stupid error. But yeah, like I said, Josh, is it okay that I think I love Daniel Cassende already? And he was like, mate, no, I am. I am buying stock in this guy. I am all over him. And it seems to be like you open Twitter, everyone is all over him. Everyone loves him instantly. Because he's like, he just got stuck in. He joined who knows how many of them all. He started who knows how many of the fights. He won that great turnover. He had only a couple of chances with the ball, you know, and we, when you sign a winger from the Democratic Republic of Congo, you're going, oh, that we've signed him because he's stupidly quick. And by all accounts, he is stupidly quick. We didn't get to see that on Saturday, Sunday, rather. And yet he came out as a fan favourite because of the way he put himself about and the spirit and the ways you say he bought into the culture and really put himself in the lines of the team and just seemed like he'd been here 100 years and he really cared about the club and was really honoured to be here and playing in this game. Yes, then was there much chatter among the press about Cassende or? I don't think there was. I think the majority of it was mainly because how much Gosford dominated up front. I'm sure we will get on to that later on. But, yeah, it just looked like Cassende had been here for years, you know, like, it's like Jeff Hassler had been reborn out of nowhere and is now Daniel Cassende. And I don't really know how I've managed to put those two players together, but I have. But I think the, I want to say it was around the last 10 minutes where he made that, we just picked the ball up from his own 20, we just went running right round everyone and then put that chip ahead, which was a good kick and it caused chaos in the Scarless backfield because it landed right in the middle of the field. And there's probably a couple of worried Scarless backfield players not wanting to pick that ball because Keown Williams was running right at them. And we all know what happens there. But, yeah, as you mentioned, it just feels like Cassende's already a cult hero. And if that is his only ever off-race start, if he does go back to the Cheetahs some point soon, or if he stays longer than Greg, if he does go back, he is in the niche 15 and he's got the captain's armband strapped away, regardless of anyone else ever. Dan Cassende, he's the man. He's social secretary, he's president, he's everything. And just, so I met him on Saturday, on Sunday, sorry, where we, where my, as Jesper will know, where we entered the stadium is right next to the Riverside. And the Ospreys, one of the Ospreys higher-ups, who is South African himself, I can't remember his name, I think it might be Liam, you are right. Was bringing Ruvan and Marnus around. And, you know, I'm, you know, I'm an external guy, I do podcasts and whatnot, I work in schools. And even I was scared to be like, oh, Dan Cassende, photo and stuff. And he was just the nicest bloke ever. He was just chatting, you know, he went over and shook my grandfather and his friend's hand. You know, they were all saying, well done. Same with Ruan Kruger as well, who I thought was great when he came on, apart from his speculative box kick, but you can't be an Osprey without a speculative box kick. And that was it, we signed a South African, we signed an obscure South African nine. I thought he was going to randomly box kick it to no one. And then caught it himself. He missed that box kick very well, I have to say. I think he's just sent this one to the air, there's no one on the wing to chase this, because this might be a contender for one of the silliest Ospreys moments of the day. And all of a sudden he's just off and chasing it like, like Rivan Redd. The most beautifully South African scrum off thing I've ever seen in my life. It was wonderful. If that's all contributions, you say, wonderfully placed. I didn't even think Faf de Preuz ever done that before. And then just to, this is just some breaking news, well it's not breaking news, because it's actually going from 2017. Do you guys know what happened on the 29th of November in 2017 in Osprey's history? 29th of... 2017. Would it be that win over Northampton? Was that around then? That was... From Haverfield scoring. That was December time. Was it the Saracens game when Dan Evans scored a brace and Sam Cross scored on the wing? No, Osprey's confirmed the signing of Welsh Rugby Union star Scott Williams on a three-year deal. Wow. Well, didn't we sign at a similar time? I don't know, but it's come up in my face with memories and I don't want to remember that. Scott Williams signed for us this... What was that? How many years ago was that now? Many years ago. Six years ago. Anyway, the second question... No, but like, I don't know, Scott Williams is still playing. He's still going. Playing is doing a lot of work. He came off the bench for the Scarleths last week. And got a yellow card. But like, I can't get my head around the fact it's the same guy who stripped Courtney Laws and Twickenham, you know? Yeah, my suspension of disbelief won't solve it. It'll cut. Like, there's a number of players that Alan Clarke wrecked, or almost wrecked, by being the kind of anti-Toby Booth in destroying team culture. And I've heard, you know, I'm sure we all have around things from players or, you know, various sources or whatever about the way he perhaps wasn't the greatest man manager. Scott Williams, obviously there's the injury worries there, but like, he was never the same player after leaving for the Ospreys. Was it him Brendan Lennon had a fight with, or was it, was that Steve Tandy? Oh, I don't know. Brendan Lennon is like, oh, that might have been Dan Big actually had a fight with one of them. But Brendan Lennon, I'm pretty sure led a player's revolt against one of the coaches. I want to say that was the end of the Tandy era. That might have been the end of the Tandy era. I haven't heard this. I might have been, because Clarke came in as defence coach, didn't he? That's the end as Tandy left. And chaos. They said they're going to do a great worldwide search for the best man for the job. It's like, it's going back to that Scrum 5 podcast, which reminded me of this. And I will remember this now. I think once a week is when Dwayne Peele said, I'm going to experience different cultures when signing for sale. He's gone to the gay village. That's what he meant. Dwayne, poor man. We'll come on to Dwayne later. And then finally, the other and probably actual question from the wonderful Roderick Aranka saying, what can the other regional coaches learn from Toby Booth? And he phrased it in a very good way. Actually, he phrased it around the positivity around Booth, the way he comes across in interviews. And he says, lots of positivity surrounding Supreme Leader Booth. What could the other coaches learn from how he and his team manages on and off field affairs? I'll take the lead on this one. And Robbie, you will be able to talk about culture, which I know you've championed on every social media platform, especially Reddit. So I think one is this honesty, openness with the press, right? Every coach hates doing press conferences, and we've all watched thousands and thousands of press conferences. And, you know, I look at the Dwayne Peele ones, you know, I look at the jockey ones, even some of the English ones as well. And then you've got international ones, and no one enjoys them. But he brings a sense of honesty, calmness, sort of brings everyone down to the same level. You know, you can clearly tell that certain journalists, he maybe doesn't like or they read him the wrong way and who can blame him sometimes. But he approaches it with a very politician-like mindset of, well, you're going to ask me a question, I'm not going to answer it directly, but I'm going to give you a better answer that's more quotable. And we talked about Buffy's bingo earlier, and he is like a life coach in terms of he will read the same spiel, but because he believes in it. So he believes in this idea of we will find a way that we're in the entertainment business, but we're also results driven. You know, we know from evidence he believes in developing young players into internationals, and he's got the pedigree and the history to back that up. His portfolio, you know, is huge. And then how he brings that then into a club, you know, on Friday, they do a social, that could be anything from, they go to a bar, or they go do mini golf or something like that, you know, still keeping it relevant for the 21st century, but old traditions. The way he obviously has brought through popular coaches, so Muscle, been in the Oscars for years, local lad, he would have played with a lot of the boys who are older now, but were younger when he was playing. I'd say with Duncan Jones, Mark Jones as well, you know, Mark Jones lives in the local areas, there's Duncan, that's the first, you know, they're popular with the boys. They build in a culture of positivity. So when you do that, then even when you lose, so even when you lose against Glasgow in the last nine minutes, or you have a really just shocking performance against the Dragons, you're not going into work on Monday or Tuesday thinking, this is going to be a shit week, you know, because actually you've got your mates around you, you're in an atmosphere where you enjoy it. And, you know, I'm not going to rag on them, I've said I'm not going to rag on them tonight, but that isn't there at Scarleton. No one is going to work on a Monday thinking, yes, it's going to be an absolutely amazing week, when it's clearly not, you know, and I feel like that there isn't that in the Oscars. So Robbie, how would you develop on that? Yeah, well, I think the key thing, actually, when you look at Toby Booth, right, you look at his Twitter profile, it's interesting, he says, and that's from five piece about how he feels it's important, social media is important with the younger generation and everything. But the other key thing is you look at Twitter description, right, in terms of how he describes himself, and it is professional performance coach and developer of people, rather than rugby coach, or, you know, anything related to the particular sport, then the, you know, Osprey head coach EQ over IQ, and, you know, emotional quotient rather than intelligence, which I think is just very telling in how he approaches things. And he looks to each player as an individual, he looks to how you work with those and build that into a culture, build that into a team, it really just feels like this Osprey team fight for each other, no matter what. And there are games where they've been terrible, where you still feel like no, but this team clearly cares about each other and builds towards each other. And there's something he said a year or two back, he wanted to, part of the appeal of the job for him was that the Osprey is one of the few teams in professional rugby, where rugby is, you know, a primarily working class game. And he wanted to build a culture around that and work around that. You know, you're sort of looking at the Walsh regions and Gloucester, and that's sort of it in the UK, and Munster, and that's it in the UK and Ireland, really. They put sale in there as well. Yeah, you can. Yeah, there's a few like, say, like, Glasgow and Creek, Newcastle argument for Yeah. Although the Newcastle one is tipped and is selected by the football team, you need a bit more working class. But it is more working class than people make out to be. Yeah, that's fair. And a lot more Argentine as well. I don't know what Matteo Carreras' background is. But yeah, but like that identity clearly is sprung up of people who work hard for each other. And no one feels greater than each other. No one feels greater than the team. You know, they had any number of big stars when he came in. And I think perhaps that some of the the supposed friction between him and Alan Wynne-Jones, being that I think Alan Wynne-Jones viewed himself as bigger than the rest, some of the other players, in a way that Bruce didn't, and viewed him as, you know, another, as a member of the starting 15, but not necessarily, you know, the all time great that Alan Wynne, I think, by the end viewed himself as entirely correctly. But yeah, I don't know. And I, there's something really telling when I went into the Osprey Camp last year, which is still a big honour and still a hell of a thing to have done. And seen like Dan Evans going and collecting his peas whilst on crutches. And all of that, and like, the fact that when we had, you know, I did a thing for people who didn't see it of, I played journaling rugby with Morgan Morris and Will Grevis, which was a very silly thing to have done. But good fun. And the entire squad came and stood behind and like chirped and, you know, joined in and were going with it. And that is not happening at other clubs, but it's not all, all of the clubs, you know, but it's not a given out of the places where they'll come and everyone's having a great time and everyone's enjoying it. And the highlight of that video is Booth himself walking in, looking at the screen and grinning broadly when he recognised this journaling rugby in the background. I didn't notice at all, I was so swept up in. The two of them are big lads, and I'm not particularly big, but they are big lads. But yeah, I don't know, I could go on for hours and hours and hours about the impact that Tokyo's had. But I feel I'm not alone in feeling much more connected to this team than having even in areas where they've perhaps been more successful, or, you know, won more games. Yeah, I just, I love watching them at the end of the day. Yeah, kind of similar thought, really, because as Robbie just mentioned about the teams that might be more successful, I think probably the most enjoyable games that I've watched or supported the Ospreys, and either games watching on TV or being very fortunate to be attending those games, were the ones during the Toby Booth era. Look at how the squad managed to get itself together, go to Leicester, go to Welford Road, Ground Rev. They have faced some difficulties in when they had a really good side, and they go there and win in like, in like, the 92nd minute or something like that. Look at the first hour of the Saracens game. And you're thinking, you know, you probably look at it on paper and you're thinking, oh, Saracens should be winning comfortably. But after about an hour, it's a three point game. And whilst I might have had a sleepless night or two about the final quarter and how it just slips away so slowly, and it was probably the longest 20 minutes I've experienced. Something about that squad, it just felt like they were all tight. And I think this season, it's even more so now with the younger players coming through and things like that. You know, you've got the likes of Dewey Lick, Nicky Smith, Adam Beard, James Fender, who was particularly good on the weekend. Rhys Davies, who again is having a good time at six. Jack Morgan, Morgan Morris. You go through most of the current squad now, and most of them are all local players. And, you know, they really want to represent the region. And I think, I remember briefly speaking to Toby Booth at Edinburgh airport after the Saracens game, as we were coming back from the Edinburgh game, and the performance on the Saturday night wasn't very good. And Toby Booth owned up to that, you know. He said, that's not us. That's, you know, something that we're not particularly proud of as a playing squad. So you could see it then, you know, they do care about supporters. And I think the playing squad probably do as well. They're just all so tight. And I think credit, well, all that credit should really go to Toby Booth to get that squad all together and, you know, giving performances. Okay, maybe the results might not have got as planned, but giving us performances that we look back on thinking, you know what, they worked really hard that game, regardless of the result, they all put 100% in. And I think people have very short memories of Booth as well. This squad and Booth has been through a lot. And two years ago, the most promising hooker in Wales lost his leg while he was a current playing member of the squad and had to retire from rugby. Also had to go and play sailor home. A couple of days after that, or, you know, after that happened, right? I remember, I was working in a pub at the time, I just remember, you know, even Phillips was one of my favourite players to watch. And, you know, it's easy to say that now, but he genuinely was material a hooker. And he, you know, I fully expect he would have been in that Wales squad that the Six Nations, I maintain that. They went through that. Well, they went through a player's revolt against the WIU over contract things. They've been through countless merger talks, right and slander from the press from their own fans. Yet, they turn up every week and the effort is there. The wants to please fans is there. They're bringing through young talent, local Welsh talent and then the imports that we've brought in have bought into that culture. Like we said, all right, not everyone might have brought in and not everything's going to work out. The academy since Booth has taken over is in a much better place than it was and full credit to Mike Rudd for going through that as well. Dan Griffiths is involved in that as well. You know, the profile of the academy is going up, you know, they were on that rock stars really weird show. Obviously, I played last year, but the profile is there, you know, they are, we are back to being the premier Welsh academy. All right, Cardiff probably have something to say about that as well. But we're doing it with significantly less resources. And again, that comes down to Booth and his whole pyramid of what it starts from the bottom. It starts from when we bring these guys in at 14, 15 to when they make their debut for Wales. That is his whole cycle. That's his background. You know, he was the academy guy at London Irish for a decade, in which time he brought through, you know, the armutages. He then brought through when he moved into being a senior coach, very much promoted because he was so good at his job. You know, when he had a couple of coaches leave, they brought him in. Instead of recruiting overseas, he eventually moves up to being head coach. But in which time he brought through the likes of Jonathan Joseph, Anthony Watson, Alex Corbagiero, like players that went on to play for the Lions across the board, plenty of internationals. A lot of them then followed him to Bath when he went, when he left. And there was a lot of jokes at the time about, you know, all of the Irish squad are going to Bath. And the common factor, you know, was Toby Buford had just gone there and all those players want to keep playing with him and working for him because he'd built such connections with them being in the academy, then coming through as senior players. And it's always been his USP. He's really good at developing young players. And the thing he's talked about repeatedly, we're talking about, you know, the likes of James Fender and Dan Edwards and what have you, Morgan Morse at the minute, wanting to have control over when they get game time, when they get exposure, so you can build them up a bit. And he perhaps lost some of that this season. As you say, the squad's been through a lot. They've been put under a lot of circumstances, perhaps, were beyond his control. And the handful of people, as you say, that have perhaps shorter memories and forget a lot of that are missing, missing the fact that a lot of that is beyond his control. And I think as a pure rugby coach, in terms of what he's done and what he's achieved has been remarkable. And what other coaches could learn from him, frankly, is sitting down and talking to him for long sessions at times. And picking up picking his brains and working things out. You know, we were talking a bit about that. You mentioned Dwayne Peel earlier, but like, that is a guy who's focused 100% on the rugby, clearly. Yeah, I don't think he's worked out yet how to manage a squad. And it was like my instinct when he got the Scarletts job, because he's been promoted too soon. A bit like I feel like Balfour's got the England job too soon. I feel like he needs another couple of years at Leicester to develop. But I think that feels like it's coming to roost. And you saw him like his interview with Clare Thomas after the game on Sunday, where he looked like shell-shocked and unsure what to say. And like Clare asked him, you know, do you think it was not taking opportunities rather than not creating them? And he kind of went back and forth and was unable to, you know, point out what he was going to say. And like, if he goes in the changing room and presents like that, is your team going to keep to that? You know, you compare that to then both last week when he was very clear in what he was talking about, and he may be going back and forth in his head, but like he knew how to present it. He knew how to manage the team, manage expectations, and manage also fan expectations. And like every game where the other players have lost, they've been frustrated, you listen to him talking, no, I trust him to put it right. I trust him to put that right. And if we're thinking that as fickle fans, you'd imagine a squad as well, who get to work from day in day out. That's my point with the coaches as well. Like Dwayne Peel has a really solid group of coaches around him, right? Jared Payne's in there, Albert Van De Boe, I wouldn't say his name is, the South African, Gareth Williams is in there as apparently as the defence coach. You might want to rethink that one, lads. But they are what you said, they are rugby coaches, and they are brilliant at the rugby. Then you look at Ospreys with Duncan, I use Duncan, Mark Jones, I use Foster as an example, Richard Kelly probably go in there as well, actually. They are into the culture as well. Like Duncan, you watch Duncan Jones in the warm up, he doesn't stand there barking at them, he's in there scrummaging, he's in there holding the tackle pads getting tackled. You know, you look at Mark Jones in that Scrum 5 interview today was playing on the wing. Mainly because we have got no players. It's also he's in and around that he's the defence coach, he should not be running attacking drones, right? This is what I mean in terms of they have bought into this culture is a happy and healthy one. So I think we've talked enough about the best thing we can say about Toby Booth, right? Is that we beat the Scarlets by 30 odd points last week, right? And we barely talked about because we've won a lavish praise on this guy. Yeah, absolutely. I think, right, let's talk about the game. So for those who need reminding, Ospreys 31, Scarlets 9, Scarlets scoring three penalties from eerily the same place by Yohan Lloyd. Ospreys scoring four tries through, two through human cannonball Kieran Williams, one through the quietly really good captain Morgan Morris, and the final of the fourth on the 75th minute by World Player of the Year Dan Edwards. Jack Walsh kicked three conversions on a penalty as Edwards kicking the final conversion. That's a forward dominance is the basis of this performance. From minute one, you could just see that they were up for it more. Go on. Sorry, the one real disappointment of this game, right? I was really waiting for Ryan O'Leary to teach us how to jackal. Yes, from no, sorry, it's from last week's podcast. It stood out the entire way through the game. I kept thinking about the thing that I forget which of the two lads that came out at the end. Yeah, I think it was Martin said, said, you know, Ryan Eliza is going to teach you boys how to jackal this weekend. And the entire way through the game, I was waiting for it. I was waiting for it. Because I think, you know, Jack Morgan, Morgan Morris, Bruce Davis as well. I thought was fantastic. All of them really struggling to know how to jackal until Ryan Eliza showed them. Well, I was waiting for Ryan Eliza to do anything. Quite frankly, that would have been nice. But I'm not going to rag on Scarlett. Yeah, sorry. Yeah. Yeah, that's a forward dominance. Let's start with that. Yes, how are the forward back to you? Good. And I think one of the one of the first questions from the press conference, I think someone asked Toby Booth. Bonus point win at home against your rivals. I think there's something like art doesn't get much better than that. And the reply was no. Next, next question. And that is probably the perfect response. Especially after the Derby defeat the weekend before because well, Nikki Smith, from what I was saying, Nikki Smith and Harry O'Connor, that part of the scrum, the scrum, Nikki Smith probably won 100% of the scrums there. There was one where I think there might have been a reset or might even have been a Scarlett's bounty for the bother slipping down at the beginning. Smith absolutely tears into Harry O'Connor. And that was like the benchmark for that scrum. And it was only going to be matched by those three and the three that came off the bench. And obviously, I think, well, with those scrums, I think probably when it was set in, I think that was probably the issue with a couple of penalties. Once they got together and it all sat and it all worked and the ball was in the scrum, the Ospreys really turned the screw and they were utterly dominant there. Derry Lick was brilliant with his lineups, even though there's a chunk of his shirt still missing somewhere. I don't know if there's a reward out there, if someone can find it, but it's still out there somewhere. I thought he was brilliant. And you obviously mentioned Elias right there. He had a couple of faulty ones in the second half. And I think the Ospreys ended up on something like 94% line-up accuracy, which is, again, brilliant. Yeah, it doesn't happen very often. And then the three second rows, I'm going to call them the three second rows, obviously. But James Fender looks like a man that's been playing rugby for about 100 years. And he's played Test match rugby. He's got about 150 odd caps. He just knows what he's doing. And there was a mole defence right in front of me about two minutes to half time. I think Arden Beard had given me a penalty for a mole infringement, which looked quite harsh at the time. And the Scarlets kicked into the Ospreys territory and they win the line-out. And in comes Fender straight away with Rhys Davies and it causes chaos, completely out of chaos. And yeah, those two, Beard went well. He topped the line-out take. Well, he was drunk top with a couple of other players in the URC this week. And yeah, those lot all played well. And I haven't even got to the fact that Jack Morgan is very good and Morgan Morris is very good. I haven't even got to the backs yet. So that was a very good performance and something that every Ospreys supporter would be really pleased for. And that's probably the standard now. That's probably what Ospreys fans probably expect in terms of when everyone's available. Obviously, it's going to be a little bit trickier to replicate that during a six nuisance where there's quite a few away. But yeah, that was a very good performance. Yeah, I think if you look through that team, right, you can make an argument for Gareth Davies, but one to 23, you take every Ospreys player's performance over their opposite number. Well, I was going to make this point actually, someone on the Scarlet fever forum, which by the way, if you haven't been on that forum, it's a fucking goldmine this week, especially the thread about the game. But there are a few wise people on there. Well, someone said, well, if you look at their both teams for the game, absolutely, you take the Ospreys back any day of the week, maybe barring via FITA. But you would take on just looking at the teams, you would take that Scarlet's backline nine to 15 without a doubt. And that's no disparage on Robes or Walsh or anyone like that. You would take that Scarlet's backline. Yet you look at Saturday, Sunday, sorry, they were hopeless. They, you know, Johnny Williams, five carries for two meters. Johan Lloyd was good, but he was playing under really bad circumstances. Both nines had probably their worst performance at Scarlet's jersey for a good while. Don McIntyre continues, despite being a test player, to have the worst position for a fallback I've ever seen. And Steph Evans, in all fairness to Steph Evans, he did what he was asked, which wasn't much on Sunday. He faced Clips really well. He put Nagy under pressure. And then, was it Tom Rogers, the other winger? Yeah, yeah. He didn't have a great game. The fact that I'm asking who was in the other wing says it all. But in terms of Ospreys, you're absolutely right, Robbie, from one to one to 23. We also refer to Sean there, opposite member, probably only via Fita being the standout for Scarlet's. But even then, I would have taken Reese Davis over him. Yeah. I thought like, we obviously, I think, asked some fair questions of Reese Davis as a six last week. I thought he was fantastic. I thought this was one of his best games for the Ospreys period, end of. Two turnovers, like the way he adapted to play in a sixth role, whilst also still bringing the things he brings in terms of, you know, line out work, in terms of hitting rucks, in terms of, you know, just being a really good kind of support second row. But the way he was far more present in defence, the way he was turning up and making bigger shots, flying out of line a bit, and being more of a men's breakdown, the way he adapted this game and added to it, I thought he was absolutely fantastic. And then, you know, Jack Morgan might have been, obviously, the greatest player in the world, Kieran Williams, two tries, man of the match, but I think Jack Morgan might have been the best player on the field, quietly, or not so quietly. Yeah, he was just absolutely brilliant. Again, attack and defence, the lines he picks, the way he can make so much out of seemingly nothing, you know, carries where most players are making like two yards and getting a little bit over the game line. He's making clean breaks because of the way he can hit an angle and the way he can explode through contact and just time his acceleration. He's unbelievable. He's just phenomenal. And line breaks in the game. That was Jack Morgan and Max Nagy. Wow. That says it all. You know, the Nagy one came in the 75th minute when everyone's tired and it's a dodgy hit. And then you've got Jack Morgan's, which came from, which came from Adam Beard, right, who had a really quietly good game, like he always does. Adam Beard had like a stupid amount of passes. I think he was up to like nearly 10 passes in the game because he has such lovely hands and he puts people in on lovely lines, like you did with Jack Morgan. Jack Morgan is the most Fijian man to come from Kumtum. Because there was a lot of, I remember watching the England-Fiji game in the World Cup warm-ups and they were talking about, they're obsessed and rightly so with the stat of metres in contact with Fijian players because they're making five plus metres every time they carry the ball, right? That's Jack Morgan. He carries the ball and you're thinking, right, if that's any other player, he goes down there, but no, Jack Morgan's made four metres on top of that. Oh no, he's made a line break. And if it wasn't for Max, because Max Nagy, if you look at that line break that Adam Beard puts him in on, Max Nagy doesn't expect Jack to make that line break. He's not on the shoulder to go in for the easy try. And it's just probably a testament to how good Jack Morgan is because he has no right to make that line break at all. And you're right, Robbie, he was man of the match, barring because the greatest player in the world, Keith, scored two. In terms of other stand-up performers, you talked about Derry Lake. He looked around 15 carries, near-perfect darts, only involved for feet of steel in one. James Fender top tackle charts with 16 for the Ospreys. I thought the front row went well all together, Tom Boater, Nicky Smith. The sexiest man of all time came on, Rhys Henry, looked fine. Again, he just looks solid every time he comes on. Well, you've got Skinhead now, and Neo Griffin was saying that his coma was going to blow over in the wind, and I was like, what? He has a Skinhead? You cannot make this joke. Gareth Thomas came on, looked a bit rusty in those first two scrums, but they were technical penalties. He then folded Joe Jones like a pretzel and sent him back to the Willowgriff John factory. Yeah, I think we have to give a shout out to both sets of halfbacks. Because they controlled that game brilliantly. I've been informed that Reuben still has the highest amount of kicks in play in the URC. It was 65 this season, adding 12 to his total. He also has 309 passes, so Ospreys are retaining the ball. I think their kicking game this season has been a lot, lot better. They kicked more than the Scarletts this weekend, but they kicked much more effectively. You can call it playing the conditions. I just think they're playing smart rugby. Jack Walsh, I think, had his most sensible Jack Walsh game. He still does the Jack Walsh things, but I just think he controlled that really well. He was vocal. For me, he had a really, really good game. He rightly took some flak against the Dragons, probably didn't have his best game. He takes flak from a lot of people. I've been a Jack Walsh defender since day one. He's a fly half. He makes mistakes, all fly halves do. Some mis-touch, some don't kick their goals. He was four from four off the tee. Kicks really well to touch. I think the thing that really stood out about Jack Walsh, and I think this was one of, if not his best game for the Ospreys, I think his best games overall have been this season though. I thought this was a real standout game. The thing that's just changed is he's learned when to kick. He was always perfectly capable as a kicker, but he kicked on first phase or he kicked after 10 phases when they were going, they hadn't got turned over by then, and he wouldn't kick when they had momentum, when they were going forward. The thing that's really changed in this game is he's learned to look up and scan, and perhaps the thing we've talked about a number of times is he was drawn to him because he's got a rugby league background, he wanted someone that can run a rugby league style attack. We've seen him in past, he would run almost like a set of six in rugby league, and then he wouldn't be looking to kick in between until he gets to that last phase when he's got to kick. We've seen him start to understand the momentum that he's just far more professional rugby than lower levels down and in rugby league at all. He's learned to control a game at this level over the course of, I think, the summer and then this season, and he's grown into such a good player. But yeah, just the way he kicked, the way Reuben Morgan-Williams kicked, and the really interesting thing, just to bring up the kicking stat, right, so the Oscars obviously kicked more, they only retained one kick directly, the Scarlets retained five, and yet because the Ospreys had the defence that was set and they were ready to kind of pressure afterwards, the number of times the thing that isn't brought up in that stat, where the Scarlets supposedly look at that and go like, oh they've got the most successful kicking game because they're retaining the kicks directly, they're then not doing much with it, where the Ospreys are able to pressure, pressure, pressure, and then strike because this defence is built by Mark Jones, there's one at the end of the first half where you have the kind of succession, in one phase push the Scarlets back about 20 metres and four series of hurried passes. I think that's like, the way the defence and kicking game are starting to interlink is really promising and really exciting, kind of from an Ospreys perspective, just following on from the Jack Walsh-Reuben Morgan-Williams thing. That's a really good point actually, because there was, I was listening to something yesterday night, and Josh said something about Max Nagy has been, you know, he's a good player, but he can't catch a ball. And I almost think that in this current Osprey system that doesn't actually matter, because if he catches a ball, brilliant, we get the ball. If he knocks it on, brilliant, we get a scrum. Do you know what, that's absolutely fine. And that's not me being boastful or anything, we do have the third best scrum in the URC, you know, it's probably the Bulls. I'm trying to think who else might be better than us. Bulls definitely, so definitely the Bulls, maybe look at one of the other South African teams. But it's not the end of the world if you get a scrum. If you're some teams, like if you're, you know, maybe a Newcastle or somebody who is struggling at scrum time, Saracen is sometimes, I don't really, you know, a scrum that goes back in the rear not, you know, or you're a team like Scarlett, you knock that ball on, you're, you're Wynne Jones, who looked a shell of himself on the weekend. All of a sudden, it's a psychological thing. Because you might, I might give up a penalty and I'm just going to give up four yards anyway, because Jack Walsh was kicking really well. I think that's a testament to Nagy's way, because it takes the pressure off him. Because he's like, wait, you go up for that high ball, Max. But if you drop it, you know, if you knock it on, you drop it, of course, we want to keep the ball. But it's fine, we'll win the ball back in the scrum. And let's go into Max Nagy, because I was in my Max Nagy Stonks era again. And he's playing really well. He's just playing so confidently. And I love watching our space fullback just have that license. And you know, as someone who has watched Max for four years now, he has not changed as a player, he's evolved and not changed. You know, he's really vocal in D, you know, he says, you know, right. He's got that lovely, it's not sidestep, it's a change of angle. Dan Evans had it as well, where he, you know, he goes to shift kick and then runs a lovely angle. When you when you mentioned that Dan Evans was on his crutches early, collecting his food, I like to think he cut a really nice angle through the cue. Oh, of course he did. Yeah. Just like he did, you know, just like he did in his heyday. But he was always in the queue, you know, single meal. Oh, I love Dan Evans, bring him back. But seriously, no, he, and that's when you've got fullback like that, who's man, Cameron is exactly the same. I don't like pitting them against each other, because I think they're both playing really, really well. And I've said this to Harley on Cardiff Central. He just and then, you know, he has the confidence to try it. I'm going to try that little kick against the Scarlets. And it came off right and it led to will play the Dan Edwards score to try. But I like the fact that we're confident enough to try that because right. I trust Mark Jones's defensive system to mop it up. You know, if he knocks it on, like I said, I trust the scrum. You know, there was nothing that worried me on the weekend. Yes, then talk to me about Dan Edwards. Are you aboard the hype train? Yes, he was here above me in school. So oh, well, he didn't you go to school with me. I just don't know. It just feels like there's been an abundance of rugby players that just come out of a school for whatever reason. And then there's me. So I really don't fit the mold of the minute because he got more than mortals in the year below me. Dan Edwards in the year above me. Yes. Hopkins was another one. Oh, well, then you've got a couple of other boys. So someone like Cian Morgan's in the twenties. He was in my year. Roderick Lewis is in the academy. He was also in my year and a good mate of mine. And I'm thinking, what on earth am I doing in this school when there's so many rugby players here? Is that weird? Is that like really surreal to see? Yeah, because I briefly played with Morgan Morse under 11s and Cian Morgan. And it's like, I mean, looking back at it now, I'm thinking, wow, I can actually say that I've played a game of rugby regardless of it being me as a 10 year old running around, probably trying to avoid being tackled. But I could potentially say in the future that I've played a game of rugby with Morgan Morse who could potentially end up being a Welsh international. That's like me with Reekin Grace. I played with Reekin Grace. Oh, wow. He's a year above me in school, but we played for the same club briefly before he got scouted by St. Helens. But I can also say that, you know, when he scores his world, he tries for St. Helens or wherever he ends up in Union. I've seen you outside the headmaster's office, like looking scared. You know, I can't take that image away. I had a kid in my year at school that went on to play two games for Mansfield Town. And that is the closest we came in the non-league football. And that's the closest we came ever to sporting prowess. Two games for Mansfield. Yeah. That is like when I walked into, and I love Morrison and Comprehensive with all my heart, but you walked into the reception and it's Joe Thomas's Wales Under 20s jersey alongside like a myriad of football, because there's a football school, but a myriad of Swans and Wales jerseys, and there's just Joe Thomas's Under 20s jersey. And I'm like, yes, Joe Thomas, thank you. Houston Sabre Cats legend, Joe Thomas. Is that right? Oh, wow. No, he went there for a season. He's back now. I know he's like, he works as like a WIU hub officer now. Well played for Swansea. But he was at Houston Sabre Cats for one year after leaving Leicester Tigers. But if he did like one of them TikToks, it was like weird rugby transfers. It would be Joe Thomas from Ospreys to Leicester to Houston Sabre Cats. He just loves big cats. He loves big cats. He loves big animals. You know, really, really like six and a half out of 10 centre. He's actually won 10 for Swansea over the last couple of years. I love that. That's brilliant. Vintage, like me and my brother have this thing where we will randomly bring up a player from the past that's perhaps forgotten. Then go, good player, anyone with a good player back. Just as people remember Joe Thomas, though, good player. Yeah, good player. Good player. Average player. I've read the article, don't worry. When you mentioned Toby Booth and EQ over IQ earlier, which reminded me, I wrote an article for Grav on rock and roll when he launched his website about Toby Booth. And that was the working title was EQ over IQ. And so that's a weird full circle moment. He read it like Jonathan Spratt read my piece on him, which was that was a very strict. This is a whole other tangent. That was a whole other tangent. I saw him last at the Northampton preseason game of last year sat next to Ben John. And I was like, this is a weird reunion, which I want to see more of. So I've come to I've met Ben John a handful of times now. And like we got on really well. It's cool. I shouldn't bring it up. I should never bring up that I wrote the Jonathan Spratt piece that was. Yeah, that's a that's a whole that was the first thing about rugby I ever had published was a piece on Jonathan Spratt is the most average rugby player of all time. And why that's a wonderful thing that apparently I think he read and was very confused by. So you've got a face like a man who knows lots about the history of tarmac. And I don't know, this is a whole this is a whole tangent. Yeah, absolutely. Right, let's go into. So we beat the Scarlets, right? We didn't have to do anything special. All we did was just stick to a system. And the Scarlets just sort of threw shit at a wall and none of it's stuck. That's essentially what the game was. It wasn't a very exciting game. It was just a really functional in the Jonathan Spratt game. That's what it was. Right. It was it was really average. It was really good. It was really good. That wasn't the word I like, but really good. Yeah. And I highly recommend going to Viaplay's Twitter and watching the 11 minute interview with Toby Booth after the game. That's a really, really good watch. But yeah, really good. Go back and watch the game. Scrum Dominant. We played with some wits as well at times. Ice Dox and James Fender. And that's pretty much where we are. We move on to Benetton away. The dual Benetton derby, which is which is now turned into a David versus Goliath match because Benetton have, you know, 800 million pound budget, you know, non-Italian internationals coming out of their ears. And it's now a fortress to go over to Treviso. Toby Booth has said that he's going to be taking a rotated squad with obviously one eye on the return fixture in the Challenge Cup. Shall we have a go at trying to name a squad? Hmm. So for context, I have been sent and I remain not anonymous. Thank you for sending me this. He is very much in the know. We have on good authority the Jack Morgan, Morgan Morris, Adam Beard and Owen Watkin have all got the week off, which makes sense. Morgan Morris has played to nearly every minute of the season. It's about managing Jack Morgan's minutes. Owen Watkin has also played every game and same with Adam Beard as well, but we've got depth a lot. So, gents, who I will predict, I shall break it down. Who do we think is going to be our starting loose head? Gareth Thomas is about the only one of the Wales players that hasn't had a great deal of game time since he's got back. So you'd imagine this is a prime game for him to step in. He played, what, 20 odd minutes last week and that's been it. Obviously, with his personal issue the week before causing him to pull out. So, yeah, I feel this is time for Gareth Thomas to step in. Yes, Adam, if you'd... Yeah, I'm in agreement there. We've seen Nicky Smith, he's been playing, he's been a good fan and it's a chance to see what a loose head international prof can do. It was somewhat first choice for Wales, but not for the Ospreys, in a way. That's all weird and fun. But yeah, time to start with Gareth Thomas, I think. Spoiler, the other loosers for Wales aren't very good. Hocker, are we expecting Ethan Lewis to be back in? Are we expecting, you know, Sam Parry? Sam Parry, I think it's Sam Parry. Yeah, he probably deserves it. He'll score a hat-trick somehow. Because weirdly, like, right, I don't want to hear this Johnny Matthews talk, right? Johnny Matthews is just a copy of Sam Parry, right? Sam Parry has been doing this for years, right? This is just a cheap imitation, right? Come back when you're scoring hat-tricks against Bennett on, weirdly, Sam Parry. We'll come on to the bench later, because I think we'll see Marius van der Buur there. I'll tell you what, you're right. Sam Parry has scored 34 career tries. Johnny Matthews has only scored 31. Yeah, I mean, we'll ignore Johnny Matthews has only done it in about 50 appearances, but... He's 30. He's 30, right? He's one year younger. Exactly. And Sam Parry is nearly 180 appearances now. Yeah. Tight-haired. Are we seeing White Chocolate himself, big sexy? Oh, yeah. No, Rhys Henry. Rhys Henry will be tight-haired, I think. And Charlotte Church alongside. And Charlotte Church. We could see Ben Warren. He was involved in the warm-up. I don't think, for continuity-wise, I think we'll see Rhys Henry. There is talk of... This will be the mythical Tom Boater finally missing a league game. So, Martin Gilliam cannot bring up that stat every minute of every scrum for the rest of the season. No, for that, Tom Boater's starting now, because my opinion cannot rest until Tom Boater has missed a game. There'll just be Tom Boater naming the squad, and a very nasal voice will just whisper in his ear, Barrington's got to start. Somewhere when Toby Booth signs off on the team, Martin Gilliam has a shiver down his spine. The crows keep singing away and the church bells chime. It is done. Loose headlock, number four. Are we seeing James Fender? You'd imagine? Yeah. Yeah. There's no reason why he wouldn't be in there. I think we'll be seeing Rhys Davis at five. Yeah. Yeah, moving back. Or forward. Moving about. Shuffling. He could maybe make the argument he'll be captain. Oh. I suppose if Morgan Morris is missing, if Jack Morgan's missing, if tips are still missing. That's interesting. Has he captained before? He might have captained once. Or am I thinking of someone else? But Booth has mentioned about how he wants to switch up the leadership roles in the way. I think it was one of the quotes, I think he said something about Jack Morgan, and he said, oh, and that's why Morgan Morris was captain. Yeah, it's the same with Derry Lake, because just because they're captains for Wales doesn't mean they walk back in here and become captain for... There's only a few players who could do that in your prime Alvin Jones as well. He'd walk into the Ospreys and be captain again. Who are we picking at six? This is where I feel we're getting a bit thin. Run over one of the big sixes. Oh, no. This is it. Once you do take the Morgans out. Yeah. Harry Deeves comes into the background, regardless. So are we saying Harry Deeves at seven, then? Yeah. And then you're looking at, I mean, potentially you're looking at Reece Davies moving back to six and bringing Lewis Jones in, who's obviously only played the one game off the bench. So we could say Derwin Son at starting, yeah. Yeah, sorry, Derwin Son, not Lewis Jones. But you're kind of regardless, looking at starting someone who has had very minimal game time. So Tristan Thomas has had, Tristan Davis, sorry. He was my next thing, was going to be Tristan Davis. Yeah. So one of, you feel, Derwin Son, Tristan Davis and Morgan Morse is going to have to start at least one. And all of those, you know, they've got, what, four appearances between them. So it's going to be a big call somewhere and a huge day for someone to really put down a marker. And it's hard to say without necessarily being in the camp all the time to see which one's chomping at the bit most, which one's working hardest for it, which one looks there. As someone who was in the twenties, obviously you're really, you know, I guess I'm no better than anyone, you're hyped for Morgan Morse. But Tristan Davis, you know, Alan Wynne-Jones talked a few times about how impressed he was in training with him. And yeah, yeah. So are we saying it's going to be a Tristan Davis, Harry Deeves, Morgan Morse back row? That would be tasty. Lacking in leadership. Yeah, it's lacking in leadership, but it's certainly a possibility, but we're here for vibes and vibes only. At nine, are we saying Reuben's having a rest? Are we saying Kruger starts, Luke Davis, Cameron Jones? I think that's it, isn't it? I think you bring Krier in at nine, put Reuben on the bench, let him slide back to his old role of coming on for where Biafri throws an intercept pass and being better than him. Only I hope Krier throws no interception passes and he's great. Yeah, yeah, I hope Krier is great. So we're saying Krier at nine, ten, I think we'll see the return of Owen Williams. Yes, do you agree? Yeah, I do. I think, you know, hopefully Jack Walters is all OK, you know, it'll be nice to see him back fit again. Hopefully it's not long term. Obviously, we mentioned there was a precaution, but yeah, you know, someone's, you know, someone with the experience of Owen Williams who, you know, we need him back because we are playing Montpellier away soon. So that would be nice to recreate that again. And, you know, someone that's obviously in at Welsh International, and I think him just being around in training will help someone like Dan Edwards big time. Yeah, I think if, if Walsh, if Owen was 100% you'd see Wilbert play the Dan Edwards start in this game, but I think it's a game too far for him. Yeah, I think it's just kind of the wrong time in terms of where we are in the block. I think you put him on the bench again, you put him on the bench and look to give him another 20 minutes and see if he can do the same sort of thing. So first winger, I think, I think Luke Morgan is still going to be in there. We haven't got anyone else left. Yeah, we've had no official update on Keelan. Toby Fricker, Don Morris are still both in moon boots. I saw Toby Fricker on the weekend actually is still in the moon boots. Okay. So, yeah. There was mention of him in that Scrum 5 pod, but in the rehab and recovery room with Ratty. Yeah. So you'd imagine he's still not. I have a feeling Morris is closer than Fricker. Again, that's pure speculation. 12, I think we'll see Keith. Yeah. Yeah. There's no reason, if we know that Watkin is out, that essentially means Keith has started at 12. There are no other candidates. 13, George? It's going to have to be, isn't it? If his knee's okay. George North at 13. I was having this conversation with someone, you know, Cardiff fan the other day, who was asking if George North does go, it looks like it'll be at the end of the season rather than mid season. There's some talk at this point of who's your next 13. And you realise, oh shit, no, it's Watkin and North. And then that's it. Then you're looking at Tom Clarence. Yeah, he's doing his ACL. So suddenly there is no one left. Which is where I think we'll look at a centre. If we do get a space in the budget, in the centre, if Tom Clarence isn't, you know, because when Tom Clarence did play, I thought he looked quite good. I think if you look at the Sharks game last year in South Africa, he came in last minute for Mikey Collins. Michael Collins, please come back. You follow the pod, I know you're listening. Come home. 14, there's only one man and captain. I think, yeah, it's a no-brainer. Again, we have no one else. I think Harry Houston might travel with the squad, would you say? Yeah, I think so. He's had a great game time in the Welsh Prem. So I think, you know, it's an experience for him as a young player, just to have that travelling environment and be a part of the wider squad. So yeah, I think he might travel. I think it's probably a bit too soon for him to be thrown into an away game against Benetton. The other option, and he was in the warm-up, is Yesterday's Hopkins. So he was back in the warm-up. So he's present in all the changing room shots and whatnot. So we could be seeing a Yesterday's Hopkins back soon. We'll talk about that a bit in a minute. 15, does he drop Najee? I think, oh, I think if it is, it's for Hopkins to give him a rest, but I would keep him in. I'd keep him going. I think he's played better when he's had momentum, when he's kind of been able to, you know, get a run of games going. Yeah, part of the reason why he dropped off and Yesterday's Hopkins came in was he had that incurring injury issues. I think he did his elbow, he'd done his knee the year before. So he's staggered in terms of his performances. And then Yesterday's Hopkins came in, had that solid run of games from Munster until it was the last game of the Dragons at home and looked solid. So yeah, like you said, Robbie, consistency. Let's look at the bench very quickly then. Uh, we say Marnus or we say Ethan Lewis? Marnus Vandermuurve or Ethan Lewis? Oh, I was not on personal terms with him. Um, no, yeah, I think, you know, we've signed him. We might as well give him a game. Yeah, Marnus Vandermuurve, he can go on the one cap club. Uh, yes, then who's our replacement loose-haired? Um, who was left? That's the Garin. Oh yeah, that was me being a little bit silly. Yeah, Garin Phyllis. I was thinking Cam Jones, um, the loose-haired. But obviously now you've just mentioned Garin Phyllis, he's popped back into my head. So I will go with him. Who's that Cockney lad they signed to keep Boofy company as well? This is the other one. Is James Kenny going to be involved? Because he played for Swansea on the weekend. So I'm going to put Slash and I'm going to put James Kenny. Um, because he's a big boy. There's quite a lot of young loose heads coming through because you've got Freddie Chapman as well. Freddie Chapman, you've got, um, Kian Hyer can play loose. I know he's predominantly tight. Um, as well as Cam Jones. Um, I'm trying to think who's in the uni as well. Yes, Freddie something. The Welsh qualified Cockney, they clearly signed just because Boofy was missing having enough one around. It's a kid. Someone to go to the apples and pears with him. Eighteen replacements heighted. Uh, it's going to be Ben Warren or Juan Boca. Again, Martin Gillingham will have a say in this. Um, why is, um, Martin Gillingham now a URC competitor? Where's that come from? Every single game. And he does like three games a weekend as well. Yeah. Relentless, relentless gills. Um, like a fish that can't quit. And then replacements a lot. Are we saying where it's going to be doing? Doing son. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of got to be. He's resulting. Can we, we, we're probably picking the doomsday team here in terms of how much he's going to rotate. Yeah. But we've also taken into account what we've got available, which is not a lot. We've lost 40% of our squad. Oh, geez. Yeah. Do we have someone else to go on the bench? Do we have to go for like a four, five? What can we go for? We can go, well, we've got four at the minute, so we can go for a four, four bench. That's a thing. That happened before, actually. Yeah. During the, um, the Alan Clarke era, I think the Ospreys somehow managed to have four front rowers and there were two flyers. One of them was James Huck on the bench against the cheaters one year in Swansea, which saw Ivan Phillips go a last minute try, which was converted by Sam Davis and the Ospreys won by a point for leading for about three and a half seconds. I don't believe you because Ospreys never won a game in the Alan Clarke era. No, but when they did win, it was really depressing. It was like really sad wins. Shout out the eight, seven winning against Ulster with Alan Davies. Yeah. That was the coachless era. That was the year. That was the world. Again, my James Huck story for another time. Oh yeah. Yes. I love the James Huck story. I do love the James Huck story. This is why you're not invited to the press conferences anymore Robbie. Just in case James Huck is there. Just in case he turns up. Can you sign my book James? Who is it to? Alan Clarke. Alan Clarke's lawyers, that's who it's to. Have we got a replacement back rower? This lad, Alexander Ashton, the young lot. Is Jack Regan alive? I don't think, I don't know. I think he's in NFC. The only time we've seen Jack, no, what's his name? Yeah, Jack Regan. He's in those little videos they post on social media, who liked the Barbie movie the best, and he'll walk by and go, it's Max and Aggie, and that's it. That's his entire contribution to the Oscars. Because you're looking away from them videos doing something else while it's on, and then you turn back and it's like, wait a minute, is Alan Clarke back? There's an old Irishman or a Dubliner. Sorry, I don't want to mix them up. I was like, oh, so if he's alive, I mean, I don't think they look like Jack Regan. He's a big boy, he gets about. Now, he played that weird Zebra game we played last year, where we were amazing for 10 minutes and then made Zebra look like 2021 La Rochelle. But if he's alive, Jack Regan, but yeah, I'm going to put Jack Regan slash Alex Ashton slash insert AI player there. We could throw Lewis Lloyd on the back row. He's reasonably quick for a hooker. I don't know. Yeah, could do. Kieran Williams could probably play 10, and we can move Ben Warren into the back row. Oh, please. And other people can play tight head. Like that weird time where Ken played eight. Yes. Oh, Ben, no, Rhys Henry an eight. That's who I want. I mean, Dewey Lloyd used to be an eight. Yeah, I watched, years ago, I watched him play for Scuon when he was converted into a hooker. So he was like balancing between the two. Reuben was saying, bring up that experience. And then world player of the year, Dan Edwards. And then not real person, Luke Scully. Yeah, I'll have to be. Yeah, that's, look, we know it's depressing, guys. It's not a box office theme, but look, we have to, it's a 13 block, 13 game block. And we have to prioritize, you know, certain games. We want to run in Europe. I think we have a real chance this year. Montpelier are in the box. You know, they've just got rid of Cockrell. They sit at bottom of the top 14. They've employed a criminal as their coach. It's yeah. And the state of the challenge cup this year as well, with being minus two English teams, means that basically if you win one game and pick up another somewhere, you know, you're suddenly looking at a chance to get out of the group because 16 out of 24 teams get out, I think. I might even be 20 teams. Yeah, it's like an American sports league where everyone wins. So just to go over the squad that we predicted. So the Ospreys Irish squad for Benetton away is Gareth Thomas, Sam Harry, Rhys Henry, James Fender, Rhys Davies as captain, Tristan Davies at six, Harry Deeves at seven, Morgan Morse at eight, Reevan Clear at nine, Owen Williams at 10, Lib Morgan at 11, Keith at 12, George North at 13, Daniel Tisende at 14, Max Nagy at 15. On the bench, you've got Marnes van den Meuwer, either Gareth Phillips or James Kenny, 18, Ben Warren or squad father Tom Boater, 19 is Lewis Jones or Derwinson, 20 is, insert an AI player there, 21 Reuben, 22 Dan Edwards-Hypetrain and 23 Lib Scully. Gents, I think that is a perfect way to end the pod. Robbie did message me before the game on Sunday and distracted me for the entire war, where we went through our niche 15 last week and we now want to put together a streets won't forget 15. So we're not going to do it tonight, but I think we go away and I think maybe when we get Robbie on next, because I know he's busy back on the video train, because he's already told me what the next video is. And he needs to potentially knuckle down and do it. So when Robbie's on next, so maybe next week, maybe the week after, we will go through our streets will not forget 15 each, because I will put time aside to do that if I'm going to go to it right now. That is the Ospreys versus Scarletts review, a preview for the Ben and Tom game. Yes, then are we on telly this weekend? Yes, we're on S4C, I think. Yes, finally, we're on a free-to-air game. Because the derby's still on via play. Yes, oh well. Only because they can have the right stand boxing day. So BBC can have one derby. Have you heard via play is no more? Yeah, yeah. So I want to introduce a new segment after recommending a Royal Affair to Matt Mickleson last week. I recommend a language film on via play each week that you have me on until you stop inviting me because it will happen. This is why they dropped via play. This is it, right? It's currently the only place to watch Anders Thomas Jensen's 2002 film Adam's Apples, starring also Matt Mickleson, and Nicolaas Bro, the Danish comic actor, which is a great and very weird comedy about a neo-Nazi who gets put up at a church with a very delusional priest played by Matt Mickleson, who turns a blind eye to literally everything. It's very good and very silly. And it's only on via play, the only place you can watch it, I think, with subtitles. Well, fortunately, we're on S4C. Unfortunately, we're on S4C, so you can watch the public omnibus or Jonathan, because somehow that's still on. Forever. So yeah, we are kicking off 25 past seven on Saturday evening, just around the Welsh rugby for the weekend. No Friday night game, which feels like the first time in ages we haven't had a Friday night game. And it's the derby that no one likes. It's Cardiff Blues versus the Scarlets, which actually holds the record for fans walking the shortest distance to the game, because all the Scarlets fans will be coming from Poncana. So yeah, that's on at three o'clock. That'll be a tasty one. And then the Lions host the Dragons at five past three. Dragons, unfortunately, not going to be playing their PAX coach at ten. Boo. Why do you hate rugby? That's it. So all four Welsh teams up on Saturday before the last weekend, before we move into the proper rugby, where we'll be going to the EPCR Challenge Cup. I just checked, right? 16 out of 18 teams get out of the pool. So perfect. So I can't wait for Ospreys and the Black Lions to not get out of the pool. That's what's happening. But yeah, so let's wrap it up there, lads. Thank you very much, Robbie. We hope to see you again, hopefully next week, if you've got the new video up. You are invited back every week. We move into the European League next week. So it's Benetton at home next week. Ospreys have extended their ticket sale, a Cyber Monday deal for £10 a ticket. Please get onto it. Other than that, gentlemen, it's been an absolute pleasure. We shall see you again next week. Thank you for listening to the Ospreys RE 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, rugby is always the answer.
