Welsh Rugby - Scarlets Fever - With Scott Sneddon

The Scarlet's Fever podcast features an interview with Scarlet's Academy head coach, Scott Sneddon. He discusses the challenges of the season for the under-18s and the senior team. He highlights some standout players, such as Jack Richard and Tian Sparrow, and mentions their potential to join the senior academy. Sneddon also discusses the plans for sending players to other clubs and the importance of player development and cohesion. The coaching approach is aligned with the first team's game plan. Welcome to Scarlet's Fever, the home of Suspense Central and Westerer is besterer. Hello and welcome to this week's edition of the Scarlet's Fever podcast. Joining me, Big M, as always, is Cat Boy and special guest, Scarlet's Academy head coach, Scott Sneddon. How are we boys? Very good, Matt. Looking forward to this one. Good evening. Yeah, very well. Looking forward to it. Seeing as though time might be short tonight as Scott's second born is due any second, any day, I'm not going to put that much pressure on him. Let's just kick off right into it. Obviously, you've been heavily involved with the under-18s and then obviously the senior side of things haven't exactly gone that well this season. How enjoyable or difficult has this season been? I think if I look at it from the academy side of things and the pathway, it's been probably an exciting one and there's been lots of probably enjoyable times, but also that throws different challenges. From the senior point of view, yeah, there's no probably getting away from it being a challenging season. It's probably not through effort, if I'm perfectly honest with you, from what I see and what I witness and what we do every day. But yeah, it's been tough. It's definitely a bit of short-term pain, I'd like to think, before hopefully a bit of long-term gain. Yeah, well, there's got to be quite a few players of note, especially watching the under-18s rag and then watching Wales over the last couple of weeks out in Italy. I think my favourite player has got to be Jack Richard. I love everything about him. The first moment he gets after a scrum, he's in the refs, you're constantly asking for another scrum when there's a free kick-off and I love it. He's a pretty talented boy, probably one of the most professional boys that we've got in the pathway in terms of diligence around everything that he does. So his S&C, you won't know a bloke that loves his gym more than Pritch. So he loves his S&C, mad about scrums, diligent about his diet and everything else. So yeah, he lives and breathes rugby and, to be fair to him, lives and breathes Scarlet. So we sat down and had the conversation with him about, you know, did he want to join the Senior Academy next year? Him and his family were delighted and yeah, we're fortunate that he's one of the guys that's going to join us next year as one of those contracted players. Exciting. I'm very happy to see quite a few pros in the Senior Academy over the next year. Yeah, there is a few, but look, I think I'll always probably play these boys down. There's a significant challenge from 18s to go into men's rugby. So, you know, from my experience, that first year out of 18s is a big challenge for them and it's quite a big leap or a big stretch. So whilst we've got some players, good players at 18s, don't be expecting them to turn up and, you know, be ready for the Scarlets next year because there's some good players in that squad as well. Well, one player who Ligi won't let us, won't forgive us if we don't mention is Tian Sparrow, was a very exciting player at under 18s level. Just tell us a bit about him and what, for you, his outstanding attributes are. He, I think I've already said it, you've probably seen the piece with Steph Thomas in terms of, like, he's a bit like Tip Rick. So, good footballer, knows the game, always kind of, almost one step ahead. Thinks like a fly half, could play like a 13, unbelievable in the back row. You know, physically he's come on in the last sort of 12 months. So, you know, his ceiling is really high and he loves a challenge. So, you know, if anything is put to him and at times we probably have challenged him this year. He gave you gold, didn't he, in one game? Yeah, he did, I did. I did tell him off for that. That was a bit disrespectful and learning for those boys under 18s, him and Carwyn got pulled in, I'd say the office, it wasn't the office, but we just had a chat with them post that game and they didn't even think about how it would be disrespectful. So, you know, a couple of young players that have heaps of potential, but yeah, they still make mistakes. Yeah, very nice. Hopefully you're not poaching the excitement and enthusiasm out of them too much. No, just respect. You've got to make sure you stay humble, keep your feet on the ground. But no, you know, going back to Tian, he is an exciting player. You know, there's not many things he can't do on a field and as a leader, just the way that he spoke, you know, in and around a half time in some of our games or maybe you weren't performing, you know, he's got the backing of pretty much everybody around him on the pitch. So, you know, that's pretty special for a guy under 18s to have that respect from his peers. Awesome. So when it comes to the next stage for these boys, then, so we've seen that next year we've got this new EDC coming, which obviously must be a massive part of your thinking and part of your remit. We've seen this year, you know, we track Drovers and Quinns very closely on this pause and we've seen that essentially in some games like the Quinns might get a load of scarlets with them and then perhaps the next game they don't have so many. So what's the thinking with how we send players to those two clubs and moving into next year, how will that change potentially? So look, we meet with Quinns and Clan Dovery at the start of, well, we've already met with them ahead of next season. So it's kind of, we go through the list or the group of boys coming out of 18s. So it's not just contracted boys for next year, it's also non-contracted boys. So who do we feel that could make the step up or has got the potential to step up? So even if it's not next year and it's maybe a couple of years down the line, it's just probably exposing them to that higher level of performance that, you know, they probably need to understand where they need to get to in future years. So we sit down with the clubs, we obviously look at our succession plan from a senior level down to senior academy and then we meet with the clubs to see, right, what do they need and where is best for our players, sorry, dropped my pen, where's best for our players coming through the pathway. So like I said, we met with Quinns and Clan Dovery a few weeks ago now and yeah, the plan is all those players will be placed with either Quinns or Clan Dovery. Some of our boys going into senior academy are looking at the likes of Swansea University and Cardiff Met. So those boys may play a little bit of the EDC alongside hopefully some Buck Super Rugby. So it's very much who's going to be around them, so are they going to be around some experienced players, do partnerships work well together, where do we feel potentially the challenge is going to be best or the right challenge for them. It's also looking at succession plan, where are they going to play and how many minutes or how many games do they need to play, because each individual is very different in terms of how much they need to play next year. Some boys physically need to develop more than others, that's not to say that they'll only play a handful of games, but you know some of our senior academy boys this year like Max Page for example physically has developed pretty well. He's played, not up to date after the weekend's game, but he's around 26 games, whereas other guys probably only need to play between 15 and 18 games and that's a good season for them if they physically need to develop. And you mentioned about combinations there, so the first one that springs to my mind would be someone like Archie Hughes and Charlie Tickham. So we've seen those two play for Quinns together, would it be in the Scarlet's thinking, it wouldn't be one to Drovers, one to Quinns, it would be together, we want to see those two play together. Yeah like in the Charlie and Archie case, obviously Archie's been through the the Quinns pathway in terms of that's his club. Then Charlie, we met with Quinns last year off the back of I guess me coming in and speaking to the Scarlet saying that this lad's got potential to be in the senior setup. I heard you were a champion of his. Yeah he is a talented player to be fair to him, so we said would anybody be interested in him. Obviously Drovers were pretty settled, but Quinns were really keen to have him in the pathway if he wasn't involved with Scarlet. It was a perfect fit then with Archie and him being 9 and 10 and hopefully building a bit of cohesion there should they be called upon hopefully to play with seniors. Awesome. Okay so looking at everything as a whole, so how does the first team game plan kind of affect your coaching through the senior academy to the junior academy and then again with talent ideas? That's a very good question. I think you know we're not going to copy everything the seniors do you know around set piece, the way that they play all through because the reality is we're in a development phase whereas their performance week after week. So there is sort of an alignment of calls, alignment of sort of language which aids their progression okay in terms of how we want to play. You know we want to play a sort of fast game. We talk a lot around effort and working hard off of the ball, but the big thing for us is around our fundamentals which we call our steel. So you know your fundamentals are your catch pass, your ball carrier, your breakdown, your line out fundamentals, your lift, your jump, your scrum profiling. I guess everything that comes into your tackle, your obvious things around the defensive breakdown that could be a further listing. But you know the fundamentals around the game that you can break up from a skill development point of view, you know that is aligned to the language and how we coach at the seniors, but there's different bandwidths to what we do and different depths of what we do at different age groups. I think it was important from Tewa Shields and EPP that we have some common language about our sort of work rate and our work off the ball and our scanning because those are the important things that when we get up to that sort of senior academy and senior level that you you want it to be a given that they've got that when they get there. That's really good to know, it's quite informative. We're talking about the new EPP, because they're brand new for this year and you know the Tewa Shields, if a player wants to get involved at that stage how would they go about doing it? Do they have to go through their own coach or is it different? No, so everybody has an opportunity to sign up. So EPPs in each of the districts, so everybody can just go either through their hub officers, through the hub leads. There has been from what I know, because I don't get all the emails luckily, that something goes out, boys sign up and they're contacted. So it's literally if you want to join the pathway and be a part of it, it's open to anyone. Schools, clubs, colleges, don't have to be involved in any of those. We want to create more better players, so you know it's that's not a selection policy to go and join one of those. So what about later on then after that initial first stage, is the same case say if you're under 17s or you're finally out, is it the same as the contacting you have or is it different ways to go about it? So in terms of the pathway, I'll try and walk and talk you through it. I won't walk since I'm sat down, but I'll try and talk you through it. So EPP under 15s, you know that's open to everybody, anybody, as long as you're the right age. And then after the 15s, they're going to Jewish year 16. So, you know, again, that is open. I think it gets a little bit more, I don't want to say serious, but I guess the commitment's a little bit higher than your EPP. So you are training a little bit more and there's a little bit of strength and athletic development, not strength and conditioning involved. So I guess naturally the guys that really enjoy it and, you know, want to progress will probably stay within those Jewish year groups. And they'll play, you know, for what is a prestigious and historic tournament in terms of Jewish year, which is, I think is great, a great tournament. And, you know, we had success in it last year. Off the back of that, they'll get selected and the selection process for the 16s East and West was was tough last year because of the whole new programme in terms of the Jewish year running up until Christmas. We went and watched, I think it was 15 out of the 18 games before finals day. And then obviously we're there for all of the finals. We spoke to a lot of teachers, a lot of clubs, and then generally we've got a lot of people like the hub officers or the WIU employees, as well as academy staff that will go out and, you know, our talent ID. So actually, who are the standout players? We don't, we also, but we don't rely on the districts to the Jewish year teams to nominate their own players. But the reality is, they nominate quite a lot of players. So we have to do our talent ID ourselves. But as an academy group, we are limited in terms of that talent ID and our staffing. So, you know, we can't be at every game, every training session. I'd love, I'd love somebody to be there and we are looking at plans in place for next year to have some talent ID that's almost in every, yeah, every Jewish year old session or game. So that we can not quality control, but almost quality assure and enhance the training sessions alongside making sure that we get eyes on as many sessions and behaviours off field, on field as we can. So after all that's done, we probably end up with a list of about 150 players, two squads of 30, 35. So everyone. Pretty much. Yeah. So, you know, we, what we did this year, which was a good opportunity, but it was, it was difficult to whittle down. Two squads. So we got the boys into train and they trained against each other as well before having an internal match. So we had two weeks training together before we played, which, you know, some people think, oh, well, he only might've had 25 minutes on that day. Well, the reality is that's probably the 10th time we've, we've watched these books. So it's not a case of, that's a trial. It's just to get boys an opportunity. If we haven't seen some people, they've been out injured or something else. So next year, I think we will have the talent ID and the selection process for 16 will be mainly through our academy staff, through our guys that are watching training and games, not just to a shield, but generally across the clubs and the schools throughout the year. That's good. In that article that you referenced, you spoke about looking after the boys. What exactly did you mean? What does that mean for you? I think it's, it's generally caring for them. So, you know, I'd like to, I'd like to be in a position where, you know, people, when they leave the pathway, because not everybody's going to be, you know, successful. That's, I'd like to say that they are, but the reality is that, you know, that doesn't happen. It's, it's the minimum that actually make it through the pathway, but I'd like them to feel that they've been wanted as part of the pathway. They would, they're actually generally cared about and not just as rugby players, you know, as people. So our coaches and, you know, that's from EPP all the way through to senior coaches generally, you know, ask how are these boys and girls? Although I don't, I don't cover across the girls pathway myself, but we, you know, we generally ask about these guys, how are they doing? How are their families? Have they had a good day? Is there anything we can do to support? Because from experience, you generally get a lot more buy-in and you also aren't going to please everybody through that. So I'm not saying that, you know, people will always love us as coaches because selection is, is a reason not to enjoy it. But even if they aren't selected, I'd still like to think that we've done our best to try and develop them. So for those sessions, like you referenced where you can't be present, what advice would you give to a community club, maybe an amateur club of the best way to bring through these junior players? What, what would you say to them? Focus on this. Don't, don't get distracted by XYZ. A good question. And I think my, my personal opinion would be don't get bogged down with game plans. Don't get bogged down in structure. I think, you know, get, get people to understand, firstly, enjoying the game. So what's, how are people, what, what the kids and young, young men, 14, 15, what do they enjoy about it? They enjoy playing. So there's, there's many parts of our fundamentals that you can, you can get into sort of your development through games. So, you know, if you play a game of winning races, you know, you're looking at getting away from, from turnovers. So, you know, you can play a game with turnovers around how you present the ball. You know, there's a lot of language or games that you can play where you can have focus on skill development through just right, but just focusing on the breakdown today. So have a clear objective. Don't, don't worry too much about structure because the reality is if you build players that work hard, but I've got good fundamentals, they're probably going to be a better team that's got a decent structure. Yeah, I love that. I love that. So switching focus now more to the Scarlets as a whole. So we've seen a lot of changes announced recently, a lot of restructuring, a lot of different people announcers and new people coming in, in your own words, how would you sum up the kind of vision for this act that's currently in place at the Scarlets for the future and where the club's looking to go in the next few years? Look, I think what the club of, not the club, I think what the whole world has probably realised is you have to potentially be better at bringing, but you have to be better at bringing your own players through. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realise that probably club rugby in the world at the moment is, it's close to broken in terms of there's not many teams that are making money and you've got to focus on your own, you've got to bring your own players through. I think I genuinely feel that some of the boys that I've seen in the pathway in the last sort of 18 months since I've been in the role, there's a lot of talented players down west. There's not loads of them in terms of, you know, unfortunately we're quite sparsely populated in quite a big geographical area, but the quality of player, hope this doesn't go to the eyes of the English teams, but the quality of player I believe of, I think they've got good understanding of the game, they've got good core skills and well that's down to them just wanting to play, play in terms of move the ball around, you know, we've probably got to make sure that we harness that. I think the club since I've been there, you know, have realised that these guys coming through have got to be how we invest and how we develop and how we support. So from my point of view and I think you would have heard me talk about last Tuesday, how we support and enhance our pathway is going to be the best for us moving forward and that ultimately comes, if I'm honest, with finance and funding. You know, we have to invest in that to grow and give these guys the support that they need to go and really kick on because, you know, I'd love them if they're all you know, Scarlets players but, you know, we want to push international players, you know, we want them to be the best international players because that's going to be a great Scarlets team then if we've got the best, you know, Welsh international players. So off the back of that then, obviously, we're coming to the end of the season, a very tough season as we've already said, so these last two games now, three of them are against the bottom four round us, now how important do you feel these games are and do you see any boys, do you think any boys are going to start getting introduced into these games? Look, I think there is already an eye on the future, you know, that's it with Dwayne every day, you know, he's fully aware and the other coaches are fully aware that, you know, the quality of our boys in our senior academy and the junior academy boys sort of progressing next year, so there is an eye on next year, so, you know, given some boys exposure, so I'll leave you with that but I won't give you too much more. I think Josh Morse might end up in a couple of minutes. Look, my thing there is it's got to be about the individual, so I'll always bang on that everybody's journey is unique, so Josh Morse is powerful, like he's a great scrummager, he's, you know, he's a freak in terms of an athlete, he's a good guy, but he's only played a handful of men's rugby, don't get me wrong, he's done a great job in an experienced drover's pack, but I also, you know, I thought the Wales Twenties managed Sam Scott pretty well through that international window in terms of the exposure he got, you know, and I think it's like what is right for Josh Morse at the moment, is it a couple of starts for him for Flandovery and go and he can prove to be a real good starter at that level, or is it, you know, time against the Sharks, full international pack in a few weeks' time. Steel, sharp and steel, you know. So look, I'm not saying that Josh Morse might not get an opportunity, but I'm saying, you know, there's very much a plan around it and if he goes well in the next couple of weeks, I'm not saying that he might not, but you know, there are a couple of players that are pushing, that have gone really well in the premiership and in the Twenties over the last couple of months that, you know, will hopefully get an opportunity. It's unfortunate that Jack Davis actually picked up an injury. Devastated when I saw that, it had to be live on TV as well. Yeah, I know, you know, he is on the road to recovery, but he's been knocking on the door for a few weeks and, you know, you talk about one of those guys that, you know, would have had that opportunity, it wouldn't surprise me if he would have had it by now if he hadn't got injured that game and that's no consolation for him. But, you know, his growth in the last sort of 18 months has been brilliant, so looking forward to when he gets back fit. So, kind of just to wrap up the serious questions then, so, most of our games from Scarlett's point of view are at home for the rest of the season, or at least in Wales, so what kind of would your message to the fans be for, as we said, just reasons to get behind the Scarletts for the running? Look, I think everybody knows it's been a tough year. I think from my point of view, you know, a lot of these boys coming through the pathway in the next few years are homegrown, they're local, they're all playing for their clubs at the moment, you know, they know how important grassroots are, they know how important the club game, the school game, the college game is and, you know, they also love the Scarletts, so what they would love to do is run out in the next few weeks or run out in the next few years in front of a jam-packed, you know, park of Scarletts, knowing that, you know, everybody's watching their pathway, everybody's really supportive of them because, you know, we do have a young squad at the moment and it's going to be young for the next, you know, couple of years, but there's a lot of excitement around these youngsters and I think if you watch their journey closely and back them, I think in a few years' time we'll all probably be sat in front of a packed park of Scarletts week after week. Wouldn't that be something? Love it. That was the easy part of the questions, you know, no thinking to answer these questions. You're throwing at me now. First name that comes to the top of your head, you know, whether it's a senior squad, senior academy, junior, 18, 16, whatever, best and worst singers? Harry Thomas, best singer. Yes, Matt likes him. Yeah, just old school, isn't he? I'm probably going to speak mainly about the academy boys because I've heard them sing more than the others. Worst singer, Max Page, just dreadful in terms of just really nervous. He's got better, he's got better, but yeah, he's not very good with words, so I'll go Max Page. Who needs a mirror to do a proper workout? I imagine he needs a proper workout. Archie Hughes. I can believe that. Loves wearing a vest. I like Mike Phillips. Just wants to be like Gareth Davis. Okay, who's got the flashiest car? Flashiest car, oh, flashiest car. Pretty sure Eddie Dreams has been driving around in an ice motor recently. Yeah, but not from a senior's point of view, so flashiest car seniors. Foxy must have a nice car, surely. No, Foxy's very humble. It's got to be Scott, hasn't it? Scott Williams, got to have a flashy car. He's got a nice range, yeah. A nice range, that tells you that. All right, let's skip that one. Who spends the most time on their hair? It's not Phil John. I know Phil will watch this at some point. It's definitely not Tom Phillips in the 80s. Red-haired he is. Tom Rogers? Tom Roge, he's trying to keep it on for as long as he can. Why has he been wearing a scrum cap? Has he dyed his hair? Has he bleached his hair? Is that why? No, no, no, he hasn't. I don't know that. John Daniel didn't know either. Does anybody know? Oh, Tiano Evans. Oh, he's a big boy as well. You might want to watch your back and find out now. So, a bit more serious one. Who do you think is going to be the first player from this year's 18s to play for the Scarletts? I don't know. Who do I think? So, I will put context behind this because it's... Yeah, look, I think it's very unlikely that you're going to have a front five forward making that step up from 18s in the next couple of years, if I'm honest. Harry Thomas. Hey, Harry Thomas. He's already had a game then. Oh, he has, but he's not in this year's 18s. I'm just looking at the list now. I could put out there, I'm going to say potentially Ellis Price or Uri Badham. Oh, I think Uri's a good shout. He went well on the weekend as well, didn't he? Yeah, he did. So, yeah, look, exciting. There's loads. We've actually missed one boy out. He wasn't involved in the competitive 18s rag block. There's 11 of them that are contracted for next year, and then there's a further four that are under 17s that we've got part of a junior academy group of 25. Those four are probably the standouts at the moment, but there's an exciting few in that pathway. I think that's the end of all our really serious questions. All the hard talk is done now. Thanks, Scott, for coming on. It's been great listening to you learn so much more about the academy. It's been fantastic. Thank you. Gents, thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought you were going to throw more at me. He decided to be nice. We didn't know how much sleep you've had with the misses and everything, so we thought we'd be kind to you. Not a lot last night, and that's probably going to be a theme, a running theme, for the next few months, years. So, as you know. I won't tell you about my experience, then. No, don't tell me you're sleeping all right. Well, my youngest is three and a half, and it's still a struggle. But the fun part for me was... Stop there. Stop there. Scott, I just want to thank you for tonight. It's really nice just to have somebody from Scarlets on board with us. My apologies for missing the vast majority of it, but you can blame Bill Gates and Microsoft for doing an update at the most inopportune time for that. But, yes, I just want to say thank you from all of us and from the listeners. It's been great to hear you, so thanks very much for that. Cheers, all. Enjoy your evening. Thank you. Cheers. That was one of probably the most informative chats I've had about the Scarlets in quite a long time over you boys. Yeah, you can tell. The moments that he got most excited during the interview is when he was talking about individual players. So we'd say and name him, like when I mentioned Archie and Charlie and you were mentioning other players, he was like, oh, yeah. And then he starts getting excited talking about them. So that's exactly the kind of person you want in charge of your pathway, isn't it? Yeah, I especially liked when he was talking about when he said, you know, looking after the boys and he's talking about looking after the individual, not the rugby player. I mean, that's something that you need, especially at that age range. And I think, you know, being involved in the academy the last couple of years, it's really refreshing to hear somebody talking about that kind of stuff and not just talking about it genuinely. Sometimes you can tell that somebody's genuinely believing it. And, you know, he's absolutely 100 per cent committed. And I hope he stays as a key part. The danger is that he gets taken up to senior team, do you know what I mean? And when somebody's good at doing what he's doing in the academy, and he obviously is, I'd just love to keep him there and not necessarily bring him up to senior team, do you know what I mean? Yeah, well, we've already partially lost him with the under-20s because he's went as a defence coach for the Six Nations. He's heading off to South Africa with a junior World Cup. So, fingers crossed that doesn't take up too much of his time and he can focus more there on the Scarlets. Well, talking of focusing, let's have a look at the community game, Mark. We must be nearly done now. Some teams are finished, some teams are done. They've packed their bags and they've gone home. I can officially tell you that if we look at the fixtures released back on June 10th, my birthday of last year, that all of the league fixtures should be complete by now. There's some leagues like, you know, 3E West A, I think, which is a 10-team league. It should have been done back, you know, beginning of March, but it's just not. So, as always, we'll start at the top end. Kamal and Quinns were on TV this past Thursday. They faced a top-four team. Charlie Tickham is Kamal and Quinns. Charlie Tickham featuring Kamal and Quinns. Okay, so we'll have a quick look at the boys that were involved. We had Sam O'Connor, Lewis Morgan. We had Jack Price, which is a shock. We haven't seen him drop down for a while. That was a shock. I was surprised to see that. Obviously, we had Archie Ouse, we had Tickham, yes, St. William, all in the starting 15, and Gabriel Macdonald in the 23 shirt on the bench. Remember that name for when they come onto the drovers. So, this was a real missed opportunity for the Quinns. I mean, the errors at the start of the game kind of impacted them so much. The game ended Evervale 28, Quinns 24, but a few mistakes early on. Evervale took what I think was a 12-point lead. It was just too much of a head start. I think the level that Evervale are at, as hard as the Quinns tried, it was just too much for them. But this just goes to show that this Kamal that Quinns like can compete and should very well be competing for the playoff spots right now. Are you expecting me to talk? Sorry. I was researching Edinburgh. Yeah, the weather was horrendous. You can't not point out that it was absolutely peeing down. Yes, it was the same for both teams, but I think Evervale just showed a bit more nowt about it. Also, I will say Evervale contended for the worst kit of the season. It was Nog, purply-pink. I mean, Charlie Hickam set up an absolute wonder try from his own 22. We posted the clip on Twitter and TikTok and YouTube if anybody wants to see it. Involved twice, broke from his own 22 and then another line break in their 22. The conditions were tough, so a couple of his kicks went awry. I think were blown by the wind. I think both him and Archie played the full 80. Yeah, I believe they did. I was waiting for them to be subbed off. It's still on. They're going for the win. They're doing this. Yeah, it's a great experience for them both. One that got away, I think it's fair to describe as that one for the Queens, but when you're comparing to the 77-7 point against Cardiff last week, there's obviously a difference that those players made. But yeah, the one that surprised me dropping down was Jack Price because he has been one of our most selected senior players this season. Ben Williams was also meant to be in this 15, but he pulled out and they have added no rhyme or reason from anyone as to why that's happened. Hopefully, it's not a niggle and we'll maybe see him selected for the Scarlets this week, but you know, it's what it is. But what we do know is that Carmarthen Queens are more than capable of competing with the top teams in this league, so that bodes well for the EGC next season. The other game, I was here in Walshland, Devonbury. They took the long trip down to Aberavon and quite frankly, they made a hash of it. They won out in the end 27-24, but they really struggled in that game. I'm not too sure quite why. Maybe it's a bit of a cup win hangover because they didn't exactly play the best day. But we had a few boys involved. We had Hardy Thomas, Ed Scragg and Max Page all in the starting 15, with Max Page actually starting at full-back, which I think is the first time he's done that for a senior team. It's his better position as well. I've seen him at full-back a couple of times. He's got a boot on him that will send the ball to the moon and back, so he's much better at full-back. Can I just say this? This is probably the first time that Leeds has had a stamp of approval on Max Page. It's a full-back. I like him at full-back. I genuinely do. On the bench for the drawbars, we had Josh Morse, and wearing the 23 shirt for the second time in three days, was Gabriel Macdonald. He played for both the Quins and Llandudno in the space of three days, which doesn't make sense, but young players again, game time, bugger it. Llandudno got a week off this week. Carmarthen Quins are travelling away to Aberafan, a team they beat quite handsomely not too long ago. Down in the Championship West, Llangenech's game against Dunbunt was postponed. Rumours are going around that Dunbunt do not want to get promoted, so they're refusing to field a team. Again, those are just rumours. We don't know for the Leeds 12, but it's a couple of times now that Dunbunt haven't raised a team. They don't want to get promoted? Yeah, they don't want to go for the premiership, apparently. I'm seeing comments everywhere. I've had nothing from the club. Obviously, the club haven't said this. No one official has said this. This is a Championship West level team. If you can't field a team, there's something a bit dodgy going on. I'll be honest, Krimith and Newcastle Evelin, which are the teams that could go up above them, they're not making it easy for them, honest to God. Our other teams in the Championship West, Norbert won 28-10 away to Leeds. Newcastle Evelin put up a hell of a fight going down 24-37 at home to Brecon. Krimith, in what should have been a very winnable game, lost 27-24 away to Trebannos. Fictures of this week, Krimith now travel to Brecon. Llangenech host Ammanford. Norbert at home to Bonn and Main, that's going to be a tasty game to have a watch, and Newcastle Evelin host Maester Cwins. We go down into one West, and Aberystwyth lost 23-26 at home to Kidwelly. Velenvold won 50 points to 17 over Penclout. Good to see Velenvold putting a few good wins on the run. I'm liking that. Treffi Wanderers, fresh off their cup win, go 39-0 away to Pontard Lyth. The league isn't quite set yet, but anyone bets, I guess. I'm still a fool. And then Hendy in what is quite a remarkable result, 54-5 at home to Buryport. I did not see that coming. To put that into context, Hendy are two places below Buryport in the table. So, that's a really good one. It's not even that. Buryport and Kidwelly, and then the top three. It was those five that could have been in a condensed state for the whole season. I think Buryport have taken one too many losses, and I don't know, maybe the drive has gone a little bit, who knows, kick on next season. Pictures for this week, we've got Aberystwyth at home to Pontard Lyth, Buryport at home to Penclout, Velenvold at home to Kidwelly, and Treffi Wanderers travel to Hendy. In one west central, Brynham and didn't have a game on the weekend, but they do have a game this Wednesday, when they travel to Morriston. You know, the last couple of games now for Brynham, they desperately need to get some wins otherwise they will be relegated. Obrintyr to west and Lochr 136-7 at home to Carmarthen Athletic. Fishguard 122-13 away to Milford, Mumbles 121-16 at home to Te Croes, St Clair's 127-19 at home to Lampeter. As we already know, they're champions, they're going up, but in a surprise result, Pontyberyn 17, Tenby 16. That's a shock, that is. That is a shock on both ends. Pontyberyn have improved massively this season, and this has just put them outside of the relegation zone. I think it's based on games lost because they've drawn two, and that's keeping them just above, say, the level on points at the minute. But Tenby did pick up a bonus point, and that bonus point has guaranteed them promotion, which is brilliant. It's on a technicality though. Lochr can match them on points, but they can't match them on games won. So they are up. Tenby will have a chance to win a few more points, you know, outright promotion if you're looking at it that way. But yeah, it's a reason to celebrate. Pontyberyn are outside of the relegation zone. Yeah, I'm happy with that, and Tenby are going up. Happy days. Pictures for this week, we've got Armon Knight third at home to Ticroith. Tenby are travelling to Carmarthen Athletic, and Nant Gareddeg are going to Fishcard, down into 3 West Eye. In midweek, no matter how hard they try, no matter how many pitches they attempted to go to, Lawrence's game against Pembroke Dock Queens just would not go ahead. On to Saturday's games, and Aberaeron leapfrog cardigans and go top of the league within 24-7. Llan, this is just a scoreline, I don't like saying it at any level, but 90 points to 8 over Llanabarder. You know, they are charged for the championship, the promotion is going strong. And Neyland then won 17-8 against Llangym. That game was arranged after Robhud last week, so sorry for anyone that we didn't get that in. Games for this week, we've got Halfford West at home to Aberaeron, and Llan at home to Llangym. 3 West B now, and Trim Saron won 20 points to 15 away to Kev Nathan. Didn't see that one coming, congratulations to Trim on that one. Bethos won 22-6 away to Furness. Llanddailo 45-3 winners at home to Tregaran. Temple won 56-12 away to Llandybi, and Llangarog won 40 points to nil over Binya. Games for this week, Tuesday night, Trim Saron are at home to New Dock Stars. Okay, on to Saturday, and we've got Bethos at home to Temple, Binya at home to Llangarog, Llandybi at home to Furness, Kev Nathan at home to Tregaran, and Trim Saron for their third game in the space of a week, hosted Llandailo. Last one now, 5 West Central, Pontiates against Hwngraff was postponed, and Penybang ran the Division 5 Cup winners, 7 sisters, really close, 22-13 in 7 sisters, so be proud of that one. Only game this week in 5 West Central for us is Penybank against Pontiates, and that wraps up the community game. And that's it, yeah? Yeah, that'll do, nice and quick, see? I'd have to time it, because I don't think it was, you know, 5 minutes. Golden belly, right. Someone wake you up. Right, let's briefly just talk about the supporters meeting last Tuesday at Park Scarlet, which, you know, I've full credit to the, I thought the sound on the video, I couldn't go on the night, because it's too far away for me, but I thought the sound on the video was awful, but you could work out what was said. It was like somebody took a microphone that could have been here, and did this all through the night. It was quite iffy, but... That's so Scarlet. Anything to do with electricity, I don't understand it. Well, they did say, you know, the boards need replacing, the... Sorry, the board needs replacing, a lot of people need... No, the boards, the advertising boards, and things, the TVs need replacing, the lights need replacing. So, you know, there's a big long list, but they started with, you know, here's the finance, which is always the boring part of the meeting. But if you understand finance, and you go, okay, yeah, we've done the 5 minutes of finance, so the rest of it's going to be shit, because there's no money. So, I, you know, I just wanted to say, big play to them for standing up in front of supporters, and taking what was shown of them, because it would have been really easy to duck out of that one and not stand there. But, you know, I think there's a lot of positivity coming. It's going to take a lot to turn around some people in the club, I'll be honest. But I think what they have to say was good, this is, we're probably 5, 6, 10 years, maybe beyond where we should be. But obviously, we've recognised that now we're moving forward. So, yeah. So, what you're saying is, we're right back to when we hired Moderac? No, yeah, yeah, I'm kind of saying that I think there's a lot of work that needs, I think what people need to remember is, it's not just about what we do. We exist in a market where other people are also moving on as well. You know, where you see the comments about, remember 10 years ago, when we did this, remember 5 years ago, we did this. But that's what I mean, you know, we're in a place where everybody else is moving on as well. And we're not just, it's not just about what we do. If we move from point A to point C, and we go, hey, yeah, we've done really well, because we did two points, but somebody else moves from point B up to point J, you know, we kind of go back retrospectively, comparatively. So, yeah, there's a load of work to be done, they took it on board. There was a time when Lensster weren't where they are now, it took time to build, took time to put themselves, it took a lot of dodgy dealings with the Irish Government, I accept that. But, you know, where you've got to start somewhere and go forward. So, I think, enough with everyone's crap, enough with that message that's going out, I think it just needs to be a bit more realistic about where we are now. Can we talk about the positive thing from Tuesday night? Yeah, Sam Lousey. Let's do that. Sam Lousey! Yeah, obviously, multi-year contract is, you know, what the Scarlet Twitter feed has told us, they wouldn't give us any more specific than that. One and a half. One and a half? Would that be counted as multi-year? It's more than one. Or two. We can go on like this forever. No, it's going to be at least two years, I would have thought, maybe a two plus one deal, something like that. But, no, obviously, great to have him signed on for next season. I would see lots of rumours going around about Fafita, but he is under contract for next season, so unless someone comes in and buys him out, he's going to be here too. So, you know, we've got something positive to look forward to, we still keep our two star men in the pack. Heavily rumoured that Fafita is being offered a round, but we're ignoring those rumours. Yes, we are. Someone has to come in and buy him out, so. Yeah, focus on the positive. The positive is that it will be here next year to bring on and develop some fresh young riders. Some Northfield qualified locks, yes. Well, that's the disappointing bit, that if we lose Alex Craig because he's non-Welsh qualified, that's going to be an absolute kick in the nuts. But we can only keep one of them, apparently. Well, it's to do with who we're signing, and there's a lot of things with the OIO, but having X amount of NWQ players in the same spot, which doesn't make sense when we're apparently in the market for two non-Welsh qualified locks. Why would we go for two players who are not guaranteed to be as good, or at least comparable, to Alex Craig when we've already got him here? I honestly hope to God that Craig and Lowsey is a good partnership, even with Morgan Jones or Jack Price as the option off the bench. That's a good stable of four locks. Obviously, you need more, but if that was our best four going into next season, yeah, it could be better, but I'd be happy with that, especially knowing how good Craig actually is now. Lowsey will probably be a lot fitter, I'm hoping. I'm going to cross my fingers that he should be available for a few more games next season. I think Alex Craig is wanted back at Northfield. He should be. Back home. Yeah, I think that's a motivator behind that as well. If he goes, if he goes. If they wanted him, they should have had him last season. Yeah. Anyway, let's talk this weekend. So, we have got a nice little trip up north to Edinburgh. Oops. I don't know what to think. If we go to our game against them in the Challenge Cup at home, it wasn't a big loss, 31-19, but at the same time, that was at home. It is because he tries in the last two minutes. Yeah. So, there's a lot to unpack. If we look at our last league game against them, I'll happily talk about that. Yeah, that was good. But based off this season, I'd like to think we can go up to Edinburgh and do something. I know we've got a squad to hand with. Edinburgh are on a bit of a downturn in form themselves. They haven't exactly covered themselves in glory in the last couple of weeks. They're very mid. I spoke to Lesley in Edinburgh about this. We beat teams that were better than and we lose to teams that were worse than. They're just kind of there. Their season is really coming to a bit of a fizzle out kind of a thing. In terms of their outstanding attributes, I'm just going to look at the URC stats. Their attack is 11th. Their defence is third, but it's not clear how that's arrived at. I personally don't believe there's any such thing. I don't think that's a number of tackles. But I don't think there's any such thing as defensive stats, other than how many points you conceded, how many tries you conceded. And that's not included in the URC stats for defence, is how many tries you conceded. I put line breaks in here too. I wouldn't mind. Yeah, OK. That's not on there either. 12th for turnovers lost, so they don't make that many mistakes. So play sevens. Yeah. No, 12th is in fewest, I think. So basically, they've made the fewest turnovers lost. So they don't lose the ball very much. 15th for discipline. Don't ask me who's 16th. I won't. Best line out in the league. And they've got Ben Healey. And Ben Healey is pretty much their entire game. He kicks the absolute leather off it. He hoops it for miles. He's got, I think, the most penalties scored in the URC. If Edinburgh do anything, it's going to be through Ben Healey, basically. OK. So basically, take Healey out as soon as we can. And we should be all right. Genuinely, that could possibly be our best plan. Edinburgh are quite predictable. And the fans are pretty disillusioned with how they're playing. Mind you, I said I thought we were going to beat them in the Challenge Cup. And look what happened. So. Apples and oranges, man. Depending on the team we put out. I mean, we've got Kane Plumfrey to come back in. I know he's still a relative new boy, but Jar Taylor's only had 40 minutes for us. We've got him to come back in. So I think we can put out a good enough squad to beat Edinburgh. I think it's front row now, isn't it? I think that's where it's the battle of who can screw it up the least in the front rows. Because none of us are particularly dominant in the pack. And if one of us can get the upper hand, then the other one will crumble. That's pretty much how it goes with Edinburgh at the minute. I don't know who we're going to put out in front row. Would you put your hat on any of our... Would you say, you know, this is going to be our front row this week? And be confident of them actually being in the 23, on the pitch? No. I mean, I like to think that, you know, we have some continuity. But, you know, we've been asking for that all season and we haven't had it. What was there? Wainwright, Delias and Wim Jones started the last game against another Scottish team. But, yeah, I think I could say I'm fairly confident that they start with that again. It seems as though we're developing... Oh, I'm a bit late for it. It seems that we're developing a good combination when it comes to our front row. You know, Wainwright, Elias, Wim Jones and then Harry O'Connor, Sean Evans and Mathias. We seem to be developing that. And, you know, that can translate to next season. We know that Mathias and Harry O'Connor are both staying. We know Wainwright is still here. We know Elias is still here, I should say, as well. It's just whether or not the others will stick around. So do you want to make a prediction then? Do you want to do predictions for Edinburgh? Yeah, why not? You know what? I reckon we're going to go our last five games unbeaten. Bugger it. We're going to turn it around. We're going to finish on eight league wins and everyone will think, oh, it wasn't such a bad season after all. But, yeah, no, I reckon we can do Edinburgh. It's going to be... It'll be tight. It'll be like how we said, it'll be like who can screw up the least. Screw up the least. You know, but I'll go for 26-21 Scarlett, go on. Okay, okay. Hugh? I'll go 18 points to 17 to the Scarletts. Just the Scarletts by one? Yes. Okay, yeah, good call. Well, I've just predicted that Edinburgh will win by five, so... Yeah. No, I think half the problem with this season is you never really know what's going to turn up. You know, we turned over Benetton, who are top six and quite comfortably pushing upwards up the table. You know, they're looking above them for where they're going and not trying to stop people below them. And our running between now and the end of the season, we play Sharks, Dragons and Zebra, you know, the three teams around us. So, we beat those three and all of a sudden we, you know, that's six wins in the season and we... Well, that's not that bad a game, that's just under... Same as last season. Yeah. I mean, I'll be honest, if I'm looking at the last five games, I think Sharks is probably the most difficult the way they've turned out these last few weeks. When does that game happen in relation to their semi-final? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Oh, I just deleted all that. The semi-final, I think it will be after our game. Yeah. So, they will probably bring their spring box then, because they don't want to, like, ship them up and down in two weeks, do they? They bring them up and... Yeah, but even... Game in Durban? We're not playing them in Durban, we're playing them here. Yeah, no, is their game in Durban? No, it's in Surrey. No, they're up here. They'll probably bring everyone then and stay up for the week. Yeah, but I can't see them focusing on us. I can see them putting a lot of second string out for that game to keep pace. It depends. I don't know, I reckon they'll probably bring a 30-man squad for both games. So, anyway, my prediction, yeah, is 20 points to 15 for Edinburgh, just it's... You are officially banned from this podcast. Yeah, I think all we need to take out of it is we need to start picking up bonus points, on whether that's four tries or losing bonus points, I don't care, or both. You know, we need to start coming out of games with points, because what I don't want to do is to go into Judgment Day against the Dragons, needing to beat the Dragons, to not come bottom of the table. Oh, Christ. Because that would just be horrific. We do have Zebra a couple of weeks before, so surely, you know, if we can beat Benetton, we can beat Zebra. You remember our game against Zebra last season at home? It was a game of who's the shittest, and we lost because Zebra were shitter than us. It's like, it was one of the worst games you've ever seen. Yeah, it wasn't the best. I mean, it was a comfortable win in the end, mate, but... I remember Foxy did a grabber in it, and we had a red card as well, I think, but we still won. Yeah, that was the Dragons game. But we've got the players there to win. We just need to get all of them on the pitch running in the same direction at the same time. If we can do that, I think we'll be okay. But can I see enough players being fit and in form between now and the end of the season? Let's have a look at it. So, we've got two games week off, two games week off. I mean, there's no need for rotation in this. We can literally, we can say, year's over 23, as long as none of you get injured, that's it for the season. We're not changing. Nothing happened, but there we go. That was pretend and wish. Right, okay. Is there anything else that you boys want to go through? Do you want to talk about Wales remaining at all? I don't think anyone wants to talk about that. We're well over time, well over time. So, right. One dad joke each, and then we're done. Mark, you call. Now. What's the difference between a poorly dressed man on a unicycle and a well-dressed man on a bicycle? He likes his son. It's his, it's a tyre. That's not bad, I like that. I've got three cards in, man. What to call a well-balanced racehorse? Stable. I do like that. You had two good ones this week, I like it. They're not meant to be good, they're meant to be dad jokes. Right, gents. Thank you very much for your time this week. It's been a pleasure. Thank you to Scott and to the Scarlets for coming on. More of that we need. Many, many more. So, we'll see you all again next week. We'll do it all again and hopefully my laptop will work a lot better next week. You can join us from the start instead of hiding in the shadows. Who's very adept at doing that, mate. Slecky. Right, I'll see you next week, gents. All the best. Take care, bye. Thank you for listening to the Scarlets FIFA 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 welshregionalrugbypod at gmail.com and remember, whatever the question, rugby is always the answer.