Scarlets Fever: Celebrating a win - don't care who it is against!

Welcome to Scarlet's Fever, the home of Sussman Central and Westerra is best of us. Hello and welcome to this week's edition of the Scarlet's Fever podcast. Joining me big M as always Carwyn and the amazing Catboy. How are we doing lads? Very good thanks. Thank you yes yeah it's a it's a good good week to be recording. Very good week. So obviously Friday aside how's your week been lad? Yeah a bit stressful actually. I know it's only Monday when we're recording but I got a train today and I almost missed it because I was uh I thought it was an hour later than it was so I had a mad rush to the station then um but other than that yeah it's been good uh enjoyed a bit of rugby for the weekend and yeah it's looking nice another nice week now hopefully. This is now a rom-com pod after listening to that. Yes yeah that was nice that's a good one. How about you? Anything interesting? Not as interesting. All of the rugby on Saturday was interesting. Say or most. There's one game which wasn't interesting at all um but other other than that I've been just in the garden basically like most people first first sunny weekend of the year you hit the garden. I've jet washed the patio twice because the first time I did it shittily and yeah saw it out saw it out the jungle at the end of the garden though that was occurring and pretty much gotten it to look like actual human beings are in this place rather than just leaving it's just an abandoned hovel so that's nice. Just for everyone who's listening to this on audio or video, here we're keeping looking out this back garden window to see well is it really done have I done it all you can see. I haven't I've got I feel things as soon as you start doing it just tweak that just tweak that just tweak that. Well uh obviously I weren't here last week I was out sunning it up in Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, but yeah you know nice nice and burnt come home crisp as a lobster and uh I did listen to the pod last week and big congratulations to him I was winding him up in a chat beforehand because he was going to do with the community game and I think he was only the one that you messed up and it weren't even that bad so fair play to the lad he done well so round of applause nice and sad okay so on to rugby matters uh obviously Monday so yesterday Sunday WIU announced the new EDC is no longer the EDC it is now Super Rugby Cymru and we had a bit of information on that on the BBC Strum Fight programme so I know we've talked all season about what it's going to be how's it going to look so what's the general feeling from from you guys about it I don't mind the name I'm okay yeah yeah now the name the project needs to live up to the name basically yeah so someone someone tweeted as well like Howard Sands are not copyrighted Super Rugby's a title because you got Super Rugby Cymru so there's Super Rugby Pacific and there's Super Rugby South America that gets played I think there's probably more ones that I'm forgetting so we've spelt rugby the Welsh way though so it's fine oh yeah we've got to say rugby not rugby yeah like we basically since we've known um we've known what the format is going to be for a while in terms of a league and then a cup and we've known that there's 10 teams in it which to be honest with you I think 10 is probably too many I would have gone eight but Nigel Walker did say once we're on five and we'll talk about things that Nigel Walker said but one thing he did say later on was um that he understands why people would be resistant from going from 13 down to eight straight away so it is a compromise I think being at 10 but you know it is what it is and my view on it is the the format is probably the least important thing about it is more about the squads because if it just ends up being the squads that were playing in the premiership last season but in this it's a waste of time we need to understand exactly what these squads are going to look like and from our point of view what Quinns and Drovers are going to look like who the Scarletts players they're going to be having are that's what we're interested in so that's the announcement that I'm most looking forward to. Yeah there are some key details that are missing because like Wales Online posted a more comprehensive report on exactly what's going to be there and I think there's a squad of 35 I have the order up so people can look and then they have they can have a dual registered blah blah blah but we need to know how many academy players each team is going to get that's the main sticking point what's the requirement for every match day 15-23 so those are the key sticking points that will tell us whether or not this is going to be an actual development competition or it's a revamped premiership. If we go back to the start of the season when they first announced this I mean there was also a lot of issues with from Cardiff, Merthyr and Pontypridd about not having the home games and I don't know where the switch has come because you know the first time we heard about it was going to be a couple months before Christmas and then a couple months during the Six Nations and it's completely not that at all it's a full league season so you know you're 18 league games nine home nine away plus this cup competition which is another two home two away to make it 11 each and I think the one thing that disappointed me is the fact that I do agree that it does need a follow-up season so players can keep fit etc but they needed to be playing during the international period or when our squad players are not with internationals they can drop down and play with these academy players I know there's a couple weekends with the ESRC cup that that's going to happen in Six Nations so we needed it for the three weekends in November we needed it for all five weekends in the Six Nations they were the key sticking points to me so what would really make this a development competition and you know we've seen how cold we are you know when we go those three four weeks without playing when we go two weeks one on week off because you get cold like we saw it coming off of Benetton you know and then we had that two week gap and then we just capitulated again we need regular rugby which is the main sticking point from from my point of view but you know got to support it you've got to support it if you don't support it then what's the point of being a fan of Welsh rugby that's the same with the URC as far as I'm concerned if you don't support it don't be involved in it in any capacity because you're just going to bring the game down and that's not what we want. I do yeah I agree I agree with everything you said there I do think they've missed a trick though I quite like the model they've got in New Zealand where you've got Super Rugby, Club Rugby, International sort of following on from each other and then you've got your your non-international big names dropping down to play I don't I know it might be called the Maitre Cup anymore I'm not sure what it's called so apologies. It's NPD now. No it's Benetton now. But I think that's just a sponsor. Yeah but that's what it's called isn't it? Okay. It's the same man. Yeah we're sort of we're so that it's more of a continuation because obviously our budget in Wales in the Welsh regional game aren't as high as Leinster or La Rochelle to name but two teams that a certain interview we on Scrum 5 loved last night. So there might be times look at our season this year that the amount of injuries we've had our squad's going to be smaller going forward because of financial reasons. There might be more demand for academy players to step up so then if they've played all week let's say with Quinns and then Friday morning captain's on or somebody pulls up the hamstring everything that's been prepared goes out the window so I think this should maybe have been a bit more thought into when they play so that it works for those teams in Super Rugby Cymru but also our regions who might need extra support at times during international periods during if you unfortunately get three or four injuries in a short space of time. But it feels like because this season's sort of co-running that that won't happen although I'm a bit sad when it comes to fixtures and I did look at the Super Rugby Cymru fixtures I like the fact they've looked at it and gone oh 21st of December is the last Saturday before Christmas let's have derbies and I think apart from I think it's Bridgend to play RGC on that. Yeah someone's got to play RGC they don't they? Yeah so but apart from that I think so you've got Quinns, Drovers, Ebbw Vale, Pontypool, Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Brabham yeah and Bridgend play RGC so at least there's a bit of thinking there in trying to to get fans to the grounds for those for those pre-Christmas matches so there's yeah there's I'm feeling more positive about everything now it's just as you've said both of you said it's about getting the the squad numbers of regional players into the club setups and how that works. It would have been, go on Mark you go first. Yeah and I think you've got to put credit again because they've reversed those fixtures for the following week so on the 21st and the 28th I mean even though if you look on the poster they put the derby round for the 4th of January instead of the 21st of December when there actually is but you know the fixtures are reversed week on week so the 21st and the 28th so you know at Christmas and unless you finish it unless you Bridgend you're not going very far which is nice you know I mean or RGC obviously. Yeah I did wonder whether there might be a it might have been cool to have it played during the summer of the league and have it as summer rugby but then I kind of realised well some Harley was telling me about how it's difficult to come by grounds in the summer because they that all the clubs are used for cricket and also the international world championship the under-20s world championship is in the summer in or during the summer months so a lot of the top players who'll be playing in this competition would go off so that would be a bit lost so I kind of see it like like like Carwyn said I there's a couple of things that I would tweak and I think there's a couple of opportunities maybe missed but like you said Mark it's time to get on board now really once we once we've seen the squads that's the only caveat I'm I'm putting over it. Well one positive we do have we know TN Sparrow is dealing with Llandudbury, we know that from a few weeks ago. Quadruple winners. Quadruple winners yes the they've added the SRC Challenger Shield to the repertoire and am I right in thinking they only defend them in home games? That's right. So you know first week of the season they're guaranteed to keep it because they're a way too but cool okay so the first defense will be in the second round on the 21st of September at home to RGC so would like to think they'll get at least one defense in there but no in terms of the the squad makeup we know from the Scars point of view we know that TN Sparrow is going to be with Llandudbury he was photo pictured with Adam Oren and oh I forget his name head coach EE I always call him on my head I don't know why oh it's his initials but uh he was photo there for the for the announcement so we know he's there we know the sort of player he is watching the 18s and it's going to be interesting to see him and many many more play on a regular basis so we've kept that where it is I mean we could probably go on for hours if we really wanted so scrum five Lauren Jenkins scored a fifth round knockout against Nigel Walker uh how are we all feeling after watching that? You go first Colin. Well you know it's a big chance now big TV interview chance to really put regional rugby fans minds at ease and anybody with any interest international this was the chance to sort of say I just felt as you say I wouldn't have came to the fifth round but Lauren Jenkins talking about the cleaners um I'm just I don't know it's just a bit worried that the thinking that some of these people working at the WRA have as in he's talking about finding an extra two million um a pool of money for each region yet admitting that they're running a loss as it stands and at the moment Welsh rugby isn't marketable to to bring in international sponsorship as in there's no sort of um appeal to it as in our international teams between men and women won one game this year um in the in the in the six nations it's it's just I don't know I think he's living in a bit bit of a cuckoo land and I just felt like he had a speech prepared to read out and regardless of what Lauren asked him who I thought he did very well and pushed him as much as he probably could without him walking off I just I just again feel like a lot of questions are answered and a lot of uncertainty and when he got to the regional amount of regional teams just chucked a lot of numbers about to make it sound like important but the reality is at one stage the WRA owned the region if they wanted to reduce to three that was the perfect time to do it now that we've gone back to private ownership all four regions it is very much harder for them to get get um to lose the region so I just I don't know I'm just fed up of hearing the same old things um I think from my point of view you know what possessed him to even go on like I know he had the the announcement of Super Rugby Cymru but why why did that have to be this weekend why not leave it till did they did he see that like three Welsh regions won and was like let's capitalize on some good feelings why why not leave it until three weeks time when all of the when the season's over for all of the regions and do it then when he's got like free space to talk about it what possessed him to go on with Lauren Jenkins on where you knew she was going to skewer him like my favorite moment was she asked him a question and he gave a long spiel and then she went hmm okay let's just have a look at the numbers and you could see in his eyes he was like oh no and she like turned the page over in a note she's like oh god um the thing with the going with the number of regions so you know full disclosure I didn't watch this interview until this evening I don't watch Scrum 5 normally and I saw obviously everyone kicking off about it and I thought yeah maybe it's like one of those out of context things you know the BBC headline that they put out is the only word that was quoted was the word option so maybe I thought maybe he's like tried to play it down and and move on and they've pushed him into saying it but no he spoke for a good three minutes about reducing the number of regions and to me the way that I interpret it and this is my interpretation other people's interpretation may be different and that's fine my interpretation is that he is open to reducing the number of regions and they are regularly talking about it so I don't know I don't know whether it's even the right thing to say you know with respect to our sister pods you know for me he should have come out and said no it's four regions and then end of it like it's four regions we're committed to four regions the the one thing I guess for you being purely one-eyed Scarlet's about it is that I don't think the Scarlet's would be the one to go if anybody went but you know that's being that's me being very very selfish if you look at the four regions and you look at where the owners of such or where the funding director the only one that's not got a good core in Wales is the ospreys of y11 and we know they've talked about mergers before etc not not to say that they're going to do that again or that they'd ever consider folding but if you look at it from a perspective of where's the money coming from you know when a lot of it's not coming from within Wales you think about they haven't got our emotional ties that you know perhaps the other regions do I could be wrong they could have loads of funding directors that are like yeah I'm a Swansea I'm neat whatever well not neat uh so born and bred you know I love this team blah blah blah but just from an outside perspective I go okay you're all Welsh based Welsh based or you're Welsh business or whatever and then you've got y11 who've got you know their hands in so many pots over the world but you know that's that's another question for another time like go on yeah no I was just saying maybe maybe that's better though that they're bringing money in from abroad because there's a limited amount of revenue in Wales um if they can get international money then it's probably the right way to do it as in I don't as in I am 100 committed to seeing the Scottish remain as a region but with our levers list this year that's the first time I've gone oh that's a hefty amount of dollar off our wage bill and is there something in that or am I overthinking and just should look at it as four or five 35 plus players who have come to the end of their careers or coming to the end of their careers and that's where they've been that's why they're being moved on um I think personally there's enough space in Wales for four regions um should all four be within the 70 miles or whatever they are on the M4 that's another that's a debate for another day but I do think there is more than enough talent in our country to sustain four teams look at the fact that we've got to send academy players to play in Super Rugby Cymru because they won't get enough game time at regional level so they need to develop elsewhere I'd rather see developing within Wales than signing for academies over the bridge or for teams over the bridge and then we lose them in the international pathway which again um Nigel Walker talking about the the the exeter wing who who's from Cardiff and just oh the discussion's happened too late sorry if if a kid is that good at rugby you they get picked up at 13 14 at the latest 15 now conversations can happen I think you don't leave it until it goes for a um a university interview in exeter or whatever and then ends up moving across the bridge I just think that's a poor excuse for we missed that one we got it wrong um but yeah four regions to me is a must yeah I am 100% with you four regions is the minimum and if you look I know Nigel Walker touched on it a little bit changing but if you look at the sheer amount of numbers that we have playing that rugby like I think he said 1,500 over the two years or you know it's a lot more than that because I think he's facing off like 32 man squads or whatever it is but we we know some of these they wish you because they carry up to 45 players at some times a year with injuries etc so you know we did plenty of players around at the 15 16 year old age it's how we get them through to 1920 because and Lee will testament to this if you do not treat the player right at any one of them stages they will walk away and they might not even play rugby ever again and you just can't emphasize how much that has an impact when you're talking to 16 17 year old boys because these are boys they're not men even when they're 18 19 they're not you know developed enough to understand you know oh your dream's gone to shit you know jog on you know you you need that after care day and I'm hoping that's something that is changing with the additional funding but that's that's yet to be seen uh one of my biggest takes from Nigel is saying we need 5.5 to 6 million to be competitive well we've got 5.2 million this year so 5.5 is one more player so are you telling me if we had one more player we would be competitive you know and then he talks that off by saying oh we're still driving costs down we want we want to increase the budget but we're driving your cost everything down first it just he like oh okay and then just just either contradict or things that don't don't make sense I mean we've not come out to this interview knowing anything new or anything different I mean he could have just said we're committed like you said we're committed to the four regions end of um we've looked at three years there'll be three on the table but for the next three four years however long our contract is with URC we are sticking with four end of uh does anyone have any more points they want to talk about or do we just want maybe bigger blur and a bit more people go out yeah she did very well like I said I don't know what I don't know what prompted him to go on and and go put himself through that yes a bizarre decision to go for an interview is one to go for a live especially because the there's they've got the commitment to produce the new strategy next month just leave it a month Nigel yeah there's something concrete to say I thought James Hockney quite well pushing him as well I thought Hockney wanted to if you look at the interaction between Nigel and James it was like oh well you know being in the academy without trying to tell everyone what you actually know it's like this isn't just a private conversation with someone who has excellent knowledge this is a public forum that he's given out to the entire country you can't just say oh you know this and expect everyone else to know as well just bad as the leaf man so it was like after the three wins on the weekend it was like the WRU had to come out and be like let's just put a stop to this let's just ruin everybody's weekend and just well it's probably twitter this week well this week has been 24 hours has been just back to its best brackets worst okay so that's all the dark stuff such some nice news of the SRC so not the nice news of Nigel Walker but on to Friday this past Friday out in Parma Scarlett's got a win did we all watch the game live that's the first question yes yes yes three yeses that's what we like so I'll start with you because Karen's had to go through two times now so um overall impressions of the match like I know there's a few players you love sticking out oh yeah of course there is you know a huge greatest hits incoming um the a lot of the commentary well no actually what I want to start with all you could hear through the whole game was the Scarlett's fans singing like I'm sure they've had a great day on a Friday afternoon in Parma in the lovely weather having a drink or two someone tried to take the piss and say oh they've been all on bottles of Prosecco and then our friend Joe um wrote in to say we tried to find bottles of Prosecco no one was selling any so we had to make do with glasses of Prosecco so fair play I'd like uh the the actual game itself well yeah just just to just to finish on that considering considering the how rough the season is to have a cohort of fans go over to Italy and drown out their home fans it was the same in Connacht as well earlier this season all you could do was the Scarlett's fans doing that I think that that's that that should remind the players you know what they're playing for really is like this is this is why you're playing for the Scarlett's is different so the game itself a lot of the discussion during and after was like this is two bad teams and you know there was it wasn't like we turned into Leinster or to lose overnight there were still things in there that went great but it was a comfortable victory we were a step ahead of them Zebra poor you have to say poor team just happy just happy and all the players who we know are good were good all the Eddie James had his best game in a while he's not someone I've seen a lot of people talking about Tommy Lewis is mad to me that he was on the bench for half a season but you were calling it Mark you were calling for him to get it get a run before anybody else I was calling it from when he signed from the jersey last season he's a tremendous player so just just happy to get the win that's the most important thing happy to get the win can I run over you about what was it's more or less the same or do you have any any more to give well when you think a lot of people thought Zebra would do us that this was their chance for for to beat us at home this this was their cup final and they sort of set up to play like that and yes it wasn't a spectacle but neither side has played rugby this season that made you anybody think it was going to be any different the truth of the matter was the Scarlett had to win to a avoid being finished as the bottom Welsh region and b to start building confidence for next season I think I called it on this pod and on the Welsh language pod last week momentum for next season started against Zebra you win that with a with a bonus point we somehow find a way of finally defeating the dragons at judgment day and get a bonus point and we finish with two big wins to end the season yes arguably against the two weakest teams in in the league that's not our fault but that's how the the fixtures came out it's it's to our benefit we've got to take advantage of that and finish on a high it was nice to see us scoring a few tries I know we've struggled this season but one thing I've got to say and this isn't sort of in any way detrimental to your performance but when Sam Costolo came on the pitch he seemed to lift the game he seemed to change everything you could have almost had an argument for him being man of the match in the however long he played because I just he seemed faster he seemed to read things better and it just I don't think you realize how good somebody is until for me anyway he came on on Friday I thought wow this kid is even better than I thought he was because he's come off he's come off the bench cold and he's changed the game and he's just we've looked like a different team um with him on the field um but to me signs that there's something to build on now and I think I think that's not something we haven't had all year is a foundation to build anything on um we just need to back that up now at judgment day as in not go back to our old ways think right this is the this is the bar we've set we keep building from that and see where we end up yeah I'm happy with that and yeah we didn't concede a single point once Sam had come on and uh something interesting I picked up um all season Costolo has only played you know two consecutive games so you know Saturday Friday Saturday Sunday following Friday Saturday Sunday once for us all season he's played consecutive games where we've had a week's off in between but only once has he played started two in a row and that that's just astounded me and I think that can play into why we've had such a poor season I know who has been banging on it for a long time we are a different outfit with Costello on the field uh few wonderful mentions um I would have said this last week as well because I noticed the game uh Harry O'Connor and Kenzie Mathias had a lot more involvement in both of these games than they have done previously they were carrying more they were hitting more raps I don't know if that's the influence of Vandenberg but I was really impressed with the pay of them I know that O'Connor missed the tackle against uh as I said a zebra 15 but you put a 15 against the yeah you know it's only one winner but I've been really impressed with both of them and I am fans of both of them as well because you know that there's no hiding that uh from myself and if they keep on this this sort of project to be it I'm expecting even better performance from them both against the dragons same as Morgan Jones has seemed to have found you know a new wind in it do you think he makes the scrum better yeah 100% when we have Jones and Price or Jones and Craig, Lowndes he is an amazing player but he's not the best scrummaging lock you you need that frame you need that weight um one thing I will criticize Morgan Jones for or like I think he was in is when we set up for the scrum and him and Craig come up he all he seems to be in an awkward shape so you see Craig has still got that you know that nice scrum profile on him uh Morgan is a little bit more awkward his hand is more up in the air so I think that's something that can be worked on that would help the scrum again but yeah when we've got two proper hefty you know not just what he's built it's the frame that helps as well when we've got two big locks like that in the scrum it just solidifies everything and when it comes to scrums I'm a very big believer and like you are with combinations is I like everyone to be within an inch or two of each other in height so if my if my loose head is six foot flat you know my hookah my tight dead they've got to be between five eleven and six one because it just makes that balance of when you move forward together as a unit so much easier and it's the same with uh your locks uh it actually started when I was playing youth rugby and uh so I'm only five eight I was always propping uh my hookah next to me it was five seven and then our tight dead was six foot four and it was just a nightmare trying to pack us down so you know we shifted him into the lock and we picked another small guy well not a similar height guy and we worked so much better even though that I said was probably a stronger scrum but even over the mean we worked so much better of course to his tool for a prop it is and have you seen this thing out of japan out of uh japan the biggest league one I feel like I've seen this before I feel like I've I've seen that headline in that photo before I think this is one of those things that comes out as a joke every year or something to be honest there's like six foot ten 150 kilos like yeah it doesn't matter how good you are you are not getting down in the scrum you get a nice squat five foot ten and it's not you know on the scrum as well it's now it's clearly a thing that on our puts in plum trees at eight and on opposition put in car wins at eight just on carwin as well where I think we have we have seen him play well this season I think it's time now that we all adjust our expectations of the kind of player that carwin is because people wanted him to be telemophony mark two and he's not that but what he is like this weekend he was our top tackler top carrier he's been top carrier before he's been top tackler before I think we need to start viewing him as kind of a bit like a dan lidiot kind of character he's that he's that kind of player a workhorse kind of player rather than a big flashy number eight and it's it's an interesting balance now with that back that back row of carwin plum tree and dan davis because now you've got three players who are all bring something different and so before when we've been having say for feta and plum tree those two are very similar and it's it feels mad to say that our best back row doesn't contain beer for feta who is arguably our most talented player but the back that balance that we've got now just seems to work I don't know mark what your view on that is yeah um I am in a I'm in big agreement with you over there uh carwin especially um one thing he does do which we have seen we saw last season a couple times we have I don't know if you've quite seen it this season but when he makes a break by god does he make a break he's not he's going over his three four meters and that's it he makes 10 15 20 and if he can somehow manage to do that once or maybe twice in a match on top of what he's already doing that you know you talk international at that rate and I think there's been too much put on his shoulders I mean he's still 22 years old and he made his debut January 2021 so the last two seasons he hasn't really progressed as a lot of people would have expected that we've had Callum before he started almost every single game and the games that he didn't start was when he didn't make those breaks and we think oh yeah he's pretty good so I do think we need to persevere and I know you can say plump 306 there's no doubt of that I feel we've got to stick with carwin at eight just because he's not going to develop otherwise I don't think he's going to develop off the bench he's not going to learn fast enough so you're stuck in a position where you're defeated or not that is an awkward one the balance is good I would prefer someone I would prefer Dan Davis of two three years ago someone who coaches a lot more someone who's more in that rut he does still do it he does still get the turnovers but he's not where he used to be when now his game is a lot more physical where he used to always be in the rut I think that's the only thing I'd want to change in that background if I could get myself into pill for a little bit more I think carwin's downfall is the fact that when he first burst on the scene he was this monster of a sized 18 year old and people are expecting him to just pick up from where calum Calum Foney left off obviously he was 18 he was still sort of developing other human sort of physique and everything so I think it has taken him time but I think probably going through the sticky patch he's been he went through will benefit him in the long run because a it'll make him a stronger person and b he's been able to find what the niche aspect of his game in game is and I think it is sort of being that big tough tackler um and yes he chips in here and there on the ball but if he puts in 20 tackles a game then that means it's five or six tackles less that bounty and dan davis have to do it if the camera doesn't tackle dan davis apparently can get their hands on the ball where if plump is doing the tackle i'm not seeing carwing getting to the neck and putting his hands on that ball as much so I think it's yeah it's finding the balance and I think the balance is there so you're probably looking if plump is not if yeah it's a feature for plumpsy I'd imagine if you are um chopping and changing just just to keep that balance right I think you could rotate the two I think you could rotate the two and you can obviously you've got for um for feet you can play in the second row as well as comes on three six two split duane come on like uh so while I'm on my doing my huge greatest hits um but Elias has played really well last couple of games I think he deserves a shout out I think cowdor is shown as well form is temporary class is permanent I'm not sure I would have given him man of the match but yeah two tries yeah there you go uh Sam Costello agree with you when he came on it was kind of like right okay enough messing around give me the ball give me the fucking ball and like when like when we had a few penalties on there five meter and we were messing around he's like for god's sake give me the ball I'm going to kick the three and we'll go back and we'll kick the three again how about that so that was good um Johnny Williams again he get he gave what I like about what he did in this game is he gave Eddie James a bit more space to be Eddie James that was good uh the the two wingers very good you know Nicholas has really stated claim that he should be playing in the team every week and again you know just to the point of memeing myself the only reason that I didn't do a stats job about Tame Plumtree this week is for variety like he is when you go whatever stat you look at it's like oh there's Tame Plumtree top three oh he's there again oh he's there again he's there again and it's like attacking defending line outs you know whatever you want I genuinely believe that Plumtree can be as good as Fairford Feet yeah I mean I don't know if this has been his game if he's done it for games previous but I saw him in a few balls in the line out and he's essentially him and Fairford Feet are very identical players um obviously different people they're going to have different certain different aspects of you know I'm liking the fact that we've got both of them but unless we do go for that six two we are looking at you know only one of Plumtree and Fairford Feet that is going to start and you want both of them in your 23 so it's it's a really it's a tough one for Dwayne and you know that's you know that's his job that's what he's earning money for that's what he gets the credit pays for like but I think he picks I think he picks both so I think he'll I think he'll revert to Carawyn off the bench and for a ballers I don't think that's right no I might be wrong that's my guess like where who said where you have Carawyn as a Lydia style player well if your six is not that style player and your eight is then that means your six can be your show pony and you know for Feet and Plumtree are both show ponies you can't have two show ponies in the same back row it doesn't work I I agree with you I'm just hoping that Dwayne's listening or watching and agrees with us three because I think I think that that is the key is finding that balance and too often this year I don't think we've we've we've had that balance on Plumtree what about that uh I'll call it a flat pass no it wasn't flat his hand is curved we've we haven't had the rub of the green so we'll take it yeah although to be fair I so when we beat Cardiff at home at the beginning of the season the game that me and Mark were at um one of the tries do you remember Mark we were in the ground and the try got scored and it was quiet because everyone was like that was forward and we were a bit we were further away from it than like anybody like in the ground we were as far away from that as possible and we were saying to each other that looked forward like uh with the URC go stuff they sent us we've seen an I've seen an angle from the other side it's like five meters forward it's like Cardiff should be absolutely spitting about that well that that is uh that's something for the technicians of the game and the referees to argue about their jockey have another morn somewhere else yeah uh I'm just going to do three word thoughts you want to do three word thoughts oh are they three words people just so excited they all got um you didn't do three words this week oh yes I did no you didn't yes no it doesn't if I'd have written four f-o-u-r that's a word I didn't I used a number four that's that's a that's a cop-out a massive cop-out it's not a cop-out it's a technicality but it's not a cop-out yeah you're copping out to the rules that you want to enforce it for other people I'm I'm maximizing my opportunity but anyway other people's first thing I'll say before I go to the three words thoughts thank you to everyone who shared uh photos of your trip loved them all we're going to pick maybe one or two for the thumbnail on the youtube because we're not allowed to use pictures of the players because reasons say we're going to have to do a rant podcast at the end of the season to just get things off our chest but you're in a little box on your own to let you go is that yeah yeah yeah well when when arguably the greatest player who's ever played for your region retires and you can't make it you can't use a photo of him on social media because you're scared of what a photographer's going to say to you you know but uh so yeah so thank you to everybody who sends you nice pictures of your trip to italy we love them all and keep sending them for every match that you go to we love looking at them so three word thoughts austin says supporters were great pete says a long sentence that i'm not going to read as does lewis as does betty jack comes in with need more still you know all the people who actually managed three words managed to be negative peter says about bloody time yeah okay brian says uh cracking the wine crack on peter uh brian rather james nichols rogers says scarlet's love pasta maybe we do uh owen says well played scarlet richard says 18 minute performance agreed gareth young says five points finally mandy says win in italy and brian comes in with another multiple word answer i would go and look at twitter but the uh the ospreys fans woke up this week uh scarlet's won a game which meant that our replies on twitter were all full of ospreys fans who weren't happy about that so uh never mind before we move on from the three words can you pull up the 18 minute performance one for me 18 minute performance hang on i can't find it now uh 80 yeah 80 is uh word wise no is it no it's it's it's spelt in in english words can you prove it yes i can prove it i don't think you can see it yes i can i just have to put it he won't bring up to the screen oh no richard morgan oh look he's keeping it blurred oh oh my god why is he keeping it blurred for i'm gonna screenshot it and put it in the chat uh i was hoping it was a hero question who knows his technicalities very well apparently okay uh so no game this week um obviously we'll get on to our final game next week but the scholars have um okay not prematurely in this one but put out their player of the season vote so we've had gareth davis alice craig ewan nicholas ewan lloyd ryan elias and johnny williams as the six nominees for our player of the season do you think anyone is in there a bit unjustly or do you think that's probably a fair reflection on the season i think it's a quite it's quite a fair reflection of these because it's probably the easiest of seasons to pick probably six six nominees um yeah as in i can't begrudge any of the six say they don't deserve to be there um so yeah i think i think you'd expect i've expected maybe for costello to be in the mix because he seems to have been our go-to in everything this year but yeah i think i think each we wish everyone of those six wins it can feel they probably did enough to to to deserve it this season yeah i mean we're for sale i'm saying he's only played in six games well he's only started six games i should say so even though he has been great i if we do a young player i mean i i very much expect eddie james to be on that list yeah the barrow had a fantastic first half of the season he did he was absolutely outstanding and quite frankly i if he was fit i would be slotting him in a seven uh that you know he's not uh we still haven't had confirmation of whether or not he's staying or leaving which i think would be a catastrophe if he leaves but uh there we go on that front so i well i already know who uh who's gonna be voting for and who i will be voting for and that's alex craig so carwyn which which one of the six have you uh put you a lot in with yeah i think it's it's uh it's tough again i do love a um craig type player in the engine room as in that moment where if you stuck a scrum cap up on you think oh that's jake ball uh come back but uh yeah i think it's probably between him and i'm gonna say i'm gonna say joe and nicholas because i think as somebody who's i won't say criticized it but as somebody who's thought are they good enough to to warrant being given the contract for contract i feel like this season he has stepped up and looked good um in the scholarship so yeah for me it's between craig and your nicholas yeah in all fairness to your one uh we played what 21 games this season he's been involved in 20 of them so the versatility and perseverance he has been there day in day out and i think we all underestimate how good of a player he actually is because of his versatility whether he's playing on the wing or in the center they'll fall back and sell the job for us no matter what and you know i'm quite comfortable with him you know i fall back at the minute and then yeah i would very much hope that he doesn't move for this last game even if uh rogers is back first but you know if roger does come back to it i'd probably expect him to go on the wing for cambia but again another story for another day so does that mean your vote is only nicolas uh yeah i'm gonna say yes i think it is yeah okay so we're gonna we're gonna log on to the scarlet twitter feed we're gonna make sure that you know carowind's name is next to you and nicolas on this vote as well now yeah can i just um just for a bit of fun so scarlet's official support has posted a picture of all the boys having coffee yeah in palma and i always like seeing who sits with who so you have to let me share the screen somehow share screen uh can i click on it you should be able to do it i've got it now okay cool uh right can you see that here we go here we go here we go right so what we got going on here so this is more for the youtube people so this is good so this is a this is a photo that was posted to social so i like to see who's best friends so um oh i just said something weird in my headphones then that was weird um the what i like about this though is clearly the person taking the photo has gone right everybody smile and only half the boys are listening but you can see over in the in the far right corner here you got tommy lewis is paying attention but he's he's sort of in the photo but not in the photo like he didn't like me so that's nice obviously we got at the front we've got the cool kids table with yoan lloyd johnny williams tame palm tree who's this guy i can't think i looked on the scarlet squad page i don't know who this guy is could he be in the physio room who knows but yes carry on so answers on the postcard please because i thought it was just me being thick if even mark doesn't know who you are no it's uh i i don't want to say a thing again i guess i said ben williams and it wasn't bad i'd be very very distraught is it then williams can you get it for us we do this further along down the line so check check further okay all right uh i don't know who these two blokes are moving around i think these are just some other some other guys um you got uh facing away i think this is eddie james yeah can i zoom in what happens if i zoom in no nothing uh eddie james and then you got harry o'connor sat next to him and then over here you've got archie and charlie sat next to each other because they're best friends well they are they're the dream team best friends forever yeah i don't know who this guy facing away is i want to say about that it could be ben yeah it looks like them from the four because then that then it's the kids table there we go right and then we got edwin swartz uh alex craig sat next to each other alex craig and his purple purple top i think this is kieran hardy here oh possibly you'll have to photoshop out that bar in a way yeah and then i think uh it's uh conbea having a coffee with tommy lewis at the back oh i don't know that's this big to be conbea i think quite tall he looks rather lanky the frame well it can't be we know it's not eddie we know it's not johnny anyway so i just thought i thought this was fun my my biggest takeaway is that archie and charlie are inseparable they go everywhere together and that looks to be the the academy table to be honest yes obviously you know harry i'm like how old is harry he still and he's still under 23 and that's that's another question from the story but yeah i think that's it yeah so that's the boys in parma i'll see they're coming back to the i don't really want to say nice things about parma i don't want to say nice things about parma i don't want to say nice things about parma i don't want to say nice things about parma i don't want to say nice things about parma i don't want to say nice things about parma i don't want to say nice things to the i don't really want to say nice things about cardiff but you know they're going to be in cardiff for the home game hey look we know now from the commentary that may in south wales is unfavorable rugby conditions oh it's their sixth message it's the point then you can barely play it's unreasonable to expect probably players to play in these conditions absolutely disgusting they should be you know price getting ballots and everything they need more pay so uh the other thing the scholars have released which i think is a bit premature uh is their try of the season and uh so they've nominated five tries so we've got steph evans against cardiff uh carol dawes darth davis against cardiff joe roberts against munster that's my favorite one out of this bunch um a weird one in edwin swat against benetton you know i think it's ben williams it's ben williams yeah yeah it's because he's got stubble in the photo but on his squad photo he's not got any stubble so the face looks about right doesn't it yeah and then the fifth try is ryan elias against the sharks have either of you had a chance to look at prize they're on they're on twitter if you go on scarlet swedish out of those i'm going joe roberts against munster yeah i'm liking joe roberts on it my my personal favorite is country's very very backward upload from uh this this past friday but that didn't make the cut for whatever reason i'm still quite disappointed in that and joe roberts is one is the one that had me shouting the loudest because there was a moment if you watch it back there's a moment where he's not sure he's going to make it yeah he's no it's before that he makes the line break and he's through and he can see two monster players closing him down from either side and he and you can see him make the decision of am i going for it and he goes yeah i'm going for it and then he gets there there and the fullback is from eddie james yeah that was so nice just that was the first time we saw him really use his hands in in the scout team and also we talked about the time he played a lot of rugby at 10 coming up so he's going to be some player eddie james he he's still a young kid and we see in the sort of physical presence he has on the field and when he gets his hands will be like again for i think it was eliott this friday on friday little soft hands for plum tree and boom that you know oh yeah he got the assist something special yeah he got the assist for tommy lewis as well it was a very very quick tip on i was he is such a good player at his age and i'm looking forward to his progression you know could like i'm not going to put this sort of thing on to him because he hasn't played you know 10 at the you know premiership consistent level but sort of dan carter-esque style of player yeah no no he's in that 12 he's very comfortable at 10 he has got a good all-around game that's that's that's all i'm going to have you seen that and gomazulu plays for stormers oh don't i think it's the title of this pod though eddie james the next dan carter no no that would be good i think that'd be nice to make ego boost for the kids yeah i've just watched these guys now it's it's hard it's hard to believe that the two against cardiff and joe robson's getting munster was this season it feels like such a long time since we did some stuff like that um i do like gareth davis's type but that's a typical gareth davis type which one is it which one is it because he scored like three tries against carlis in the season a set of chips over the top and he sprints uh and he sprints in uh the the right alliance one was quite special um who doesn't love a hooker with a sidestep on him it was good trying they'd all go twice to be fair i think the bellator one is in there just because we were desperate for a win yeah um which is your favorite we've got two votes for joe where's karen he's going to be different again yeah i think i think i am because of the scrim half union uh i'm going to vote for karen davis what a shock okay uh that's more like everything for this week the only other bit of news we have caroline you can pronounce her name because i will butcher it uh oh tonya tonya auntie nazi has joined the board yes that's that's i think it's an all-around good appointment you know uh obviously she's an mp that that brings sort of some credibility with it um what are you guys overall feelings towards this move she's a finesse lady played international rugby um i think i think it's a good move um she's clearly interested in rugby because she's sort of voiced her opinion on a few things in the past and yeah hopefully um with the women's game growing in wales that having having on the board she'll be able to sort of have an influence and help bring that further forward again yeah i think it's good to they spoke so much about uh her intent with the women's games thing and things i think it's good to have someone who's an expert in that area um i in the press releases though and i've noticed that every press release um that we put out lately has included the line since the days at stradley park hi everybody everybody has been doing everything since the days at stradley park that so that that's that scarlet's been going god the poor scarlet's like admin person who puts out who puts out all the content must he's going to do me for bullying one of these days um but yeah the the only thing i think we've got to be careful of is we're going to end up with more people sat around sat around the boardroom and on the pitch at this rate no i mean overall any extra expertise we can get into any of the regions is a bonus uh especially with the you know the creation of britain now this season and obviously it was spoken about on scrum five again the expansion of the celtic talent to go longer in the season uh which it's not happening i'm i'm ridiculously looking forward to the kelsey challenge coming back considering considering how rubbish britain were for the first half of it i'm like i can't i can't wait for it to come back it was enjoyable rugby i think that's i think that's what a lot of people take from the women's game it seems there's a lot more rugby played and it's i don't want to say it's a lot less physical but it's more attuned to the skills of the game than it is to just more power and it's just an easier watch it's the same as watching an amateur club buddy alex kander plays for us well she is insane that and there's no ifs and ares about that so sod's playing up in rgc though play all your games in the park yeah it's got to be done you know if rgc want to create their own women's side of trying to get in there i mean yeah just just lots of where the what are the three development centres the women's games it's across south wales look i know north wales has a part of play with wales in rugby obviously it's north wales it's a part of the country but when you're looking at the numbers involved in rugby up there compared to down here it's it's obvious why you're staying down here there's no failure rugby but that might be for another part because it's a good chance but it's one that came up my sleeve yeah keep it up your sleeve like there is room for it it's just it's just not easy and especially with the infrastructure we have in wales it's i mean what's it three and a half four hours to get up there it's it's not easy change in birmingham yeah and overall yeah i think the the tony appointment will be positive you know as much as i would love for uh a couple millionaires maybe even a billionaire coming in and you know being an expert funding the vector the fact is if you won the lottery would you buy the scarlets how much how much have i won the lottery for you've won the euro millions hundred million hundred million if that's not enough to buy the scarlet i would invest yeah i i don't know yeah you what you thought yes you could buy the scarlets for 100 million you can't be sold for 300 million yeah if i'm spending fucking shitloads of my money yeah i don't want to spend that much i i i probably around the 10 million mark would be my maximum but that'd be study spread out over a couple years like i wouldn't be just going years 30 fucking million go sort yourselves out i'm not that type of guy like the club shop yeah well apparently the club shop has improved recently um there's been some pencils and pens at the desk to be bought so you know every little improvement is worth shouting about at the minute because you know where we have been has been absolutely terrible yeah so um seeing as all his poker were in the lottery i'm assuming he has and he's wondering whether or not to invest so no i might i might be monetized on youtube now but money bags everybody if you haven't already subscribed get on there have a watch he's got a nice interest in a snack on the southern kings which he very proudly sent me earlier today and uh i'm very proud of it it's the closest thing to actual journalism that i've ever done yeah but calvin what about you if you won the lottery you buy the scarlet 100 percent what's the first thing you do when you walk in the door are you going with the elon elon musk with a sink and you're gonna let this sink in is that your joke or what's your first thing that you change what you before even you sit at your desk what's the first memo you're sending uh let's get us back to the day that's already back that's got to be done over there um yeah i don't know we're living in fantasy land now you know i don't do the lottery so i'm not gonna no i mean anytime soon that's pretty handy talk about winning the lottery none of us actually do it two months is way too much for my budget at the minute so i think that brings everything to a wrap for this week boys uh we don't have the usual dad jokes because i'm assuming lee still hasn't woke up from his afternoon nap and uh yeah so got the dragons for next week thank you everyone for listening it's been great talking to you guys and we'll catch you all again next week goodbye cheers thank you for listening to the scarlet fever podcast we hope you enjoyed the show please subscribe rate and review wherever you listen to us as it really helps us spread the word you can find us on all the usual social media channels or email us on welsh regional rugby pod at gmail.com and remember whatever the question rugby is always the answer