KEV KICKS OFF
I HAVE got to say sorry for missing a few weeks. I was lucky enough to be invited to play for a Gulf legends team to compete in the Dubai Vets 10s tournament. Our team was made up of Welsh, Scots, English, French etc most of them working in the Middle East. We lost one game in our pool to the finalists J9 who lost to Joining Jack in the final who had a few ex RL boys in their team e.g. Jason Robinson Mick Cassidy and their coach was Martin Offiah. Our team eventually won the Bowl tournament so all the sponsors were happy.
Unfortunately the Wales team were not good in Dubai and they ended up in a play-off against Uganda for 12th place. There are rumours that the WRU are scrapping funding for the 7s and bringing back the Wales A team. I think the WRU should keep the 7s going and the A team. They’ve got enough money and they were the only country to have a fourth game in the autumn so spend it on grassroots rugby and keep all the international age grades going including women’s rugby and 7s. Let’s see what develops in the future.
It was good to see the out-of-form Ospreys get a 43-32 win up in struggling Northampton. The Ospreys who were missing a host of their top stars had a great first half, taking a good lead and getting a bonus point and at 60mins they were leading 43-8 but fair play to Northampton who lost four outside halves they started throwing the ball about and scored some great tries and if there was more time they could of sneaked a win.
The Scarlets had a tough battle against the improving Benetton scoring two tries in the last four minutes to keep their qualification hopes alive.
It wasn’t good news for the Blues and Dragons in the B&I cup. The Blues got battered by Clive Griffiths’s Doncaster team and the Dragons lost up in Leeds 43-22. I think the sooner the Welsh teams get out of this cup the better!
It’s fantastic to see Swansea City get a 1-0 win over West Brom at the Liberty Stadium. They now move off the bottom of the table but still have a mammoth task to avoid relegation.