Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The WRAP podcast discusses rugby in Wales and starts with a beer of the week segment. They then discuss the recent changes at the Scarlets rugby team, including the appointment of a rugby performance director and the promotion of John Daniels to managing director. There are mixed opinions on these changes, with some players expressing concern about the treatment of local players. The hosts also discuss the potential arrival of a new director of rugby, possibly from Ireland. Overall, there is a sense of uncertainty and frustration among Scarlets supporters. Welcome to the WRAP podcast, the place to catch up on all the regional and national rugby in Wales. You can find us on all the usual social media platforms and message us through there if you want, or you can email us at welsheregionalrugbypod at gmail.com. That's all the boring stuff out of the way, let's talk rugby. Hello and welcome to this week's edition of the WRAP podcast. We are a man down this evening, so it's just Harley and James with me this evening. Good evening, gents. Good evening. Makes it a lot better when I've only got one James and Jamie to remember. Or Jame, as Harley likes to call you now. That was also correct. Too much Game of Thrones. I think it's too much beer left over from the weekend, Harley. So let's start with a, as it is, Easter Monday? It is Monday, isn't it? Yes, Easter Monday. It's Monday, mate. Let's do beer of the week and make a nice swift one through. So Harley, you can start. What have you got, mate? So I've gone for a little bit more sweet than I usually go, but I do love it. So Santa Daughters, as always, because I'm back down in God's country. And this is called Fanny's Bramble, so it's a blackcurrant cider. It's not, although I say it's a sweeter one, it's still quite dry. So, you know, it's just got a really nice fruity flavour to it. And yeah, I just really like it. And also, I started drinking it, I tried it basically because I just thought, Fanny. Exactly, yeah. And then that was it, then I went, well, actually, this is quite nice. Any beer that's got the name Fanny in it has got to be a good one. Otherwise, you know, you just can't, can you? You can't put a beer out and call it Fanny and then not make it a good one. Any wanky bollocks to report on it? Not really, but it does have a cocktail concept on the bottle, and it's called Fanny's Ruin, which in itself is worth it. And this is basically just a nice premium gin topped up with this stuff with a bit of fresh blackberries and mint, which I know I've seen, I'm definitely going to be trying at some point. Cool. Okay. So, James, I'm fully expecting you not to have a beer ready, seeing as five minutes ago you were coming. No. Yeah, so, for context, folks, I'm on half term now, you know, as I work in school. What's that? Yeah, exactly. So, the day sort of escaped me, and I did not realise the time, and I had, I was in the kitchen doing some baking, I'd just finished making some dough for some cookies or biscuits I was making, and then Harley messaged saying, are we still recording at six? I looked up and it was ten to six, and Lee had just opened the Zoom call. So, I have no beer, and I'm just drinking tea. I think that's a pretty boring, it's not far away from a baby champagne, I'll be honest, but I think you've been... It's just a shoddy name, I do a baby champagne because it's not 1964. That's the whole point of a baby champagne. I think the only person that's ever actually done a baby champagne... It's Reece. Was Reece, yeah, yeah, and I think he had about two sips and just couldn't take the rest of it, it was... I know exactly where I'm at, because there's something behind the bar at Bogner Rugby, I'm pretty sure, that's just there as a reminder as to why today is better than, you know, the 80s. We should have a baby champagne. Port Soaked Ofter at Sidmouth. Better not. Port Soaked Ofter, so the club I've been... Why the conservative am I just heard you say? Seriously, it's so middle England. So, the town I live in off to St Mary doesn't have a rugby club any more. Most of those days are sold into Sidmouth Rugby Club, but we still have an annual game every Good Friday, and new players for the off-duty team are smacked in the face with an offer which has been soaked in port, and then a stuffed offer, not an actual offer, that would be cruel. Yes, that's just one of the things, that's the team mascot, it's covered, and it just spends half its time soaked in port. So, let me get this straight, right. Every Good Friday, you have a game of rugby, and after the game of rugby, you soak a stuffed otter in port, and slap each other around the face with it. Only the new players. It'd be weird to do it to everyone all the time. Go on, Vic. Right, and they say the community game is dying. Well, OK, right. I've gone for Conwy Brewery, a Cogwyn Gold, which is a pretty bog standard, normal one. Although, when I did pour it out just now, it very nearly invaded the laptop, and very nearly ended tonight's recording before we started. This is a tropical fruit aroma, followed by sweet malts and gentle hoppy bitter aftertaste. Bollocks, it is. It's beer, boys. It's actually a laptop aftertaste. It was, like, there. It was about three, four inches away, and, like, slowly creeping towards, and I had to find something to wipe it up. Anyway, enough of the beer. Let's talk rugby. So, no Jamie this week to do Newsdesk. So, James, Newsdesk is all yours, my friend. So, starting off with the Scarlets, they did some reshuffling of the deck chairs in Titanic this week, and they've announced that they are to recruit a rugby performance director, with Dwayne Peel moving to work alongside head coach Dwayne Peel. So, essentially, they get the director of rugby in. From what I understand, it's very similar to the role that Mike Ruddock plays at the Ospreys. So, that's, to my understanding, what that is. John Daniels, everyone's favourite, is now Scarlet's managing director. He has moved from rugby general manager to Scarlet's managing director. They are to appoint a head of development pathway, and chief operating officer Philip Morgan is to be moved to chief financial officer, chief financial officer, so CFO. Some quotes. There's been a lot of work to do, which is vital to our future development, sustainability, and long-term success. These appointments will bring leadership and knowledge that will intensify our focus and performance to align our rugby business and strengthen the very committed and hard-working team of Scarlets. And then just some more corporate bollocks about other stuff. Simon Mudgerack did do a video, a club update, in which some ex-players are quite vexed. Will Boyd, in particular, voiced his opinion on Harley, for those who are our listeners. Harley has pointed to his Will Boy jersey. But Will Boyd, in particular, was vocal and voiced his opinion, particularly on the treatment of local players. Lee, you're our resident Scarlets guru. Talk to us. Well, you know, yeah, Will Boyd is a Crummock boy or a Narberth boy. He's in between the two. And should never have left the Scarlets. So, yeah, and there's many, many players. Like, to be fair, if Scarlets held on to all of our players, none of you lot would have a fucking team. So, you know, we are particularly poor at holding on to players. And I think that's a culture thing, that it's an arrogance thing that's been in the club for a long time. Will these changes make any difference? I mean, we had a tip-off about half an hour before those changes came out. We did. There was a big announcement coming and it was significantly bigger than what actually came out. And that came from someone fairly, you know, well-connected inside the club. So, yeah, I don't know how that changed that later, whether it did change that later. I think the shocking thing was our media team worked out how to do a video with a person speaking. I think that was the biggest shock for everyone, that our social media team actually did something on the day. My joke could have been recorded before, I suppose. But, yeah, a lot of people want Daniels out, and I get that, and a lot of people are calling for the appeal to go. And I get that, but reality is reality. You know, there's money involved. There's more than just, you know, the here and now. There's people involved in it, and I think the problem at the minute is people are forgetting that, actually, there's people slagging people off on social media, this, that, and the other. And there's people that are the other side of those comments that are receiving those comments. And, you know, just saying, oh, well, he's head of rugby or he's a head coach or whatever, and he's shit and all this kind of stuff, makes no difference. It's still people. There's still families involved. So, I think that was a disappointing thing, the way that it kind of came, the reaction from Scarlet supporters, more than anything, was overly negative. Didn't need to be. And that was before the weekend's rugby. So, you know. If they announced that today. Yeah. It would just, the whole thing would just implode. Not a lot of love for Simon Madrac either. No, and I kind of, you know, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. It really is. Because if he sits here and does nothing, then everyone will have a go at him for, you know, you're not doing anything. If he gets rid of people and takes the financial clout, then, you know, we're already losing a shitload of cash. Then we're going to lose a shitload more cash, and we've got no guarantee that who we bring in is going to be any better. And this does feel like a little bit of a fudge. It does feel a little bit like a halfway house. You know, I've been saying the rumours about Beastie B coming in. They've been there since the start of the season. I've seen him at Barker Scarlet's, you know, at the start of the season last year. So, you know, there's definitely legs behind those rumours. But Ireland want to keep him, and then you've got Andy Farrell doing the Lions, and we don't know where Easterby now sits in the Irish set-up. Is he going to be in the Irish team while Farrell is away, or is he going to go with the Lions? And, you know, Scarlet's keep falling down the ladder. At some point, Easterby will come home, and he will come to us, apparently. So that looks like what the director of rugby role will be, but we can't wait forever on it. And if he turns around and he says, you know, I'm going to be with Ireland for another two years, then they do have to go out and look for that. I've been told that we've gone out to market this week. So if that means Easterby has committed to Ireland for another two years or four years, and that's why we've had to go out to market rather than what we were told was the announcement was coming. You know, that's why we were getting excited. The announcement is Easterby's on his way. The big white horse is coming. Don't worry. What we got told is somebody's coming at some point, but we don't know who. So that's... From, obviously, your arrival, but as an outsider, it sort of just announced that there was going to be announcements coming, and it tried to generate hype, and I think it had just had the wrong reaction of people. Yeah, but there's a big meeting this week on Wednesday, a meet the fans meeting, where they're taking questions from the floor. I'll be honest, I wouldn't want to be in that meeting if I was senior management. This week is going to be a real, real rough ride because anyone with a mouth and an axe of grind is all of a sudden interested in going to the fans meeting. So, I don't know, maybe they walk Simon Easterby out just before and go, ta-da! And everyone goes, oh! But, I don't know. It's one of those things that... Yeah, whichever way he goes, he's stuffed. There's hope for the future. Apparently, Gareth Williams is lined up to be academy coach. Sorry, academy... In charge of academy, whatever they call it. Development pathway. Yeah. Which, in a way, is good. A priest job. It leaves Scott Sneddon doing what Scott Sneddon does best, and that's coaching players. And Scott Sneddon has made a massive impact on this year's... He didn't have much to do with coaching last year. He was kind of there or thereabouts. If he'd have been involved... I was involved in the academy the last two years, and if he'd have been involved in the academy for the last two years, the players that we had in the Scarlets academy for the last two years that left, they'd still be there, and we would have a real, real strong going forward. To give you an idea of where the academy was last year, they announced a team for a game last year, an under-18s team, and half of that team turned around and went, no, I'm not playing, and walked away from the under-18s. So that's how bad it was last year in the under-18s, how badly coached, how badly managed it was, where players were given an opportunity to play in a Scarlets top, and they went, no, I'm going to go play for my club side instead. So with this year, under-18s have been superb, and a lot of that is down to Sneddon, so yeah. And they were very good. Right, moving swiftly on, only one bit of Cardiff news this week. Oh, two, technically. Jamie Hill, a Scrum half, a former USW player, I believe, as well, has left the club seemingly with immediate effect, and is headed for Australia, presumably to play in the Shield. Harley? Bad? Good? What were you saying? I mean, a bit bad because we're losing Tom Os, and we don't really have anyone in, so a lot of people are thinking now, our first two Scrum halves, basically, we're going to be Hill and Bevan for the next couple of seasons. I feel for Jamie Hill. He's never really got his... He's had such a horrific lack of injury that he's never really got the run he probably should have. He's a pretty decent player. Bevan was basically our young Tom Os. He was our young Lloyd. It's a bit getting. I think it makes it even more imperative that we announce a new Scrum half soon. It's not going to be fast, the club. Please stop saying shit like that. That was my next point, because we'll go into a Rugby Pass article. It involves all three of us, actually. So, let's start with Fafter Clerk. So, Fafter Clerk is looking for a club, right? And he's apparently demanding a sort of £700,000 in wages. And in the list of clubs that are sort of interested and have made contact with him, one name stood out more than the rest, and it was Cardiff. He's really not helping the checkbook, Charlie. I mean, I know from... So, I know we've discussed it briefly, but it seems that, yes, we're losing £700,000 from the player budget for the next season, but supposedly we're able to have two marquee players. You are allowed to have two marquee players, yes. So, you know, obviously, there's a cap exemption, but it has to be... A has to be approved by the PRB, and I still think there are certain criteria. It can't be above a certain amount. It's not going to be Fafter Clerk. If we've got £700,000 there for players, there are, you know... You're saying lots of change. Half season scrum, half... And there may be, you know, some more type 5-4s, because any of our second hosts who are even maybe competent have been called up to spend three months in Wales to hold tackle bags. So, Cardiff are signing Fafter Clerk. Next. Going back to the Scarlets briefly, on that, you know, Fissler article, Scarlets were on the verge of signing a tighter prop. That deal has fallen through, so they were set to sign former Australia A international Archer Holtz from the Brumbies. Great name, by the way. But it sent out a message to players, agents around the league, saying that they're back in the market. He's 24, made two appearances for the Archer last season as a World Cup joker. So, bad luck on the Scarlets' front, especially around prop, seeing as the news came out this week that Wyden Jones is likely to move over the bridge. Into Ospreys news then. Ospreys are set to sign Leicester Tigers centre Phil Cocknesinger, former England under-20s centre, 22 years old, who joined from London Irish after their demise. He's obviously the younger brother of England international and Bath player Joe Cocknesinger and cousin of Laggy Tuima, who has run Red Roses caps. He's apparently joining our two-year deal when the contract ends this summer. I think that's a great pick-up if he stays injury-free. He's young enough. I think he's played by 80% of his games inside centre, but he generally thinks we should look at him as an outside centre. Obviously, Toby knows the family very well, having been involved with the London Irish and Bath set-ups, so knowing Joe. So I wouldn't be surprised if that played a part in it. I can't comment on a deal that hasn't gone through yet. The only game I've watched Phil Cocknesinger play was the game he played against England trying to find his way to a one-man match. If it goes through and it comes off, brilliant. Sticking with Ospreys then, Hucker Ethan Lewis is under contract with Ospreys. He joined from Saracen at the start of the season. Former Cardiff hooker. He's currently out with a calf injury that'll keep him out until the end of the year. But I like Ethan Lewis. He's solid. Really good squad player. When injury-free, especially at the start of the season, he really took the load off with Dewey Lake being out, Sam Parry not being back to full fitness. On that as well, it's been confirmed that Dewey Lake and Jack Morgan will not be available for sale on Saturday. I'll talk more about that later. As a precaution, Ospreys have registered hooker Chris Moore from Munster into their squad. Chris Moore was born in the West Country and played for Exeter Uni. One of their many title winning sides, I believe. He's been playing a lot for Young Munster in AIL. Final bit of Ospreys news then. In the last 10 minutes, Andy Howell has tweeted that Ospreys are going to announce St. Helens as the destination for their stadium rebuild. Again, this is nothing confirmed by the Ospreys themselves. This is just heavy rumours. These are the rumours I've been receiving through the pod. Look out for that in the next week. But if that rumour is true, is it not exchanging one for the other? I thought the whole point of this move was have your own stadium, you get the match day stuff, you're not paying rent to anyone. Do you know what I mean? The way I see it is they will make a hell of a lot more money from being at St. Helens than they will at the stadium they're currently at. The only thing they make money on at the minute is merchandise. They don't even make money on the ticketing, because that's done through the Swansea City ticketing system. What's been rumoured about this kind of move is that the ground will be owned by someone else and Swansea University will be our owner of the ground. So yes, this has been a rumour for many. This was a rumour when I was in university a few years ago. Swansea University wants a full, dedicated rugby set-up as in a proper base with modern facilities and whatnot, like Exeter, like Loughborough, like Hartbury because they want to be attracting top talent from around the world, essentially. This has been a rumour in terms of Ospreys for a few years. What St Helens allows the Ospreys to do is have all that. They will make money on it because they will essentially... The pitch is not going to stay where it's going to be. It's going to be rotated slightly. They're planning on putting a barn in for indoor training. Basically what they haven't planned out is that type of barn in there. The pitch is obviously going to be 4G. There's chances to increase non-match day revenue. Look, it's the best option out of the three. It's limited physically. You've got a road and the sea on one side. It's the only thing that limits it, right? Geography in terms of getting to it. They have to improve the public transport links to get to it. That's the best thing the null had was how easy it is to get to. But you can't build around the null. You can't park at the null. You can though because there's a car park opposite. A brand new multi-storey. You can't build anything around the null. You couldn't have a training base. You couldn't have anything. Having that, it just makes sense. This is not a confirmed story. As soon as it's confirmed, I will do a piece on it. I love St Helens and I'm very much looking forward to it if it comes to fruition. So, you hear the ear first. James has just confirmed that the ospreys are going back to St Helens. We can all hang our hat on James's word on that one. For any legal team that wants to represent me, my number is. Anyone who wants to sue me, my name is Robin Owen. I repeat, Robbie Owen. And then, final bit of news, there's a lot of news this week, is that David Buttress, chairman and owner, owner of Dragons, has been announced as the new CEO of Ovo Energy. So, yeah. New front-of-shirt sponsor for the Dragons. Very soon. He expects me, and if they can sort my bloody electricity prices out. I think he's about to lose a lot of good facing from a lot of people when he puts that out there. That's the end of the news. There's a lot of news this week, I apologise. James had a great week to be off. Yeah, he did, didn't he? He did. Family. He's not in the family, he's at the football. With the family, though. He's at the football with the family. They lost 4-0 to Crawley, and now he's in Nando's. Now he's in Nando's, yeah. As we said, there is one other bit, but, I mean, do we really want to go into the regional losses, or about one particular journalist being announced at No Fips? No, let's deal with that when we do. That'd be more like beef. Yeah. I'll do that on my feeder pod. Let's talk about the games over the weekend. Dragons game first. Obviously, no Jamie yet, which is ironic, because normally Jamie misses the weekend. Dragons get absolutely slaughtered by Leinster. The one week where they actually put in a half-decent performance, had quite a decent game, albeit against Zebra, come away with a win, and Jamie's not here. What did you guys think of that game? So, Harley, you go. What was your thoughts? It was great. I think there was definitely, I mean, first of all, it's important for them to get the win. There were definitely things to improve on, but the fact that they stuck in there, and the amount of times they've had these, you know, had issues where they started off games really well, and just slowly backed down. When Zebra started scoring a few points on their own, I was starting to think, are we going to have to say more Dragons again? Is Jamie going to have to take three weeks off from the post just to recover? But some very good performances. Some sloppy errors in this thing, like Kyed and Uranie should have got those first two conversions. Maybe they weren't, you know, they are the sort of range, particularly, you know, does Jamie hope to be in the Wales picture in future as a goal picker? You know, probably needs to be a bit more on that. But, I mean, Zebra are a team that do tend to score lots of tries. That is one good thing about them, their issues being more in defence, and they held Zebra up quite well. I mean, the try they did concede was very soft. I think you've got to accept that, but yeah, it's a good win for the Dragons. I wish I could be saying the same thing. James, what did you make of that game, mate? I know you wanted a win, but... That's a mic drop, that is. I thought Dragons played well. Not in the sense of you go out, you score so many tries, you're clinical. I think they were dogged in defence. I think physically that's the best they've probably looked all season. They just looked like ferocity. I don't like to lean on rugby stereotypes, because I think it's not there in the modern game as such. They looked like they wanted to play for each other, play for the badge. A lot of local boys in there, properly wanting to go for it. Fair play to them. If you look at their tries, they come from pressure. That Rosso one where he goes 70 metres or whatever it is, comes from Tame Basham not giving up at a ruck. And Rosso picking up and going the length. The driving more is an amalgamation of set-piece, but also the chance to get over the line. In that sense, yeah, brilliant. I genuinely can't fault them on that. If you look at their stats from the game, when's the last time you saw Dragons with 89% scrum win and 100% line-out win? They probably didn't have the flashiest running stats and things like that, but they made 94% of their tackles. When was the last time you could see a Dragons team did that? And yes, the caveat is, they did it against Emperor, right? But it doesn't matter, because you could do that against the world champions and you'd still be applauded for it, or at least so. So, yeah. Standouts, Tame Basham, I thought he's playing for a contract somewhere. That's how he's playing at the minute. Whether it be at the Scarlets, which is the one that's heavily rumoured, or he's re-signing the Dragons. Ross, who you're convinced is a blindside flanker. It hadn't occurred to me before Friday, just how big he is. It's the ball thing as well. Yeah, I think he stood next to his second Rose, and I thought, oh, you know, those are the fours. And then he walks away and stands on the wing, and he walks past the backs, and you're like, wow, he's massive. And, yeah, I thought, genuinely, he was outstanding. And trying to pick fights with wingers and all that kind of stuff, and scrimmage, that's, yeah, I loved that. I thought he was fantastic. He's another one that kind of looked like he was playing for something. And, like you said... He's only six foot tall. He just looks bigger. I think it might be the glow. I know what you mean. Fifteen stone, six foot. He's got quality acceleration on him, but yeah, he played really well. Didn't get mad. Will Reid got mad on that. I think that was probably one of Will Reid's best performances. I think he's turning into a handy little ten. I'm not saying he's going to be Wales-bound. I do think he will at some point in the future. But that's a better learning experience for Will Reid, handling that kind of dogged game where it can go either way than playing well in a 50-point loss or something like that. So yeah, I'm genuinely buzzing for the Dragons. The emotions on their faces at the end says it all. I think the disappointing thing for them now is they haven't got a chance to back it up next week. They haven't got... You do build momentum, you do build positivity, and they've now got two weeks off before... When will we go two weeks off? It's two weeks. So it's almost rebuilding it again. They'll have a couple of days off and then they come back in and then they rebuild it and what have you. I thought Dragons that was... It wasn't a pretty game but it was exciting. It was genuinely engrossing to watch the Dragons. To me, it didn't feel like the Dragons were going to lose that from about halfway through the first half. They felt like they had control of that game. And then you just keep reminding yourself that they're the Dragons and they've thrown games away from better positions than this. So, yeah, I was impressed. I was impressed with the fight that they put up. Give us Judgement Day a bit more jeopardy there. No, I fucking hate Judgement Day because it plays every year and we're always just coming into it and they're just not and then they always fuck us over. I hate it. I... I was there for last, yeah. Didn't I say it last year entirely from about like two months before? Were you on the pod for this time last year? I wasn't on the pod Your sound is all over the place. Are you talking through a microwave? Yeah. We'll... Next time we'll just go really close to the phone. You're talking to a war journalist. My laptop actually died and the charger that's down here in Devon doesn't actually charge your laptop I found. So I've had to switch to my phone and then the headset was using this crap. So I do apologise to you here geeky single screaming child. I basically had to do a mark. Right, let's move on to the next game of the weekend then which is Ospreys and Lions. James... I mean the final score flattered it a little bit. Those last ten minutes with Lions were coming back at you and massive turnover and then another try but it was competitive right up to those last kind of... Well, those last 20 minutes were competitive and in the last 10 minutes you kind of ran away. Yeah. I'd say they had two 15 minute spells in that game where they properly challenged us. I was expecting a lot more actually from the Lions because especially from when we went down there in what they can do with ball in hand and they just didn't. They played a lot but just didn't do much. Yeah. I was really happy with the way we played. I thought we played with pace. I think, you know, if I look I started making notes for Wednesday for the actual breakdown for Wednesday but the first try the Tombota try comes from quick ball and consistent pressure like every carry from that line out is game line. Owen Watkin goes over the game line Sam Parry goes over it's driven forward on the latch James Ratty, Reece Davis, they all carried really well so it's something you probably haven't seen you're probably thinking it's the same old Ospreys just going through the forwards actually what we haven't seen all the time is consistent crossing game line so when you have that any team are going to struggle and it was just pressure and then that second try it's great awareness room I think it's the fact that it's a hucker on the other side it's on the support line there from a long way out it just shows the willingness the want to get over culture is the buzzword in Welsh rugby in that you've got Cardiff and Ospreys who have seemingly great cultures within the squad Dragons mixed reviews and then Scarlet seemingly don't have that culture on inspection so they're not busting a gap to get on the shoulder so when you see that from a prop you're very much that's great to see Morgan Morris is an absolute freak he right near his name played with a match all weekend 18 tackles, 21 carries scored a try yeah 15 minute spell either side of half-time for Lions did flatten them a bit the changes that we made we brought on a very inexperienced front row and that showed probably should have had a yellow card but we didn't so I'm not going to complain and then it's very easy in that last minute to eat at the clock and go for goal and make that scoreline look more flattering for Lions went for the corner just that game-breaking ability came when I was on the support lane it's probably the right scoring Lions did come to play and they did play but ultimately we sent them away with nothing when the Lions had the ball they genuinely looked quite threatening there was only a couple of times where they really looked at themselves and there were periods of time where they were in control and when they looked in control they looked really dangerous but they didn't do anything this was the problem our defensive system and pressure just meant a lot of the time they would go in side to side apart from when they nearly came back absolutely if you look at their tries if you look at their second try so the first try comes from a mull they were going to mull that's fair enough Reece Davis tries to go for the steal gets spun out of the mull so automatically you're losing the hefty ball their second one comes from a miscommunication between Watkin and Boshoff which means they sail through the hole it's a quick 2 on 1 and the third one comes off that consistent pressure they go side to side they identify the numbers and they go over great but for the rest of that game they would just go in side to side they were making line breaks but the scramble was great they were getting turned over the double tackles, the dominant hits I think Gareth Pommerson has only made 3 dominant hits so we came out of that game with 80% tackle completion there's a lot to take from the only thing from an Australian point of view I'd be worried about is how much we got turned over at the ruck for once we didn't actually drop the ball a lot it was more, we're getting turned over at the ruck, but equally we were turning them over as well which probably says to the game and how it was played I think both teams kicked less than 20 times but you compare that to the Dragons on Friday they were both in the high 20s early 30s I'm happy so one quick question was Owen Watkin 12? Owen Watkin was 12, yeah so did he used to play 12, I always had him down as a 13 he started his career at 12 so he started his career with mainly Andrew Bishop at Siding or Ben John the likes of that and he was probably his most effective at 12 when he first came onto the scene he was very much he had a lovely pair of hands up, he was very much a game line buster in 12 and he was very good at it he had terrific injuries then he probably lost a bit of that pace but his distribution game has got a lot better but on Saturday he was probably back to his best in terms of every time he took the ball up he's got a lovely set but then he beats that first man gets over, spins and then the defensive rips I don't know if you saw them on the weekend he made about 4 rips and they were so nonchalant as well he sort of just went into contact and all of a sudden he's running down the wing that's a I talk a lot about USP a unique selling point in rugby I say Gareth Thomas who was charmed for example Rhys Carragher with his carrying skills Alex Craig, then the fact that he's the only competent player it's a little of the smile on Lee's face with the pain back in his face that's biting the tongue that is mate but that's the USP of Owen Ock it has been, it's that rippability he goes into contact he's almost like a rugby league player the way he goes into contact he just rips that ball so well he will most likely start at 13 on Saturday I'll go back into the match preview later for reasons but he went very well at 12 on the weekend let's say he reminds me a lot of Scott Williams at 12, Scott Williams used to do a lot of ripping as well his most famous try, he came from a rip yeah exactly but I always had walking down as a 13 and I was wondering was it because Gatland put him in at 12 and he went actually this is where you are in future but we shall see we shall see so okay let's move on to the Scarletts game because for one reason or another I haven't actually been able to watch it, I've had family things and my my laptop is fine but I just couldn't log into the game it just wouldn't show me the game which was a real pain in the arse because I've been a good boy and I've built up some brownie points and I've done a load of jobs and I've gone right I'm going to sit down and watch the Scarletts game and then I couldn't so I had to go and do some more gardening while the Scarletts game was on so yeah I mean there's been a lot of stuff around mainly from what I've seen on social media it's been there's just been a lack of effort and we had this last season where there just didn't seem to be the oomph you know where's the people out there wanting to go to the nth level for each other and there wasn't whereas the week before it was and we benefited from it so let's not forget Glasgow second in the league really comfortable with where they are, they've got a good squad they've got some fantastic players they had a good day, they were coming off a really nasty shock against Cardiff where Cardiff probably should have put them away the week before and didn't and I think that they went up a notch and we probably sat back too much and we got tanked for it the discipline was shocking but I'm not going to call out individual players just because from what I've said before there are people on the end of those comments but nobody goes out to have a bad day sometimes you just have a bad day and I know Dinkie and Tom Rogers will be sitting there going yeah I had a bad day I had a really bad day and ultimately that didn't cost us the game the full 23 over 80 minutes, not a few cock-ups here and there so in between now and the end of the season we played Dragons we played Zebra, we played the Sharks we played all the teams around us so for me there's no point of Scarlett's dwelling on that game we played the top of the table we play Edinburgh next we play Edinburgh and Ulster Edinburgh are a little bit iffy at the minute, Ulster have had a couple of iffy results but I'd be focusing on Sharks Zebra and Dragons those are three massive gains all at the end of the season we've got to pull something out and yeah I don't know how at the minute because it still feels quite down at the minute it does feel down and it's very difficult to just turn around and say to people, cheer up, come on on we go, let's have a good game it doesn't work like that so yeah it's hard to know where we go forward from there it's just a really harsh lesson from a very good team to put it that way do you think a lot of the importance comes from the fact that you never get a consistent team selection yeah and some of that is injured, Joe Roberts is now out until the end of the season start next season I heard yeah well September he'll be back but it depends what the class is back, is that back in training or is it back ready to play and it's his knee again which kept him out for large part of the start of the season before so really puts us in a crap position at outside centre because we've got Foxy apparently struggling to make second gear and we expected him to retire last year and I fully expect him to retire, the players coming through the academy at 13 are not ready for senior team you've got to be honest that they're a good couple of years away from senior team if they're ready for senior team it's just these Eddie James and maybe Johnny Williams, rumour is that Gatlin's told Johnny Williams that he doesn't want him so Johnny Williams got fired take a bit of cash and I'll go if that rumour is true but it does leave us struggling in the back division for next season already so yeah that's it, it is what it is it gets to the point where you just fed up talking about it I'm a professional scarletator right I do it for free and I was watching that game I was flicking between the Cardiff Munster game as well and I just I was gobsmacked at just how little fight there was there was just like the Tom Rogers yellow right I can not excuse the action but I can excuse the fact he mistimed he definitely didn't mean to do it we don't reference it right just horrifically mistimed it the Dan Jones apparently try he brings them all down it could have been anyone the charge down it's a poor kick for him he should do better the one I can't excuse right is Sam Locey it was a piss poor he's very lucky that it was a yellow card and I mean this I'm not saying this is an offspring I'm saying this is a rugby fan if he is connected with the head at the end of his season let alone that's what happens when you're going through bad times it happens all the way down in 5 West Central when you're getting talked and you're so angry the first thing you want to do is you want to lay on someone you just want to smack them and I get it it did 5 West Central but not when you're in a URC game hit him late I don't care hit him low don't go out and do that to someone it's a trick I look at it and I've always associated Scarlett's teams I'm going to use the P word Harley they are prideful they are proud to wear that badge because that badge comes with a lot of heritage a lot of history and I just cannot see that from anyone at Scarlett's I look at Foxy and I'm like what has become of you I look at Cowan Tupelatu he should be the pride and joy of that Scarlett's academy and he just looks like a lummox walking around a field it says something when the boys who have performed in best for you haven't ever been in this environment before your Alex Craig's, your Teddy Leatherbarrow's right and it's just and it's sad to see from a fan of Welsh rugby it's sad to see and even as an off-spread fan it's not even fun anymore, it's not even funny I guess genuinely not it's just sad at this point because there's no way you should be taking 45 at home and the thing is that we've been saying for a while that there are bigger structural problems that are some of them aren't even rugby problems some of them are just the way life is down here at the minute money is flowing out, nothing is coming in everything is closing down, it's political it's all of this stuff and we're sitting there trying to kind of fight against the tide we're being told that everything's okay to give you an idea the job I work in giving out grants and all that kind of stuff in 2016 let's go back that far in 2016 I would have been working with 5 times the amount of money that I'm working with now and that's the same everywhere we go in West Wales the money just isn't there so tough decisions are being made and it's we're going to lose Port Talbot, we're going to lose Tata Steel in Sheffield I know you're West Wales being odd but you're not claiming Port Talbot when Port Talbot goes, yeah Tata Steel in Clerkie goes so there's a massive chunk of money that is just disappearing out of the economy that all kind of builds into what we're doing on a rumpy pitch and it's hard there isn't an easy answer to it, there isn't a quick fix to it it's a long long term project that people I know long term fans people who have had season tickets for 10, 15 years are genuinely thinking about not renewing next year and walked out with 15 minutes to go on Saturday you know I was watching on Twitter people will walk out 45 minutes I've been there we went through it in at the end of the Alan Clark era is that when we were losing to Southern Kings at home and you're being told every week that you've got no money, you're going to fold, you're going to merge all this is I get it so I can sympathise with it in the fact that you've got no money, you've got no prospects the team are playing like shit it's a domino effect isn't it and it affects everyone in the community not just the club it's like the Kit Kat advert, remember the Kit Kat advert, you can't sing you can't dance, you can't play you'll go a long way except we won't but what I can't excuse or what it perceives to be is a lack of effort and execution on the field yeah this is the time where you as players, as a leadership team actually they talked about it in the Sale and Exeter game on the weekend is that before Sale won against Exeter on the weekend, they'd been off saving and losing a streak, they hadn't won since December and they sat down together, it was like Tom Curry, all the senior leadership players and said we have a choice now, we either go out and we perform for this community, for this club, for what we do right or it's done it's over, the dream is over we're not signing these players, we're not taking that next step and that's and unfortunately you know, Ken's injured you know, Foxy's, Scott whatever right, the where are them conversations happening Scarlett's stressing, is Dwayne Peel the person to inspire them conversations no it doesn't seem to be at the minute you know, and I'm not, again I'm not trying to lean on old stereotypes, it's very much like you need to band together, and it seems to me being nice to Scarlett's now by the way you know with the football where Michael Sheen goes in and where Reece Evans goes in I'll do that, that's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna say to Mudrack, let me in and do the team talk and I'll give him one of those, they fucked us with this and they fucked us with that now it's payback time it wouldn't be it would end up with a negative story wouldn't it they'd resign, not play best you'd have to get that one now boys you wouldn't even have to get like, because it's West Wales you'd have to get like Wyn Evans in or something as to your comparison Scott Quinnell does it doesn't he Reece Evans is a Pembrokeshire boy anyway let's move on to another very nearly we could have, we should have from Cardiff let's just assume let me get the heartache out so then you can say what you want to so yeah another we probably shouldn't have another one where we were like oh we had a chance of winning that but not really you can't go 50 odd minutes of that score on a point frankly Munster was diabolical still defended the pod Cailin and he was just like I don't think I've seen Munster play this badly before the half breaks and the defenders beating we were just cutting through we were breaking through the line at will and then as soon as we'd bust through the line we'd knock the ball on or you know Corey Jomolchewski goes for a spank instead of offloading it's at Alice Devon's bootstraps and he's trying to pick it up it's all a bit frustrating I know we should be happy and proud you know the one thing I said at the start of the season is the one thing I want Cardiff to do is if they're not winning is to pick up losing bonus points I didn't mean just pick up losing bonus points because oh my god this is getting a bit old now but I thought there were some good performances Ben Thomas' 100 metre interception try was just excellent excellent way to re-divert the attack and almost beat the United 0-1 for the Dragons against Zebra you know we showed a little bit of bosh everything James was saying at the start I think Cardiff have tried to show so far this season you know we only started 8 players, our head coach has been sacked we're no longer even training in our leisure centre because that's gone through the pan you know all these things that should be going against us I mean yes we've had that boost of the new owners but that only covers so much because we're still on the same playing budget and then you know we're losing some you know Thomas Williams for the whole season for the rest of the season because he didn't get an injury from Wales due to that huge loss not having Salah power at all this season which actually between him and Josh Adams they've almost disproved the roof about the issues of Welsh players because when they have put on the blue and black they have been absolutely worth every penny every time they step on the pitch that's one point, yeah Josh Adams, it's weird, as soon as you put an attacking system where Josh Adams gets the ball he needs to be, he's not just cleaning up shit constantly he makes half breaks who does the box having an attacking plan works yeah it's frustrating, we probably should have potentially could have a bonus point away from the losing to the reigning champions it's not a lot to be sniffed at but I do feel like early on in the season when we have the easier games it's just how we really should have made more of it we may be in 11th or 12th in the table but we've had the same number of wins as Scarlets and Dragons at the end of the day, three wins in the league is not enough for the promise we're supposedly showing and I do, and to spoil some there are a lot of Cardiff fans who are positive about it, but there's an ever increasing proportion of us who are just getting fed up of being the plucky losers so are you all, so we're on the same amount of wins, yeah but I don't hear you all going sack the coach I do think a large part of that is because Sherratt said straight from the start of the season don't expect anything and they've been very honest after saying that, but we're developing we're basically trying to rejig being lumped with a few big Wales international player salaries which we're certainly now paying the second 80% of their salaries, which has meant we've had to strip down to the bare arse bones and then it's all been very close and you can sort of say, oh well it was a high tackle here, it was a missed kick there so I do feel like it's slightly different to the Scarlets because we've been in these games where it's like that Scarlet's loss isn't even in their top three worst losses this season in terms of points conceded it's their second worst points scored with only three as I said, they're averaging 14 points a game in the URC I thought we were talking about Cardiff I thought we'd moved on to Cardiff you'll know when you watch it and say why won't Cardiff sing sack the coach but also you've got to remember, Sherratt Sherratt has only just gotten in the job, he hasn't had three years yet there are a lot of Cardiff fans going well I'm glad Peel didn't bare stick to all his deals but he was going to come to you as an attack coach, not as a head coach yeah he was going to be an attack coach and the idea was he was going to be a bit like how Dunton Jones is and Stoke Booth and Mulvihill was going to move up to almost more of a director of rugby role and he was basically going to focus more on development and it was effectively going to be Peel's attack and it was going to be his game plan so you're escaping out of there so in answering the question of why aren't Cardiff fans asking for Sherratt's head, your answer is because we haven't got Peel is that the answer? I think the long short of it is Sherratt came out, he's not talking about winning league he's only just got in the job whereas Peel's been there a few seasons yeah he had a chance to bring in his own coaching team, he's sort of, this is who we've got whereas you know Peel's gone to special buddies from Ulster tried to bring them in, tried to bring in a South African former coach and it's just not worked I think it's the manner in which Cardiff are playing as well and the manner in which they're losing is they're competitive so they're not necessarily competitive in terms of type 5 scrum line outs they're probably below where they need to be, it was better on the weekend I'll give you that but in terms of the way they're actually playing they are so much more competitive than they probably have any right to be actually and that's not to say their squad is bad, their squad is stacked and you know I am firmly of the opinion they should be winning more games yeah and you cannot escape you cannot escape the fact that they have only won 3 games but it's the manner in which they're playing I don't believe in you know, brands of rugby right, I think there's winning or losing rugby but the way they're playing is entertaining the fans there's a lot of line breaks, there's a lot of sexy offloads, you know, they've got exciting young players, Alex Mancam, Mason Grady, Mackenzie Martin you know, Ellis Jenkins Thomas Young, fan favourite players who are performing individually it's just probably not clicking at that final hurdle Robbie sent me a really good message actually after scrum 5 on the weekend because I recently said that Sean Hawley gave Cardiff a soapy hand job on scrum 5 as they do every week but Robbie actually said a really good point is that the way people talk about Cardiff now is how they should have talked about the Ospreys 2 seasons ago when we were winning games that we shouldn't have, you know, we were beating Munster at home Ulster at home, whatever, all these different teams right but we probably just weren't getting over the line as much as we should so when you're having 7 point losses on paper you can the headline will be Cardiff has only won 3 games this year but the meat and potatoes of that season will be is they were competitive, they were good to watch and they had good value and they're frustrating big teams as well Glasgow and Munster they rattled them and actually if I was Northampton I'd be looking at I'd be phoning Cardiff and saying can we have a training session this week and tell me what you did against Munster because that's what they're going to have to do to have any chance of beating Munster so yeah, hats off to Cardiff but please win games I mean this is something we've spoken about on here and me and Karl would have spoken about it so much on the central pod as well is that we really do want to be winning games there's plenty of those games where we really should have won are we applying the spot against Scarlet but when you actually look at it the only game really where any Cardiff fan has turned round and said that wasn't good enough is that Queen's game where we just seem to have a mulligan and no one knows why nothing was going right it just completely didn't happen even the loss of Leicester even though it was less than, it was more than seven points there were two soft tries at the start of it but then for the rest of the game we were actually quite competitive and you know it's I do think that does help and I think that is buying Sherratt a lot of good faith as well as the fact that when he first kicked, not this current set I understand but his first thing before he went to the off-break, we did win a challenge cup and we were known for some very nice, doing a lot of nice attacking tries and it's stuff that gets fans in, we promote no one saying it for the off-break even though they're winning but at least Cardiff are getting the numbers in and I think we're the only region that actually has increased this season which I mean I think a large part of that is how good the marketing has been plus you're quite poor lasses but while we're talking about players teams losing to English sides in the European Cup so James I don't care now So before we preview the off-break sale game so Harley you're going to move things around, we're going to do best 15 now mate, so tell us how well best 15 went last Friday tell us what we were going to do so last Friday we were going to I put you on the spot last week and I said Harley what are we going to do for best 15 and you went I don't know so we ended up with players that sound like biscuits we couldn't find anyone called McVitie's so we changed it what did we change it to mate? you tell me I was nowhere near social media because Friday I was actually playing rugby I would like to add some context to this I openly said in the group chat it was a shit idea, not blaming Harley I just said the idea was shit I didn't want social media engagement so I said why don't we just do a bald 15 and say it's Easter eggs and that's what we did we both agreed this seems to be an obsession with best 15 because we've done best 15 baldies we've done best 15 gingers we've done best 15 blondes we've done best 15 stupid haircuts and then we went back to baldies again we did best 15 baldies that we'll play in this weekend but we put it out before all the teams were out so nobody knew so it fell a bit flat apart from someone that put it in on Thursday night and oh fuck it I can't be arsed to wait till Friday so what's this week's one mate? we're going to do best 15 car best 15 names either mates models of cars or transport I think I really want to try and Julian Surveyor in as the bus I'm already thinking Steve Ford on the wing Cardiff player that was way before pro time but he was very good with the moustaches we've done moustaches as well in the past best 15 moustaches we'll moustache watch in the world cup we actually did do the best 15 names so anyway I'm thinking Steve Ford on one wing I mean there's got to be a ton of Morgans that we can throw in there a ton of Morgans yeah what else can we throw in there is there anyone called Mini just make it as contrived as possible to try and get in there's got to be someone with the initials BMW somewhere you've got Reuben Morgan you've got R&W yeah he's got a brother called Bobby does he play somewhere he does have a brother I'm pretty sure brother of Morgan Williams brother of Morgan Williams so my favourite one this is completely unrelated rugby players sound like film characters because I text Robbie once and my captain in the weekend was called Ethan Hunt like in the Mission Impossible movies and he just got incredibly excited do you remember when there was a chance that Ethan Hunt and Tom Cruise could have been playing against each other yes I remember we'll save that one for a week when there's very little on that might be messy right let's round off then with Ospreys hosting sale at the brewery field I'm right on that aren't I that is next weeks game yes yeah was James frozen sorry I was going to say James is reading something sale game yeah I'm nervous but I'm going to be incredibly positive this week because we have no reason not to be incredibly positive going into this game the history behind it we can't escape and we have to own we have not won a European knockout game before we have to change that now for 55 minutes against Saracen last season we were in control and we looked like winning and we were the better team and a resweb interception later and it all goes to shit so yeah I'm incredibly positive obviously it didn't help watching the sale game yesterday when they put 41 points on Exeter the only caveat being Exeter were awful and yeah I just I'm excited by it because I think this squad has the capability of going out and doing something really exciting yeah I think we can target the scrum, we know we've got a good set piece it's going to be at the brewery field it's going to be an enclosed environment it's going to be a case of making sale feel really uncomfortable it's going to be you guys have never experienced something like this probably since you were like 18 playing in the academy going to shit grounds in like Manchester or Warrington or somewhere like that how many of them players have played at places like the brewery field in their professional career and I was not saying it's not saying that AJ Bell is the Ritz but genuinely we all remember what happened the last time you played at the brewery field and the weather forecast for this week it is horrendous cool great bring it on yeah we managed to get 3000 litres off the pitch to play last weekend yeah the weather forecast probably isn't great but I don't think anyone could New Year's Day was a bit of an anomaly let's be honest now in terms of the weather I was there right normal rain in Bridgend that was a monsoon a storm all at once right and you can't account for something like that I think this time if you're going to have rain it might be muddy but it won't be horrific and I know the bloke who does the grounds work at Bridgend right he used to do it for he does it for Trevanos as well which is a notoriously bad bitch he'll be working overtime this week to make sure as will everyone but I just think that there's a great opportunity out there to go out and we just have to take it with two hands and just be like let's go out and enjoy this and let's we've done well in the competition we've got a home tie win if we didn't win out in Lions we'd be playing in Durban this weekend right that you know we made this happen we made the home tie happen we win this we're playing either at home against Kess or away at Gloucester so in rugby you make your own destiny right you make your own luck we've got to go out there and prove everyone wrong because everyone around us is saying you haven't won a European quarter final before and you won't now and we've got to go out and prove them wrong OK so let's get down to it then your prediction for Ospreys and Sale James I'm going to go Ospreys by 8 OK Harley prediction for Ospreys versus Sale it is Saturday isn't it it's not Friday 8 o'clock that's what Harley thinks of that game mate Harley's left Harley's signal has dropped again he's had a bit of a think and I'll tell you what I'll give you my prediction for that one my thoughts are you might want to record this James you might want to frame this one for you mate so Ospreys by 1 but judging by my by 1 scores so far this year that might not be a good thing for you but Ospreys by 1 on this weekend Harley are you going to fuck off in a strop again or are you going to actually give us a prediction mate no he's frozen he's frozen laughing part of an amateur's honestly there we go there he is go on Harley what's your prediction quickly quick before your signal drops I'll be honest I'll be honest I think Ospreys are better than Saildo this season so I'll go Ospreys by that 4 Ospreys by 4 Jamie says Ospreys by 12 so yeah ok I just made it up but Jamie says Ospreys by 12 and if he disagrees with it well he should have fucking well been here shouldn't he there we go what about your games this weekend boys and I'm the weekend like every vs who vs I am I think I've got a week off this season this week oh yeah you would because I am catching up on my open university writing a dissertation thing that really should be doing now in all honesty what I will say is there are some cracking games happening this weekend so if you're a rugby fan get it you know I'm actually playing I'm quite thankful that we've got an 8 o'clock kick off because we're playing at 3 o'clock on Saturday who are you playing Saturday who's the victim this week Milbrook so we need 2 3 points and then the title is ours and so I won't be drinking but the title will be ours so you're telling me if you win this weekend and you secure the title this weekend you won't be drinking well no because my partner can go into labour any time and I don't want to be on the lash when it happens so it will be an interesting one on the weekend travelling back, sprinting back to my flat just to make sure I can see the game I'm surprised your partner is even letting you play it's the last one if we weren't in the league title situation I wouldn't play my wife would just would not I will tell you the story next week of the day I was born and where my father was and where my father should have been and why the two didn't connect at that time because that is very much rugby related as well just to finish off before we go this evening then so we are aware that Wales Women played last week but we have a couple of bits to go through Jamie isn't here and we've got less to go through next week so we'll do a little bit of review of Wales Women next week hopefully fingers crossed we're going to try and get a guest on as well just to talk us through where Wales Women have been and where they're going forward on that so that is coming up next week, all the very best to the Ospreys next week f**k that, Mrs just f**king kicked me in the bollocks now it wasn't going bad enough I've got to wish the Ospreys good luck when you were saying earlier about we've never won a European game and there's a fact there's a stat about Challenge Cup that I love that the only team to ever take maximum points from the Challenge Cup group stages is us and the only and you're the first team I think to ever not get a point from the group stages there we go then, we'll finish come on that's what I'm going to say I was trying to wish the Ospreys good luck for the weekend mate you started this wall, I'll finish it gents it has been a pleasure as always, thank you very much for your time we'll have Jamie back with us next week we'll be talking about Ospreys and sale and we'll be talking about Wales Women have a good one enjoy your rugby, all the best gents have a good one love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that love that
