WRRAP - Festive Derbies and all that

The WRAP podcast is back with the crew discussing their favorite drinks and Christmas presents. They share stories about late birthday presents, a dad's rap podcast glass, new jobs, and baby announcements. They also talk about their drinks of the week, including an Atlantic Pale Ale and a fruitcake beer. The hosts joke about Christmas traditions and reminisce about past experiences. Overall, it's a lighthearted conversation filled with laughter and banter. 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 back to the first WRAP podcast of 2024, with me the G, joining me as always, we have a full crew tonight, Harley, Jamie and James, good evening gents. Hello, good evening. All very perky for the new year boys, nobody's too depressed yet, which is a good sign. Excellent, right, so we will kick off with the normal drink of the week, but I'm going to throw this on you now, we're going to throw in your best Christmas present, or either your best Christmas present, or something stupid that happened over New Year's. Who wants to go first on that one with your drink of the week? James is looking puzzled now, James is going Christmas, Christmas. I knew something happened. I've got a slight problem with presents, because pretty much every present I got given was basically as backhanded as another thing for the day been. Yeah, that carries on for a couple of years Harley. Right, well I'll tell you what, while you boys are having a think about what you did, so my drink of the week, okay, is, it's actually a late birthday present. So I've got a couple of less of a birthday presents from my middle son that I haven't got to yet, I've got a couple from my eldest son that I haven't started yet, and then I've got a couple from brother and sister-in-law, which only arrived the other day, which is brilliant when they're late on your birthday and you go like, oh, fantastic, that's like another present like a month later. So I've now got a selection of Harbour breweries from Temby, so this is Best You Best, anyway, it's from Harbour, and I've been meaning to try these ones out for a while, because I kind of used to play with one of the guys that is involved with them, I think it is anyway, but it's quite nice. But my Christmas present is this, which came from my kids, which is a really, really nice looking glass, and it's inscribed with dad's rap podcast glass, so that's my nice one from the kids, and it's actually really, really, I don't know how to explain, you know when it's a heavy glass? It's got a nice weight to it. Yeah, it's got a balance to it, you're never like worried about knocking it over, it's a good quality glass, I'm surprised, because usually it's like four pairs of pants that don't fit, so that's a really good step up from my kids. It's really nice, shame about the logo. I'm quite lucky, fuck you, I don't give a shit. Ruined by the Scarlet's badge, isn't it? Lovely glass, ruined by that. It's the closest the Scarlet's are going to get to having their name on a cup anyway, so. Oh, fucking hell, right, here we go then, right, who's next? Who wants to go next? Harley, go on, let's have your drink of the week, Harley. So, a bit of a boring one, so I've started a new job today, so I've basically had to rush up to Barry's, so it's one I've had before, but Atlantic Pale Ale from Sharpsbury, it's a very nice bitter. What was the best Christmas present though, mate, what it's had to bring you from being a good boy? Got a bottle of Brecon Gin, a load of mint chocolate, which the baby has started trying to eat. I got a Carrie Ethel, taking the baby hiking, holiday buttlins for the baby to go see one of her favourite shows. Which buttlins? Mine head buttlins, go see that Justin bloke from Justin's house. I don't love Justin, Justin's top class, he is, mate. Justin Marshall? Sure it is, but this is my Christmas present, I mean, if it was her Christmas present, yeah, great, Marshall. I always took it too literally when I said, oh yeah, just as long as the baby's happy. I did treat myself to some new jeans, which I've been dying for. Just show it off now. Yeah. Justin used to do a thing with, a young girl used to do it with him, and she was very much the dad's interest, to keep the dad's interest while the kids, and she was at this live thing where we were in the CIA, and Justin's walking off and doing all of this, and then I had my kids up on my shoulder, and she was waving, and then she waved, and I'm like, yeah, she's waving at me, she's waving at me, now I'm happy. You wish. Nearly dropped the child. I do, I do. I did get 20 minutes in the second row on Boxing Day, that was quite nice. 20 minutes in the second row? Yeah, and another 15 in a flanker. Who were you playing? So it's a weird annual tradition Boxing Day game at the club, so it's the first 15, although some of the star players sort of just sack it off, so a load of the second team come up, and then it's called the present select 15, which are the second 15 and the vets, who are just about sober enough to play, and then you play a game of rugby, have an easer. They're the best kids, we used to play hours on New Year's Day, most of us used to just sleep in the function room, and then just crack on in the morning. Yeah, I couldn't cope with that anymore. What have you got, Jamie, what's your drink of the week, mate? So I've recently joined a beer club, which is pretty good, so I'm going to have a lot of varied, different style beers now, so shout out to Wales Ales, I've joined, thank you to Neil, he's a good bloke, he's delivering to the Newport area, he doesn't normally do it, but he's making an exception for me, and I do appreciate good old Neil, he is going to... He's sponsoring the pod. I will get to that, give it time, we've got to give it time to get to know him, and then I will possibly mention the fact, I'll mention the fact that I do a pod, and then we'll get there. I've had a couple of taps before, I did give him a couple of shout outs before, I'd never bought it from him, but I've seen some of the stuff they've got, and it's really, really good stuff. Yeah, great range, so I can't wait to try some new, different beers. So this is one of the beers that's in the beer club, and this is right up my street, I love it already, it's a really nice taste, this is a fruitcake beer, I know you can't see it because it's blurry, but that's what I've got, it's a fruitcake beer, it's from Mould in North Wales, so it's a Welsh beer, deliciously modern Welsh beer, is what it's described as, and yeah, indulgent amber ale, 4.5, have a brewing company in Mould, it's lovely, it's really, really good, so yeah, hopefully I'll be getting more fruited beers like this. You see, I thought you were going to start with something like New Year, and we'll start with a proper beer, and then you said, those boys, they're good, they're credible stuff, they've got a lot of proper beers, and then you come on with… This is nice. No, this is a nice beer, this is a nice fruity beer. I was considering doing Chai Charnow every night, I was considering it, but that's gone out the window now, so I won't be doing Chai Charnow every night, especially now I've joined the beer club, but yeah, I'm happy with that, it's a good beer. Cool, and any special Christmas presents worthy of note? Yes, I had what I've always wanted, a skull shaver, which I can tell you now is an absolute godsend for a head like mine, because it means now that A, I don't have to go to the barber's and pay to get my head shaved, and B, I don't have to ask the missus to do it, then roll the clippers. It's a wonderful thing, you just go, yourself, you do it all over the head, and it's wonderful. Is it one of those handheld things, and you just kind of, it looks like you rub in your head, and there's all sorts of stuff inside it. It takes two minutes, and it's all the hair off, it's absolutely brilliant. I should have got one years ago, but yeah, that's my Christmas present, very happy with that one. Nice. Yeah. James, what are you doing this evening, mate? Just back on the comedy large beers of Budweiser, I'm on the last one now that I have got. They're not nice to get through in just one sitting, right? It's a good thing this podcast is fucking long, because otherwise I'm quite sad. No, good Christmas, I got home, spent actual Christmas at BM Laws in London, and then got home for New Year's. Best present I got, there's two actually, one of them I stole, well actually I stole, he gave it to me. My grandfather was kindly given a signed jersey by the squad for this year, my grandfather was like, no, you have it, put it in the flat, get it framed. That's nice. So I got a nice, the new jersey, it's currently hanging up in my wardrobe, and the second one, which I am now happy to announce, is, I got baby stuff, because I am having a baby. Congratulations! I am having a baby boy in the middle of April, so yeah, we've just been getting lots of baby stuff over the last couple of months, Christmas especially. So next Christmas, so the little boy will be about, what, seven or eight months old, something like that? Six months, yeah, eight months old. So, just big enough to pull down the Christmas tree when they're just starting to stand up, and all the sparkly lights and all of that, they look chewy, that's like a crack in time. Mine wasn't interested at all. Is it just like him to try to eat the Christmas lights then, is it? Mine was just obsessed with this one Christmas card that she got. Well, it wasn't that she got this Christmas card, this was one for me and my wife, she got a completely different Christmas card, no interest in that, she still takes it to the cot with her. So it's, you know, it's about a third of the size now because she keeps nibbling bits off of it, but. Nice. It's her emotional support card. What about name strings, do you have any names, is it true you're going to call him Rhys Henry after your idol, or? I can't call him Rhys, because my last name is Rhys. Oh, of course, Rhys, Rhys, yeah, I forgot about that. Are you not going to have Rhys Henry as a hyphen at the end? Well, he's not responded to my DM about being Godfather yet, so. Rhys, please respond. No, we have got names, but we're not, well, people are very close, and I'll tell you guys off there. I'm on it, thank you, mate. It's going to be an off-screen thing, isn't it, you can tell it's going to be an off-screen thing. We've taken many things into account, I'm not allowed to call him Morgan. I tried to convince my wife to call it Siwannith, and then she realised they were Welsh women's players, and she went, absolutely not. No Justins, yeah, can't, yeah. It's surprising that we've all tried to slip those in, because my boys were very nearly called Yeston, after Yeston Harris, that's just when he came back, so I wasn't allowed to call him Yeston, and my first one was going to be Jonathan, and then I let slip about Jonathan Davis, and then she's like, well, no, we're not naming them after rugby, and we were this close, so, yeah, keep it to yourself, don't tell them until it's actually signed and sealed, and then go with it. Right, okay, some good positive news to start the year, gents, well done. So let's try and keep the positivity going with some news desk then, Jane, good luck with that, won't we? This is not the story to start with, if you want positivity, so it's not the right place to start, but shall we talk about the story that's boiling a lot of people's piss on social media, the story that everyone's got an opinion about, somebody wants someone to blame you, don't they? So, yeah, let's start with the big one then. So, according to a report in the Daily Mail, Emmanuel Favre-Sobre has informed Wales head coach Coran Gatland that he will not be available for the Six Nations squad selection, and instead he's going to attend an England camp in the coming days. Now, what it says in the report is, the major stumbling block where Favre-Sobre will play for Wales is that the WRU's 25-cap selection ruling, which means that if he was selected in Gatland's Six Nations squad, regardless of whether he would have played or not, it would mean he would have to rejoin a Welsh region when his current Exeter contract expires, and the report is saying that's something the player does not want to do, as he would have to leave Exeter Uni a few years into a long-term medicine degree. And also it says, even if he isn't selected by Borthwick for this Six Nations, he could still be captured by England if he plays for the reformed A team against Portugal in February. So, yeah, it's a bit of a sting in the tail, this one, isn't it? We wasn't really expecting this. We was all expecting him to be available for Wales and to be selected, but it looks like – I mean, there's no guarantees, but it does look like – that he could be turning out for the White of England instead of the Red of Wales. And, like I said, everyone's got an opinion on this. I mean, everyone wants to play the blame game. Some people are blaming the WRU for this. Some people are blaming Cardiff Rugby. Some people are blaming Cardiff Uni. I mean, it's just insane. Everyone's got their own opinion. So, here's a question for you, and anybody could answer this. Who's to blame for this situation occurring? And do we now have to look at the 25 cap law as a whole now? Is it fit for purpose given the financial constraints in Welsh rugby? And I open that up to any of you to start with. There's an argument to be made that where we are financially, are we, you know, are we holding back players in that sense? But, and I think Ed Jenks did a really nice thread on it earlier asking that question, you know, in an actual constructive way and not just angry typing 25 cap rule and acting Nigel Walker. But equally, this is such a unique situation because of why Fahey would also be staying in England. It's not like he's staying in England because he wants to play for an English club, a la Limerick Samet, right? It's not because he wanted to stay at Gloucester to play for Gloucester. He wants to stay in Exeter to finish a medical degree, to be, you know, an actual doctor. Bloody hell! I'm joking, I'm only joking. No, he wants to be an actual medical doctor to go and do something after rugby. He is thinking long, long term, not I'm going to retire from rugby, go around the afternoon circuit and, you know, and things like that. It's such a unique situation that if it was a, you know, someone, if it was a Morgan Morse, for example, would we be making this much of a fuss? It's my thing. I think that there's a bit of an overreaction in terms of why he's doing it. Because it's such a unique situation. I think it's, if he wants to go, then he'll go. It's not a major issue, in all honesty. Yeah, he's a good player, but there's decent enough players around. And all that will happen is that if he came back to Wales, or even if he didn't come back to Wales, but he was still playing for Wales, then he'd push out somebody else who was playing in Wales. And then they'd be, well, why am I staying? And it kind of creates this ongoing effect. The bit that I think is, if you, he's made a big song and a dance over the last couple of weeks about being Welsh and how proud he is to be Welsh. And, you know, he's only Welsh, cut me in half and there's a dragon in there and all of this kind of stuff. And then he gets a call up from England and he goes to England. So that to me is transactional. It's not, it's not deep inside you. If he is that person inside that wants to play for Wales and he feels Welsh and all that kind of stuff, you can't go and put an English shirt on and feel the same way about that shirt as you would putting a Welsh shirt on. So when it comes to those times, and it's probably more relevant for forwards than it is backs, but when it comes to those times where you really need to dig deep and fight, it won't be in him. If he was, if he is that person that he's been saying, and I don't doubt for a second that he is, but if he is that person, then that fight won't be in him because it's transactional. It's not inside. He's not the only person to do it. You know, I've put my hands up that when my boy was in Hartbury and he was asked the question, do you qualify for England? And he does, through his grandfather. And then he was like, well, yeah, and it was a really long conversation. Would I want to play for England? You know, he decided no, but it's a conversation that comes up on when, when somebody says to you, do you want to play international rugby? You know, I'm giving you the opportunity right now. If you come with me right now and you can play international rugby, regardless of what side it's for, you give it some serious thought and you go, oh, I could play international rugby. It might not be for my home side, but they don't want me to. I might go play somewhere else. So, you know, I don't think anyone's to blame. I think it's just the way it is. Ali? Not the first time, you know, in answer to who's responsible for it, well, ultimately he is. He's selected this. I mean, I believe he's reported to be on a five year contract with Exeter, which is more than enough to do a basic medical degree. I don't know if he's doing it part time, similar to how Naim was or whatever, but, you know, he might be waiting to re-sign the contract to give him that little, you know, the Tom Curtis Unlimited Extensions clause. But, you know, if Martin is blaming all these different entities, ultimately, you had allowed him to apply to medical school at Cardiff whilst he was part of Cardiff Academy, didn't get in, he got into Coventry. So, he went and joined the Wasp Academy. Wasp folded. He was able then to transfer his degree to Exeter and he said, right, that's it, I've done one move, I don't want to do another one. Fair enough. And now he's, you know, basically he's got a longish term thing and Exeter, he's getting plenty of minutes. You know, he's in a club that's, you know, it's probably, you know, it might not be that it's probably not Exeter, the Chiefs might not win Premiership this season, but they're going to be in amongst it this season because they're actually, you know, and it's a really exciting young crop of players, you know, and it's actually not too far from home. To be honest, even if he did end up, he could probably still easily commute to Exeter or have placements in Cardiff if he did want to move to a Welsh league. And, you know, if he went to Dragons, you know, and you put, you know, if you're missing those horrible tunnels, you know, it's quite easy to get in and out of Wales. But, you know, that set of circumstances has nothing to do with the university who have their own selection criteria and they have to follow them. And yes, he may have got the academic stuff, but they might be someone who had the academic stuff and a bit more for us has been a first aider for 12 years. You know, it's, you know, you don't know what you can't really compare because admissions are done on sort of like a case by case basis. And say they've got 500 places, you might rank 501st. The fact that you're a rugby player is irrelevant. You're 501st, you don't get in. That's how universities run, particularly as a med school at Cardiff, which is incredibly well respected. I know James likes to shit on Cardiff Uni, but our med school is really good. And I have to say, when I was in Cardiff Uni, the med boys used to absolutely put it away like you wouldn't believe. They had their rugby team banned about three times in my undergraduate. We shit all over them. Because they went too far. Yeah, business school used to shit all over the medics because they were all pissed all the time. They were either doing like really, really high pressure intelligence stuff or bollocks. It was no in between. That's the way it went back then. Anyway, and then WRU can't control that. Cardiff couldn't control that. They tried their best to try and work out a deal. So I think there was an option that Cardiff Med School basically said, we can't get you in this year, but we'll put you in next year. Because, you know, when you apply for med school, it's done like in the September of your A-level year. So you don't have grades, it's all predicted. Whereas when you apply the year after, you have your grades. So it's easier to apply. So, you know, they said, well, if you do it next year, because you've got good enough grades, we'll put you in. They were both to have pressure from the family situation, who think rugby is a silly hobby. You go do a proper degree. You need to become a doctor and do something proper with your life, which in the current climate actually is incredibly sensible way to look at it. So you can't really blame any entity. It's just a weird thing that's happened. The other thing that's happened is, I do think they were both always suffering a little bit from shiny new thing syndrome. Whereas everyone's got, because you've already got the people who ogle the Gallagher premiership and think it's the best thing since sliced bread. And then he's the new up and coming thing. Oh, wow, this is amazing. You know, you have Will Evans, he was supposed to be grabbed from Harlequins and brought into the Wales set up. I think Dan Evans, the Bristol Bears flanker as well as Welsh qualified. Dan Thomas. Dan Thomas. You get my point. There's always a shiny new thing. And one thing no one's actually answered for me is what I said is right. So for wingers, for the Six Nations squad, you're probably looking at Josh Adams, Rio de Janeiro, Mason Grady, maybe the 13 wing, and Lucy Samet. Which one of those four are you going to drop? That's what I was saying earlier. You know, there's quality there in Wales anyway. And there's quality coming through. Yeah. You know, if you had someone like Cabango being fit, Keelan Jones is actually showing something that says he might be worth having a look at. I really like the way the younger Rosser brother's been playing as well. The Dragons. That's a non-problem. The one who looks like he isn't going to admit you've had it after the game. Right, OK. Charles Rosser looks like me now. He's got exactly the same head as me. And then you've got Ewan Rosser, his younger brother, who's got hair, and he's much quicker in fairness. But yeah. That's aerodynamic. I don't know if it is. You'd have thought he'd be more streamlined without hair, wouldn't you? Without hair, he'd be no drag. The problem is, the skinhead is making him want to go and fight the nearest person. So that's what's slowing him down, is the drag from the dickhead energy. Anyway, should we carry on with Newsday, James? Yes, let's carry on with Newsday. Should we go with any more bloody rabbit holes and time chunks? Before somebody else comes and threatens Harley with nicking his car. So this is interesting now. So BBC today, and they've done this with a number of Cardiff players, but they've done it again today. So BBC have reported that Wales scrum up Thomas Williams has agreed to join English Premier side Gloucester in Cardiff. Nothing confirmed by that. I just checked on social media. Nothing confirmed by Cardiff yet. Nothing confirmed by Gloucester as of yet. But they've reported they sang from. 29-year-old will still be eligible to play for his country having been capped 53 times. I mean, we knew he was on the move, but it's the big story today that BBC reported. When you look at the report, it does make me laugh. There's a paragraph here that made me start. So it talks about the reasons why he's leaving. It says, a new challenge. And listen to this. A current lack of opportunity to challenge for club silverware are understood to be the major factors behind the move. He is going to Gloucester who is second from bottom of the table. Now, if he was going to Saracen, if he's going to Leicester, if he's going to Harlequin, to be fair enough, he has a chance of winning some silverware. He's going to Gloucester. And I don't see him being dramatically better next season than they are this season. And Lewis Rees-Sammit is also believed to be on the move. So a lot of people say it's a strange move. I know Arlene would disagree, but I do think it's a good move for him. You know, it's a chance for him to broaden his horizons and play in a fresh competition. It's a new challenge, as you said. He's served Cardiff really well. So we knew this was coming. But Arlene, what's your thoughts on Thomas Williams? I'm going to disagree with you saying I'll disagree with you because I actually agree. It is a good move for him to get through. Ellis Bevan's been playing really well. We've got a couple of decent scrum halves coming through. So actually, it's an area where we can afford to lose one of our big name players. And as brilliant as Thomas Williams is when he's very good, when he's very good, he is world class. When he's terrible, he makes Gareth Davies look good. The one thing I find with all these Cardiff players, one of the biggest agents, one of the guys who seems to have the most players under his remit is Nicky Robinson, who is sort of the former Cardiff, former Gloucester, and works for the BBC. So I'll let you filling rumour in here say that I'm not going to say anything because I'm not getting sued. I've just got a feeling that might be why some ex-Cardiff player or people who have gone up to the Cardiff system have ended up going to Gloucester. I mean, it could just be the fact that some Welsh people don't like going that far from home and you can commute to Gloucester. There's a shit number of agents in Wales, mate, because you're either represented by Derwin Jones or Nicky Robinson. No wonder all our players are fucking off. I know a couple of the boys who work under Derwin. Some of the people who work under Derwin Jones are actually really good. I mean, someone keeps getting Wilgriff John contracts. Yeah, they've got to be honest. The thing with Cardiff and Gloucester is Hartbury, and that's where the majority of Cardiff age-grade players go, because they don't want to keep fucking around with getting into the centre with Cavack all the time. So they go, well, I'll go and stay and live in Hartbury, where everything is roll out of bed and it's there, and I don't have to fuck about with getting into the centre. And then, actually, the facilities are substantially better. I know Cavack have upgraded recently, but it just makes life so much easier. You can probably get from Hartbury to Cardiff on the train in the same time as you can from Newport to Cardiff in the car. So, you know, it makes life really, really easy for Cardiff and Dragons boys' gym, to be honest. But does Hartbury have a mud bath pitch to practice really shit weather rugby? No, no. Hartbury have abandoned the pitch. It's their fifth pitch that they call the scrub pitch. Yeah, it's as you drive into Hartbury, it's the scrub pitch that is probably better. It's better than the Bridgend pitch that was used for the Osprey skins. It is, mate. And that is their fifth pitch that they don't even use for training because it's not up to standard. Actually, that's probably why it's better. Well, no, they just use it to mess it around, though. I have, the Gloucester thing is weird because look at the reaction to Max Swellenleben, Welsh rugby boss. You know, great player for Cardiff, you know, supposedly the next big Wales 12. All this, all that, blah, blah, blah. He is starting behind, he sits on the bench behind Seb Atkinson, a man who I'm not even sure is a real person. It's worse than that. He's third behind Mark Atkinson. Exactly. Mark Atkinson, Seb Atkinson, they occasionally push Gloucester in the third team when Kevin Lashley and Chris Harris aren't there. It stinks of Rhys Carragher going to Saracens the first time. Spend a whole bunch of money at Cup. Ethan Lewis at Saracens as well. You know, supposedly these players who are good, really good Welsh players going over all this talk of the big money, blah, blah, blah. And they're not getting the game. I'm not sure if Hawkins hasn't started all the next two games this season. He's thrown the bench a bit as well. I think that's more rotation than anything. That is more rotation. Because he is on the bench all the time. Yeah. And he's started all the big games. You just look at it like, poor sod. You've got to balance that. That's part of the balance that you've got to make when you go, I'm going to go and play for Gloucester. Then you know you're in a squad of 45 or 50 instead of a squad of 25 or 30. So your game time is going to be reduced. Your development time is going to be reduced. And you know that when you go. You've either got to be so self-confident that you're going to go, right, I'm going to burst into that side and I'm going to do whatever. Or I'm going to have to be willing to bite my time and wait my time. So these guys know that when they go. And if they don't, then they need to be told. Because they know that that's the way. I think there's some salary cap ramifications as well by having more English qualified players in your matchday 23. I think there is a quote you have to admit. It's different for Thomas. I joke, he's only 29. But he's at a different stage of his career than Cluelin. He wants that payday. Good on him. I love Gloucester. It's my English club. I hope he has a fantastic time there. We'll see him in the Anglo-Welsh League in a few years. Let's not go there. Let's stay with Gloucester then, Jane. And talk about Zamek. Do we genuinely believe he's off to Japan? So, Luis Rizal has been linked to a mega-money move to Japan with Honda Heat. Rizal's Gloucester contract ends this summer. And he's set to depart English rugby with clubs in France, also interested in the services. So, we know he's not going to be there. I can see Luis Rizal in France. I'm struggling to see him in Japan at this stage of his career. But the offer is there, apparently. So, I don't know what you guys think. But I'm struggling to believe that Luis Rizal is going to take up this move to Japan right now. I mean, maybe in a few years' time, yes. But at this stage of his career, I'm struggling to see him in Japan. So, I don't know what you guys think. But I'm struggling to believe that Luis Rizal is going to take up this move to Japan right now. I mean, maybe in a few years' time, yes. But at this stage of his career, I'm struggling to see him moving to Japan. So, I don't know what you guys think of that. I've got two schools of thought of it. Because it might be that he's had some word with the Welsh. So, as I said, I'm going to go make an absolute killing in Japan. And then I might come back, doffing Wales for a year. For the World Cup's year. You know, before the World Cup. So, he's back and he's fresh. He's not really killed himself out. The other thing is, how on earth are you going to get back to his mum's for Sunday dinner every week if he's in Japan? She'd have to ship it out on like a Thursday, wouldn't she? She'd have to send it by email on a Thursday. Just to get this Sunday lunch. At least he's in France, he might still get warm. That stinks of Gavin Henson, doesn't it? This smell of Gavin Henson in the club hopping has begun. Because is it going to work out in France? We've had the documentary. We've got the celebrity girlfriend. He's at the movie premieres. All I'm saying is, there's a pattern. Okay, yeah, I see where you're going with this, yeah. I'm not saying he's been ill-advised. I'm just saying that, you know, if Carl Ferns is out in France, we might be in trouble. Well, Gavin Henson ended up with Charlotte Church and I'd take that every day of the week. That would be a price worth paying for me. I'd go with, yeah, book me in for two. Thank you very much. Has Louis Rissamed bought a pub in St. Mary's Major? Do we know yet? Not yet, no. Okay, great. We're not at that stage yet. I think the Louis Rissamed would be reborn then. I think it's all just, it's that time of the year when agents get busy, negotiations start happening. I think it's all an agent kind of thing to bump his worth up in France. And he'll end up in France on a mega, mega contract that he gets injured after two weeks. And has, you know, two and a half seasons out doing nothing. The Reading Grace contract? Yeah, one of them. You can see him in a Ras in 92 shirt though, can't you? I was thinking that, yeah, you can see that. This is like a Ras in 92 building like a Toulon 2013 squad, isn't it? Farrell, Arundel, Zaramit, Khaleesi. For some reason, Christian Wade. Will Rowlands. Rhys Henry. What else have we got? Before we get completely ridiculous, what else have we got on the news desk? Shall we have some positive news? Especially if you're an Ospreys fan. So, Ospreys have appointed ex-Gloucester boss, Gloucester again. Lance Bradley as their new chief exec. Very interesting background. So he's in the automotive industry with Mitsubishi and others. He was at Gloucester for five years. He led the club through COVID-19 and he turned around their financial performance, which is really bad by all accounts, from significant losses to profitability. Now, Bradley is replacing Nick Garcia, who quit the Ospreys back in December 2022. On the face of it, James, this is a very good appointment, isn't it? Because Lance Bradley has got quite an impressive CV. Yeah. Sorry, this is completely related. But Alex Bywater tweeted saying that this is a very good appointment. And everyone's favourite journalist, Stephen Jones, replied to him saying, Major Crawley. Yeah, do a bit of a dinosaur. I am really happy with this. It came out the blue. There was no rumblings whatsoever that we were looking for a new CEO. We sort of assumed that this was maybe during the off-season. But it comes at a really, really good time. And actually, if you take a look, some people take a look at like, well, what have the owners done over an extended period of time is, well, they've kept us going. You know, we're still here, which is something that for years Ospreys fans have even debated will happen. We've had the big links now with the Cheetahs. We've got active talks about St. Helen's redevelopment. And now we've got a CEO with proven rugby experience and a good track record to go with it. And I don't know how many of you watched his first interview. He alludes to two things. He alludes to creating an Ospreys women's team or having some form of an Ospreys women's team. And that St. Helen's is actively happening. Which, if you're an Ospreys fan, you sort of have to be excited about. And Lance, I've followed Lance on social media for a few years. By all accounts, a lovely guy, really gets involved in the likes of Doddyade and things like that. So it is just a really good appointment and a good feel-good moment in Welsh rugby, I think. I think it's a very different situation coming into the Ospreys as it was going into Gloucester. Gloucester had a regular committed fan base. And that's the one bit that Ospreys just don't seem able to develop, is a committed fan base. Shaving up people on social media isn't a committed fan base. Turning up every week and paying your cash and going, paying the cash would be a good thing for most Ospreys supporters that actually do turn up. But that's his biggest, biggest challenge, is how do you actually get... Let's say they redevelop St. Helen's, which, by all accounts, will be Parker Scarlett plus one extra seat. That's what they reckon. What's Parker Scarlett's...? There's 14,000, just under 14,100, I think it is. They've got 2,000 extra seats that can go in for European fixtures. So the plans that I've seen floating around are less than that. They are maximum 10,000, is what they've been told. Which just smacks of a lack of ambition. For the second biggest city in Wales. I want to be in the same. Edinburgh, though. Edinburgh have the exact same stadium and they're the biggest city in... And what's Scotstoun? What's Scotstoun and what's Galway as well? They're small stadiums. It's better to have a smaller stadium fill it than a massive stadium like the Ospreys have got and it looks empty. They've got to get out the swansea.com, the Ospreys. What I'm saying is that the biggest challenge is getting anybody into an Ospreys game and paying. Because half the people that go to an Ospreys game at the minute, all 250 of them, half of them don't even pay for their ticket as it is. They're all freebies. So that's the biggest challenge. I think we all do that, don't we? All our clubs do that. I'm pretty sure all our regions give away free tickets. They all do, not to the level of the Ospreys. The Ospreys do it more, do they? I'd say we all give away about the same amount. If you give away 1,000 tickets at Parc y Scarlet and you've got 8,000 people there, well, there's 7,000 paying. If you give away 1,000 tickets at the Ospreys and your biggest crowd is 3,000, do you know what I mean? That's what I mean by the Ospreys give away as a percentage. The issue is we're not getting the revenue from the other parts of a match day experience. So we're not making what we should on ticket sales, we're not making it on food, drink, beverage, whatever. But anyway, you're getting into the negative shit now. Typical Scarlet's fan. I was simply saying what his biggest challenge is going to be. The biggest challenge is dealing with you fuckers. I think the on-field can deal with that, mate, quite easily enough. Let's move on, shall we, James? What else have you got in the news desk? Is there anything left on the news desk, mate? Yes, it's just one more item I want to cover. This is shit news, unfortunately. Ashton Hewitt, he's ruptured his right knee ligaments. He did it in training in asthma the other week. So, yeah, really bad news for the Dragons. He had a successful operation, I believe, last Wednesday. And he's not going to be back now until the end of the year. And it was only three or four years ago, I think, he ruptured ligaments in his left knee against Northampton in the Transcapsules. It's really shit news for Ashton, I get it for him. And I wish him a speedy recovery. But, yeah, that's it. That's all the news done for this week. What I will say on Ashton Hewitt is the amount of shit that he's had on social media, like, completely unrelated. Oh, I know. It's just nonsense. Fucking ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. Okie dokie. Let's... So, it would take us... We're nearly an hour in already. So, we're 50 minutes in. So, let's try and keep this bit sharp. So, let's just go round and do what we felt of our games over Christmas. So, not talking about the opposition, just talking about ourselves, where we felt it went right, what were the positives. We'll try and start the new year with some positives about what's going well and things like that. So, Jamie, you can kick off. What went well for the Dragons in your two fixtures? I know it's a hard one with the Cardiff, but what went well in your two fixtures over Christmas? Well, we got a win, at least, out of the two. So, that's a positive, I guess. But starting with Cardiff, I'm not going to beat around the bush, it was an absolute disaster. It was a pathetic, embarrassing performance. For Cardiff to get a bonus point after 17 minutes on the clock, that's just not good enough. I actually thought, when the teams came out, I looked at the two teams and I thought to myself, you know, they look pretty even. I did not see that first half performance coming. I don't think anybody did. I wasn't planning on watching the full game. I was actually at the football. I had my phone in my coat pocket and I didn't check the score until halftime. And then I open my phone and I see all these messages from people. Have you seen this? What the fuck? Dragons are shit. What's going on? I open the URC app and then I see it's 45-7. And I just laugh. I laughed at the absurdity of it. And I got told all about it. I thought, I don't know if I'm going to watch this game in full, but of course I had to and I did. And, yeah, let's be honest, we've all seen the criticism the Dragons have got and the fallout afterwards. It was well deserved. You had James Huck saying that they look like the Dragons. They want to be there. I would agree with that. You had Jiffy saying that too many players aren't good enough to be pro. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. Although I would say that I think all four regions are carrying players. A core of players that probably aren't good enough at this level. But that first half performance was completely unacceptable. And, yeah, it was better in the second half. But let's be honest, Cardiff took their foot off the gas and that's the only reason why it was better. It was an absolute disaster. The only thing, the positive thing for me, is that it looks like those changes that we were going to make in the game were going to be fast-tracked. Apparently Ty Flanagan had a meet-up with the owners after the game. And they've talked about making changes now because that performance was completely unacceptable. Just not good enough, I'm afraid. I mean, 30 missed tackles, says it all. It was the worst 40 minutes I've ever seen from a professional team, let alone the Dragons. They just looked like they didn't want to be there. They didn't front up. The defence was pathetic. You know, credit the Cardiff. It would be churlish not to give Cardiff any credits. You know, they played with an intensity and a pace that the Dragons simply couldn't handle, or didn't want to handle. But, yeah, very disappointing. And then on to the Scarlets' game. And Ty Flanagan makes those same changes. And he drops Bradley Robson to a bashing, which he was right to do. Because I saw some fans complaining about that, saying, why were they singled out? Because they were shit. That's why. Team Asham had the worst game I've ever seen them play for the Dragons. And Bradley Robson just wasn't very good. That's why they were singled out. They never played Robson against Cardiff, though. No, but he did deserve to be dropped. Yeah, he did deserve to be dropped. He always had a good performance against Cardiff, though. Yeah, it's just one of those things to say. You know, it's like Jack Walsh always has to stink for the Ospreys against the Dragons, for some reason. I don't know why. It's just one of those things. But that performance wasn't good enough. There was a lot of individuals who let themselves down. But I agreed with the changes that were made. That Scarlets game, let's be honest, that was two teams really low on confidence. It wasn't a good game. I can tell you now, having been here myself, the conditions were absolutely horrendous. Yes, they were nowhere near as horrendous as Bridgend, as I'm sure we'll come on to later. But it didn't help the game. It would have been a much better game if we'd had dry weather. But I was pleased with the response of the Dragons. I thought we fronted up. Obviously, there had been words in the week about that performance in Cardiff simply wasn't good enough. And, you know, seeing 19-year-old Harry Ackerman make his first start up against Welsh international joinery, so I felt played really well, in all fairness. And it's probably going to be a blueprint now for the Dragons going forward. Maybe we are going to see the likes of Harry Ackerman and the likes of Rosser and Ivan Owen and where we're going forward. That has to be the blueprint for the future. I just want to mention Sam Costler quickly as well, because he got a lot of shit in this game. And he did miss two kicks. I mean, one of them was a tricky conversion, to be fair. You can't blame him for that, because, like I said, the conditions were awful and there was a swirl of wind. But that penalty right in front of the post, I mean, that is unforgivable, but those things do happen. And I've actually asked Andrew Ford, who Harley has had on this podcast, to make up a compilation video of players missing in front of the post. And you'd be surprised if there are some really good players who have missed those kind of kicks in front of the post. It does happen. But I actually thought Costler had a good game. If you put that aside, those kicks that he missed, he actually had a really good game. And he had a hand in both for Scarlet Stripes. So I just wanted to give him a mention. I know Dave Langley gave him a shout-out after the game as well, which I thought was really classy of him to do, because he was getting a lot of shit online. I didn't think it was valid. But don't get me wrong, I'm glad you missed those kicks, mate. I just wanted you to get a bit of unnecessary shit. A mixed bag, to say the least. Like I said, that Cardiff game is just completely unacceptable by any standards. And look, does that win against the Scars make up for anything against Cardiff? No, absolutely not. It's a start. Hopefully lessons will be learned and we can make some changes now, because that performance at the Irish Park can never happen again. It can't happen again. It was absolutely awful and unacceptable. So, yeah, a mixed bag, I think, to say the least, for the Tritons. It was a festive period. When you talk about changes, James, so just quickly, are you talking about, when Dan Flanagan talks about making changes, is it on the pitch or off the pitch? Where is this focus more? So I have been told there's going to be a change in the coaching set-up, one or two changes, and I think that's right. Because let's not forget that he's with Dean Ryan's coaching team when he took over. I personally think Guy Brindle should have made those changes a lot sooner, but he's stuck with what he knows, and I think that's cost him. We don't have a defence coach, which really showed in our Cardiff game. But then you look at the Starlets game, and I thought the defence was really, really good. But it needs to be that all the time. And we've got Sam Hobbs helping up for the academy, but you cannot have, you can't not have a defence coach, can you? It's just Cardiff. It's so amateur. You've got to have a defence coach. But I do understand that changes will be made to the coaching front. They are, like I've been told, they're looking at some players in South Africa, particularly Curry Cup players. So they're going to follow Cardiff's lead. What if they were to be there? And obviously what the Ospreys have done, you know, the Cheetahs and stuff, and the Starlets have signed a Curry Cup player. So I think maybe that's the way they're going to look at it. I've been told some big names are going to leave as well. So we're waiting to see who that is. Welsh internationals. So there are going to be changes, and I think there needs to be changes. And I think the only hope is that that Cardiff game will instigate those changes. Maybe that could be a watershed moment for the Dragons, you know, because that might be the moment where everyone just sits down, pauses, reflects, and goes, OK, we need to reset now, because we cannot have these types of performances. And I'm afraid to say we've seen it far too many times for the Dragons. We've had these performances, but they just haven't turned up. They've rolled over, got their bellies tickled, and just conceded a load of points. And it's not good enough anymore. It's just not good enough. This is professional rugby. You are paid to do a job. You've got to front it up now and do your job. Yeah, Geoffrey is right. There are some players in our squad who are not up to top standard. But like I said, I think we can say that for the regions. And I think now we have got to bring through some youth. That's the way forward now. And even if it means losing every game, we've got to see the likes of Joe Westwood, Harry Ackerman, et cetera. You know, we've got to start giving these boys Dirk Jendal, Brodie Cocker the chance now. Because I'd rather see kids be given a go and give a good practice than seasoned pros, shall we say, who aren't up to it anymore. So yeah, hopefully some big changes are going to happen because they need to be. This can't continue like this. It can't. So that was Jamie Short and Quick and Unconcise. Well, you asked a question, mate. You were the one who asked me about the changes. Right, I'm going to dread this next bit then. James, give me your short and concise review of the Ospreys. Let me just be clear on this now, James. On how the Ospreys played, OK? Over Christmas. Off you go. Knock your socks off. Slow starters. Obviously, the basics are the way. Two from two over Christmas. Can't ask for anything more. That is what we wanted. And, you know, we hit a bit of a patch at Christmas last year as well. Two from two this year. I can't be more happy. The first half of that Scarlet scheme was turgid. We should have been, what was it, 11 points or whatever it was, 12 points down. But we went and we came out, gave that intercept straight away. That reacted really well. Our defence looked good. James Fender really starting to look like the real deal now. Really growing into that role. A lot of excitement around Welsh second rows at the minute. And the fact that there's two more Fenders on the way is brilliant. One of them's in the Ospreys Academy at the minute and the other one's still at South Galway. So, yeah, brilliant. Bring them on. Really happy to get that win. It sums it up. We jacked Welsh cut over in the last minute, capitalising on loose play. And just seeing that, the scenes after the game, the culture, just the love that squad has for each other is brilliant. And I have never been so happy to see a win break that curse of the Parker Scarlets. First time in however many years and first time doing a double in however many years. Moving on to Calediff. Again, slow start. We get that, we go out early, get the try. It was a really nice handling. How that hit on Jack Walsh wasn't looked at. I have no idea. Poor sod. Theo Tomkinson killed him a bit last year. But no, it was really nice hands by Koppen and George Johnson. Cardiff, I thought, really played well. Kicked really good off 9 and 10. It was a bit of a battle at the scrum. I wouldn't say they had any sort of dominance, they had parity. Azarayi and Donachowski, who look like fine players. And then, look, it's really difficult to say we reverted to tight in the second half, but we did. We just turned the screw. Our top scorer, Pound, try scored. And then the two standout tries, the Morgan Morse try. Hello. Really, really, really. Look, if Jamie could marry that try, he would, he's watched it so many times. Oh, it's great, I love it. It is a brilliant time, yeah. Yeah, but he had a really good all-round game and then, to top it off, to do that game, that try in them conditions, that turn. It's not even a turn, like a sidestep, it's a change of direction, that speed. It's completely different to a sidestep. It's just being able to shift your whole body weight at the same speed. And then, Dan Edwards for that Keiron Giles try, knowing the conditions, that the ball isn't going to bounce. So he can put that kick in, knowing that Grady, I think it was Grady, is in the scrum. And he's not, you know, Grady is good at a lot of things, but I can't imagine getting that turn in from a scrum and covering a kick is going to be on that. The weird thing with that one, they had Grady pat down on the open side, not the blind side. Yeah, this is what I mean. You have to actually go the wrong way around the scrum to get back into position as well. Giles was like a prime Paul Scholes with a touch and he got down for the try. On a base, I couldn't be happier. Really, really good. Really happy for the squad. Lots of room for improvement. We'll talk about the pitch later. Okey dokey. Harley, talk about Cardiff, my friend. So we had a good game and a half out of those two games. So second half in the Osprey game, as soon as the service came on, we lost all power in the scrum. We had, you know, we effectively had two back rowers in the second row and that just, and we just started going backwards. And, you know, you know, part of the reason we went for the 6-2 split was to try and keep this power, but we don't have the second, we don't have the depth in the second row to keep up with that. And then especially when you've got weaker scrimmaging props. But the one thing I would appreciate is we'd been incredibly clinical when we had chances. I think the problem was in this Osprey game was our set piece malfunctioned and then we just didn't get, we just didn't have the ball for most of the second half. The Dragons game was just unbelievable rugby. I wish we'd saved that for, you know, a team that doesn't shit the bed whenever they play us. Because, you know, I feel like we could have done with that performance against someone like Leinster or Connett, but, you know, it was just nice to see really good rugby. I didn't watch the game, I had to watch it back because, again, I was playing rugby and one of the, you know, the fullbacks on the team I was playing at, he's a Turk, so he was there checking up the derby day scores because he walked over and he just went, fuck, you're 45-0 up, it's only half-time. I was like, it's fucking wet. I genuinely just thought something had gone wrong on, like, the BBC app, but, but no, I mean, and then watched it back and, yeah, that was some of the best rugby card, you know, it was nice to see what carders can do when everything works. And, yeah, I still thought, considering how shit the conditions were, how shit the pitch was, it was great for the Ospreys game that four of those tries, four of the six tries scored were scored by wingers and only, actually, and the penalty try was the only real, like, set-piece more to type Ospreys try that was scored, I mean, the Morgan Morse went off the, off the goal-line drop-out. Should not have happened at all, it shouldn't have happened, and it's not the pitch, it's not fake, it's just Morgan Morse doing wonderful things, and I love it. You know, there were two missed tackles before that beautiful set that really the players should have got, but you've got to appreciate how beautiful that was to watch. I'd say, yes, I think Cardiff's probably an overall positive, we got six points out of ten, and, you know, we've carried on in the league so far this season, we've taken a point from every game. OK, so, before I do my bit, and as we're talking about Harley, so, those of you watching us on YouTube will have just seen us all do this, and this is why, Harley. So, you can't really see that, so... It has been confirmed now, for the audio listeners, the move across the top of the branches has been confirmed. That means nothing on the audio league. No, I know that, I'm just doing something for YouTube. He did say for YouTube, to be fair. So, Harley's reaction to, yeah, Thomas Williams being confirmed, well, would be non-aiming. Not Welsh rugby related, but just, you know, Joey Carbu's leaving Munster, which is quite interesting. I know that's the... Calling it your first. Yep. I mean, ex-Munster tens are their wheelhouse, to be fair. Yeah. I wonder when he'll end up though. I like Carbu, he's been ravished by injury, he's a really good talent, but he hasn't quite... Oh, yeah, we'll ask him. Gloucester losing Hastings. So, just saying. Isn't Sheedy linked with Gloucester, then? Well, yeah, Sheedy's always been in for Gloucester. Yeah, of everyone. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, what's your opinion, like, for Scarlett? Yeah, when you look at it on paper, yeah, it looks bloody shit, but that first game against the Ospreys, we completely destroyed the Osprey scrum. We found the reverse gear for the Osprey scrum and took them apart quite comfortably on that, which was quite nice to see, and that's not something that we've seen all season. You know, we've been saying, we've brought in this big fucking coach, this forwards coach, and we've done fuck all with it. So, the scrum work, the line-out work, we fucked up four tries in the first half, we fucked up two tries in the second half, you know, that's six tries that just went begging. We were still in that game with, you know, five minutes to go. We were seven points behind with five minutes to go. If that last pass goes to hand, it's a three-to-one overlap from our own 22. So, you know, and it didn't. It went to ground, and it got ran in for a try, and that's where the 14 points came from. So, yeah, it's easy to have a go at all sorts of people at the minute, but the difference in that Ospreay's game was that it felt like, you know, we were creating stuff. The ability to create stuff was there. Our defence around driving mores is still poor, you know, and that's where most of Ospreay's points came from. So, you know, if we shore that up and we work out how to actually pass and catch a fucking ball when we're running forward, everything starts to work. But I think it's just a lack of confidence at the minute. There's just a massive lack of confidence, which, you know, some of it comes from what we were speaking about before, where there isn't really anybody out there on social media or within the general media that will openly bang a drum for Scarlets. You know, you've got all your pundits and all that kind of stuff who are Ospreay's and Cardiff related, and there's very, very few from Dragons and Scarlets, so it's very hard for the Scarlets to control that message and saying, actually, you know, this is what we're trying to do. Scarlets not helping themselves by trying to shut down anybody that does talk about Scarlets, which will be a whole section on the Scarlets podcast this week. But, you know, they're not doing themselves any favours off the field. They're not doing themselves a massive amount of good on the field. But, yeah, that Ospreay game was about as good as it's been through the season so far. Yeah, and then the Dragons game, you could just tell Dragons were coming out to give it shit, and there'd been a fair few hairdryer talks, if you like, or whatever, with the Dragons, and we kind of sat there and gone, actually, yeah, you know, we probably should have won that game. We were giving ourselves a big pat on the back, and nobody was really firing them up. A bit like, you know, when Ken Owens was on Top Dog, he wasn't happy unless there was a Tottenham club wrapped up by half-time. And then it was, right, okay, let's make that 30 minutes. How do we constantly move forward? And if anybody was in possession of the ball for more than five minutes, what the fuck are they playing at? Why have they still got the ball and we haven't? Do you know what I mean? And we're missing that kind of dog at the minute. So, yeah, the Dragons came out and just showed that that's what they had, and they just wanted that game so much more than we did. And, you know, fair play, so I've got no issues at all with the way the Dragons played. You know, it wasn't dirty, it wasn't nasty, there wasn't any of the stuff that's been there in the past. It was just you guys wanted it more, and our boys didn't. It's that inconsistency which is hard to take at the minute, because if we'd have played those two games the other way round and got pasted by the Ospreys but shown that performance against the Dragons, the chances are we would have come out of that with at least one win. So it's having that consistency that is kind of pissing me off at the minute, that it just needs to be there or thereabouts. I think we know that the Scarlets are due for a massive cull of senior players at the end of this season. The difference is with the Scarlets is we've spent the last three seasons pissing off people in the academy, and we've lost a lot of really good academy players over the last couple of years, and not really done much with the academy. That is changing at the minute. The guy from Loughborough coming in, that is changing, but it's a mentality thing now with the Scarlets. It's a mindset thing for the guys that are there at the minute, and it's a mentality thing for the boys coming through that we've just got to be a bit better. I'm not as disappointed as everybody else on social media. It's very easy to shout and scream and all that kind of stuff when your boys are down, but it's a lot easier, a lot harder to find the positives and how you go forward and actually do what a supporter does. That's where I am on that one. What were you going to say? Just one thing. I wanted to just tag on whilst we're talking Scarlets about the Sangas sort of thing. Alright, yes, he missed a couple of kicks, but what you've got to appreciate is that Scarlets won try in that game, came as a result from San Cosello bringing a decent kicking game. He won that kicking battle against Kai Evans and he set up the kick for the try. Scarlets looked so much better with him at 10 and Yohan being pushed back to 15. I'm sure Hugh's going to bang on about it when you do Scarlets talk later. He's been saying that Yohan Lloyd is a 15 but he's not as good. We've had three outside halves dropped for the first part of the season so we either took a guy straight out of university and went, okay, go slot into that side there and put him there for every game or we take a guy who kind of should know how to play there. That game turned on 57 minutes. I know I'm going to single him out, I'm not trying to, but when changes were made in the front row and Leon Brown came on that really did hurt us because we conceded eight penalties. Four of them were from Leon Brown's scrummaging and he had a horrendous time in the scrum and I know we've given the last stick to win but honestly he had him on toast. Before that our scrum was well on top. Martinez was really strong, Roy Fairbrother was owning, Kensington were facing the scrum, but when we made those changes, that really did set us back and we were losing field position and we were pinned back in our 22. And the last 25 minutes actually the Scarlets were the better team. Before that I thought the Dragons were on top but those last 25 minutes, Scarlets should have won that game and I'll be honest and say it, I thought we were quite lucky but I felt that we earned that luck as well through our quick determination so it could have gone either way It could have gone either way that game. Can I make a comment about that so quickly? It's not about the Scarlets, it's about Craig Evans which leaves me to pick up a bit. Leon Brown was pinged four times, am I right Jay? Yes, four times, yeah. In the week before Gareth Thomas was also pinged four times by Craig Evans at Scrum Sunday. It's one of them, to go out to bat for Leon a bit, it's really hard to change a ref's mind once you're in the framework of you're doing something wrong. And that's what happened to Gareth, that's what happened to that's what happened to Leon as well. I thought he was going to get yellow actually because he did warn him, Craig Evans. On the fourth time he warned him and then he conceded another penalty and I thought I said to my dad, he's in trouble now. Luckily he still stayed on the field but yeah, I thought he was very fortunate to stay on. That was a game that could have gone either way that Scarlets-Dragons game. Our defence was good but I thought the last 25 minutes, Scarlets, they could have and should have won it. Like I said, Costolo's kick in front of the post. That's just one of those things, isn't it? I'm sure all top flyers would have done that. It did have shades of Brennan Thompson and a shade of social media but Glasgow against the Dragons during the Covid. He had a conversion right in front of the post to win it and he hit the post. It does happen, it was one of those things. We were fortunate but at the same time, I don't know if two things can be true. Yes, we were lucky but yes, we deserved to win to our extent. You make your own luck, don't you? Yes. I think we've done that in Scarlets many times over the years. We're going to move on. We're going to do... These have to pop up. We're going to move on to my stats of the Christmas period. I haven't gone for an actual statistic as such but considering it's such a big talking point about Welsh Rugby in general, I just wanted to do something a bit positive for the New Year. I'm going to talk about the attendances over the Christmas period. In total, we had 39,058 people fill up the games according to their URC stat sites. That's an average of just under 9,800 people per game and that includes sell-out at Carry Farms Park. I think Scarlets, Ospreys and the Dragons Scarlets games were close to if not sell-outs and I think the brewery field was pretty much to capacity as well. You guys know the capacity of your stadiums a bit better than me but it's just nice to see that despite really shit weather, we've got a lot of people turning up to these games to support Welsh Rugby and actually if you look at some of the average stats for the majority of us, they seem to be going up and we're actually looking quite good so far for our attendances. The Ospreys aren't and people have gone in for reasons why I'm not going to gloss over that because I just want to talk good news. How good is it to see how much support we've had over this period, particularly with the whole cost of living crisis we've had and people don't necessarily want to pay that much money for what they've had. So I just wondered, what are your thoughts on those numbers? Do you think they're good? Do you think there should be more like that all the time? No, I think it's good. I think Cardiff in particular are getting really big attendances because they're not winning many games. People are really buying into the style of rugby the narrative with the young home-grown talent. People want to see that and they want to see these kids develop and they are playing a brand of rugby so it's good to see the Alps Park full and if you look at Rodney Parade, we had 7,617 people against the Scarlets. That's our biggest crowd so far. That's a very good crowd. I will give a shout out to the Scarlets fans because they were there in Edinburgh and they made a lot of noise because I was wondering how the atmosphere was going to be on New Year's Day because of the hammering we took at Cardiff. I thought it was going to be pretty bomba. Fairplay, the Dragons fans were in really good voice. They really got behind the team and the Scarlets fans were great as well. Best atmosphere so far at Rodney Parade. It's like they have to travel far. On Cardiff, you've only got 25 minutes. Well, yeah, true. I mean, there was more Scarlets fans there than Cardiff and Ospreys who came to Rodney Parade and I will make that point. And they did show up in Edinburgh and they did make a lot of noise. It's great, isn't it? These derby games, this is what people want to see. They want to see the derby games. These are the games that really matter. And I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole, the anger rush, but it does make you realise that when you play against teams that are your local rivals and teams in games that matter, then people are going to turn up. And it's simple as that, isn't it? But yeah, I think on the whole, the festive attendances were very, very positive. But the challenge is, of course, is getting those attendances every week, isn't it? We need to build on it but we never do. What we only see is festive derbies being well attended and then there's a big drop-off then for the rest of the year. That's not going to be the case at Cardiff for Harlequins, I appreciate that, but again that's a game that matters, it's a competition that matters. So, a point on that, so I was just checking what the average person said. Cardiff, they're looking set to be their best season since the 2018-19 season when we, you know, the season after we won Champions Cup last and we had all this really good good bite, you know, really all that good feeling, you know, we're in the challenge Champions Cup for the first time in a while and so it's a good thing. Actually, the Dragons they look like they're on the up as well. It depends how these last four home games go for them, whether or not they get the buy-in. I think part of it as well is the marketing because I think the marketing for these last few games for Cardiff has been really, really strong and, you know, they're really getting out there. I feel like with this whole, you know, meaningful games, arguably, a URC game should be more meaningful than Champions Cup when Cardiff are like, well, we're not going to do anything in the Champions Cup, right, let's focus on either staying in or trying to do something, you know, making a big thing like Cardiff Connacht should be something we build up because it's always a fantastic game between the two teams because we're pretty neck and neck. You know, I, like Scarlet Munster should, you know, they should be arguing, you know, they should be billing that for the Tithburn custody battle. And, you know, there's all things that Ospreys have got, you know, there's teams who, you know, Ospreys Leinster, you know, all their beef in history, we should be really making a point of it. The Old Farts only remember the Anglo-Welsh, they're only going to want the Anglo-Welsh back. So, for getting the new people interested, you know, up to the marketing teams and people like us just say, no, this is going to be an awesome game, let's really go for this. We've been saying that all season on our Scarlet spot that the way we approach marketing in the Welsh regions is shocking. Absolutely shocking. You can go to other places around the world, yeah, URC or you know, different sports, all that kind of stuff, and people travel hundreds of miles, you know, thousands of people pack stadiums. Bristol Bears sell 30,000 season tickets, you know, because they really go for it. And I was living in Bristol when they were the Bristol Rhinos, I think it was, or Bristol something, and they got, they were bust, and it was a right bloody shambles and there was crowds of like five, six hundred, you know. So, it can be done with the right approach, with the right kind of emphasis, it can be done. It just isn't there, the skill set, the desire isn't there at the minute and it won't be until something changes drastically. Anyway, let's move on to a new section. That was the reintroduction of Harley's stats because I forgot about it before Christmas, so apologies for that Harley. So, a new bit now, just because we've all kind of got a little bit, so I do Drink of the Week, Jamie does News Desk, Harley does Stats, and then James just kind of sits here and stares into space going, fuck, Rhys Henry's amazing, isn't he? So, I thought we'd occupy his time for a little while, we'd give him something to think about, give him something to do. So, first attempt at James' beef and banter for this week. So, what's your thoughts on beef and banter, James, and off you go with it, mate. Well, firstly, the first one comes from the New Year's Day game where the card of Team Bus turned up and now I was in the very fortuitous position. For those who've been to Rodney Parade before, the front part is sort of like, there's a little car park that you can drop off and go straight back onto the main road. Now, I attend the games with my grandfather, who uses a mobility scooter, so we were lowering the scooter out from the car on the winch, and it's starting to rain and all this, and then as I am lowering his scooter and he is trying to get himself out of the car, this big Edwards coaches turns up with bright orange letters on the front, Cardiff Blues. I dropped I dropped the controller for the winch, so his scooter is currently suspended in the air, so I can take a photo of said bus to immediately tweet to and I sent it to you boys first. If there ever was an omen for that game, it wasn't your former mates, it's that. And it's not even it's a new thing, apparently that bus is what they always use. It's Cardiff Blues in the front. So that went, that got viewed thousands and thousands of times on the various Twitter accounts. Obviously the next one, the talking point is the pitch, right? You know, Wales Online report has got their Christmas over 10 bonuses this year, apparently. Two people in particular, right? Thomas George Threlin Shanklin of Cardiff and his little rant with his boys on Scrum 5, talking about the pitch, not about the game itself, or trying to bring a commodity of professionalism to his country. No, he has a full-on rant. Whether he's right or not, okay, I'm not here to give my view on the pitch. It is what it is. We had to move the game. There were no other facilities available. Ali, yes, yes, I know you're suggesting swapping the game, but it was set in stone, okay? The next bit is the lorry. Beep beep, everyone, get on board. So A.T. and Morgan are one of the principal supporters of the Ospreys, have been for many years. They often bring their lorries to the matches at swans.com, park them up front, and in this instance they brought them to the west side of the brewery field, no, the east side of the brewery field, sorry, to advertise and to hold a stage for the pre-match performer, and the other one had a kit museum with all the kits inside from the various years of the Ospreys. Now, some fans decided to climb on to the lorry halfway through the game to get to better view of the game. This caught the attention of a certain well-known Twitter account in English rugby, who shall remain nameless, who, you know, tweeted some misinformation on the internet, and all hell broke loose. Apparently that was a hospitality box, it was everything. What was more concerning is in that photo there's a conservatory made by Dunraven, the sponsors of the brewery field. I was in that conservatory because that is where and look, I love the Ospreys, they do really good things for wheelchair-dependent and scooter users, but the wheelchair-dependent and scooter users were put in that conservatory for the game. And that is where we were, and it was hilarious, they were really, you know, they couldn't do anything about the weather, but former Scarlett and Scotland Flank and full-time hater John Barclay tweeted after the game that it's a disgrace to the URC and a disgrace to rugby and I miss Stradley Park or whatever, and, you know, he got a bit of a boost on Twitter. My favourite... He never played at Stradley Park. Whatever, he's a Turk. My favourite one, though, is then people going back to random Glasgow games and finding various lorries, one of which holds the screen for Scotstoun. So, look, a lot of good stuff over the Christmas period, particularly from Cardiff fans. I made the mistake, and I will never do this again, of making a harmless joke on Twitter about Cardiff fans and their crowd as I tweeted. A quote tweeted Cardiff rugby saying the Cardiff team will have a lot of time to admire their sell-out crowd, mainly because they'll be stood under their posts a lot. And, oh boy, did they not. That went down well, didn't it? That did not go down well. Let me just tell you some of the pleasant replies. Now, in all fairness, a friend of the RAP family, Andrew Ford, appreciated it for what it was. My personal teammates from Cardiff Saracen, my one and only gang, said, you know, this is a funny joke, even Phil said it was a bit of a humour. So, yeah. That comes across as very bitter. At least we have our own ground. Must have been a shock for us as players, seeing so many fans at the brewery field. Grow up, James. No, that was my mother. Your post seems to indicate that eight might well be your age. Come back when you finally win a cup in Europe, son. Actually, come back if you ever win a knockout game, numb nuts. He's got a point there, he's got a point there. We'll just polish our four league titles instead. I've been setting up on the league, to be fair, so it's not that bad. What's ironic is, his trick to handle is, nobody is perfect. And, finally, before I wrap up, Luke Davis, halfway through the second half, a small scrap ensues between the two nines. Now, I am in the conservatory at this point, so I can't actually see what happens. I don't see this in the live game. Now, Adam Jones brings them both together. Blah, blah, blah. Rugby values. All this jazz. And Thomas Williams has got a big stern face on. And Luke Davis simply turns and says to him, Joe! And then they both walk away. And Thomas just cracks that little wry smile and then can't control it. It's absolutely brilliant. So, a lot of beef slap banter. Hopefully, we'll get a lot from Europe next week. But the Christmas derby has provided lots and lots of decent banter. I tweeted your Cardiff Blues bus thing, and that's what I was just looking for. So, mine is just shy of 29,000 views. 51,000, my God. I wonder how many were on Harley. How many views did you get for it? Did you not tweet it, Harley? I don't know. That's a long play, right? That bus has heritage, right? It is funny, though, isn't it? Because you know that's going to boil the piss of certain people in CF10, and as soon as I saw it, I just pissed myself laughing, because I knew it was going to annoy all the right people. Someone accused me of photoshopping it. That's good. Someone accused me of photoshopping it. That was the worst thing. You wouldn't have the clarity, mate. He said, the B is the wrong size, thankfully. Someone tweeted saying, I don't know how to tell you this, it's on the Scrum 5 show. I was pissing myself. We're rapid running out of time again, gents, so let's take a quick look at what's coming ahead for this weekend. So, we're back into a couple of weeks of European rugby, and then everyone has a week off, and then we go back into depleted squads for the Six Nations and all of that kind of stuff. So, let's start with Cardiff and Harlequins. Harley, expectations and thoughts? I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It's two teams who just love to play with the ball in hand. I think the big thing that's going to decide things for Cardiff, weirdly, is Rupert De Beer, as he likes to call him. He had a bit of a knock and a nasty knee twist from that Morgan Moore strike on New Year's Day. We haven't heard anything about it. Hopefully, he's fit. Hopefully, it was quite noxious. If he's fit, then I think game on. Cardiff should probably stay within the score. If not, I think it could be a little bit messy about his game management. Actually, really good kicking game. Either way, I think it's going to be a fun day and it's looking close to another Saturday cap. We always said it was going to be the banter season in Europe for us because we weren't winning anything. I reckon as much as you put yourself down, you might actually be in with a shot against Harlequins. If the weather is as it's predicted to be, bucketing down and all that kind of stuff, I reckon you might be in with a shot on that one. Jamie, your trip down south to Zebra again. Yes. This is a really important game for the Dragons because if they win this, they're going to have one foot in the last 16. So, you've got a situation where Seagull are fourth. They're on four points. Dragons are third on six and then you've got the Sharks in second on seven points and the Cheetahs on top with nine. So, this is a big game. Dragons need to win this one. They should be winning it. I know Zebra improved this season and they're a pretty good and they did have a very good win in the last round at Castellona. So, they're going to be up for this, especially on home soil but this is a game that we really should be winning and we've got to go there with a positive mindset and try and get this win, which is going to take us into last 16. Now, the question is what is Dai Flanagan going to do now? Because he made those changes to the Scarlets. He's dropped the likes of Roberts, Basham, etc. Do you now say, okay go again, lads, and you carry on with the likes of you and also Harry Ackerman or now do you say, okay you get another shot at redemption and you bring back the likes of Bradley Roberts take Basham and the guys you dropped. So, Rio should be back. That'll be a big boost. I don't know if Steph Hughes is going to come straight back into the team because I really like the look of it, neither with Harry Ackerman in our midfield but he is the captain, so that's a conundrum that Dai Flanagan needs to solve. Also, with the hookers James Benjamin, friends of the Dragonsport, James Benjamin was excellent against the Scarlets. He was bloody good. He put in an 18-minute shift. His arrows were excellent, his ball carrying was good, his defence was really good. I loved that crunching tackle they threw on Kieran Hardy in the second half. I thought that was really good and he did his best to rattle Hardy. So it's a dilemma hooker day. So, yeah, I'm really interested to see what Flanagan does in terms of the changes in team selects but I just would need to go there now, positive mindset, reset and try and get this win as a person in the last 16 because we are going to struggle in the URC, we know that, but Europe can be a nice distraction from the struggles of the league. So, hopefully he'll go there and get the job done. So, yeah, they really need to go there and try and rattle Ziba and take a next step into the knockout stages because that would give supporters a bit of a boost if we had somebody to look forward to a European knockout game to look forward to this season. Okie dokie. So, James, Ospreay's at home to Pepinho or USAP as they're listed? Yeah, quite a difficult one to predict. I'm hoping, well, I have chatted with the Airey boys earlier about it and we think that they're not going to send their strongest squad over so they've already lost two Benetton in the Challenge Cup as well as that they I'll tell you now they lost to Lyons at home and their Benetton, so they've lost two already so they're not going to be sending the likes of Passolo Tualagi over to face James Fender which would have been gutting. In terms of Ospreay's Friday night we're in a bit of an injury crisis at the minute. Slowly I know Ospreay's aren't allowed to have an injury crisis because we have the greatest squad in the world but we've lost a lot of back row players press conference today, Kieran Williams is back, there's a few boys coming through return to play protocols it sounds like Morgan Morris won't be back for this one, so in terms of we need to win this to progress but also to continue momentum absolutely it would be nice to see Kieran back we won't see Justin Tipperary back until after you're up we're told same with Alex Cuthbert but then it seems to be all our injuries are coming back at once Don Morris will still be Fricker both should be back by then Morgan Morris would need to be back by then as well so luckily no Lyington we're not seeing Jack Morgan bad news for Wales that came out over Christmas as well we didn't mention yeah, I'm not confident but I'm happy it's at home could have not done with the Lyons away the week after that's not fun Scar, let's take a trip out to Claremont I mean something needs to that's going to go well isn't it Claremont aren't having a great season they're kind of mid table they're not really setting the world alight but then they drew last weekend and they beat Gloucester they lost to Gloucester and they beat Edinburgh so it's a bit of an up and down season but they're at home, they're a French side at home so it's one of those nightmare games the game to go and play if you want to start building confidence is not a French top 14 side at home there's all sorts of rumours and this that and the other coming out of the Scar that's about who's staying, who's going who's happy, who's not and I think Dwayne Peel now just needs to throw everything at the door and go right okay, this is the way we're doing it we're doing it my way and I've had enough of we used to do this and we used to do that some big players are going to have their noses put out of joint and all of that kind of stuff and you've got to start rebuilding again because if the rumours about his contract being extended if that's true then he needs to put his foot down and say this is the way it's going to be so he may as well start doing it now don't wait for the off season it's got to be done now I still can't see us coming away from Claremont with anything but it would be nice to just see us play with a little bit of the style that we played against the Oscars and if we can do that and we can show that actually we're creating opportunities again when Pivac joined he said keep creating the opportunities because at some point those opportunities become toys and the toys become victories so keep creating the opportunities if we do that again I'll be happy I'll be honest I'm not even going to watch the game so it's yeah it's one of those Is it on TV? Out of curiosity is it live to watch on TV? Because I know the Dragons said that's on the EPCR TV No it's the Ospreys are on S4C this weekend Yeah Really really quick Do we get on? I'll go Quinns by 6 Dragons by 8 Ospreys by 14 and Claremont by 27 Oof I tell you when we say bang bang bang that's the way to do it holy cow Harley that was excellent Jamie Cardiff Harlequins yeah two very un-serious teams I think this could be a tri-fest I think it's going to go the same as Bath I think they're just going to keep scoring until whoever scores the most points I'm going to go Harlequins by 4 I think this could be tight but I do think they'll edge it and then Seabird Dragons I want to see us build on that winning against the Scarlets but I've got an awful feeling we're going to fuck it up and we have lost to Seabird out in Seabird on many occasions so I'm going to go Seabird by 4 I don't want to do this but I'm going to go Seabird by 5 Ospreys I'm going to go Ospreys by 9 points just because okay and Claremont Scarlets dare I ask oh yeah sorry fucking hell sorry I was just looking at the games actually I do apologise let's have a look at this see they're on 0 points Claremont are on 5 but they're in 4th so Scarlets need to win or they're out of this competition aren't they they definitely need to win this I'm going to go Claremont by I could have yeah I suppose I can't say much to support the Dragons right now I'm going to go Claremont by 23 23 points for Claremont okay so you see what I did with Harley James where I went bang bang bang bang and then Jamie went yeah that's really good five minutes yeah do the Harley bit for me mate so Cardiff against Harley Quittens by 15 I don't think it's going to be close I'm sorry what's the next one Zebra by 9 they didn't actually play that bad in the Bebaton games on Christmas Ospreys by 6 and then Claremont Claremont by 23 I'll go the same as Jamie you could pick any number 20 plus I don't think it would matter Steph Evans' big yellow card I'm going to put that in my accumulator Steph Evans will be in the side mate if he kicks away should we run a 3 on 1 from the halfway line in or should we kick it to the fullback what about Tom Rogers you need to listen to my pod and we'll tell you all about our I might sit in the Zoom call why is he wearing a scrum cap now anyway Tom Rogers I reckon he's had his hair bleached I reckon he's had a fine and he's had his hair bleached and he doesn't want to show it why else would a winger wear a scrum cap yeah he doesn't normally does he no he's only been the last couple of games he's got a choreality he just doesn't want to show it he might have a cut on the head but I don't think they help with concussion preventing concussion they don't it is all E4 some players don't suit the scrum cap I couldn't stand them when I was playing my ears are too big I've seen cauliflower ears and percent caps staying open basically if you imagine a kinder egg now like a foil wrapper if you imagine that foil wrapper is a scrum cap and you shake it the little yellow thing inside still wrapping around that's your brain and your skull unless you can somehow insert it up through your nostril and under your skull the scrum cap is going to do shit for concussion because concussion is your brain smacking into the back of your skull it's not actually this sort of impact stuff like that actually probably will get concussed it's more to prevent cauliflower ear basically to stop the cuts which then keep opening up which is why unless you're spending half your time with your head either up a prop's arse or in a rut you don't need one I've never understood backs wearing I understand why kids wear them to build a bit of confidence and then as they get older they go out of them and they don't put them back on they don't replace them I don't understand why a fanny on the wing would want to wear them anyway so for me Cardiff Harlequins by 10 Zebra Dragons by 5 Ospreys Pepinion Pepinion by 1 and Claremont Scarlet Scarlet Spellbound laughing fuck I've not missed it laughing that's working out so well for you Scarlet Spellbound Spellbound by 30 in other words laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing