The good and bad of the B&I Cup... special Brew at Bath and Davies keeps Scarlets in Euro shake-up
IT was the second weekend of European action.
On the domestic front the British and Irish Cup is nearing the conclusion of the pool stages and the grassroots game resumed its National League programme of fixtures, though the weather bit hard into the fixture list.
But there was still a weighty list of Welsh rugby winners and losers.
MORGAN ALLEN, LEWIS ROBLING, ARTHUR ELLIS AND RHYS LAWRENCE
It looks like there’ll be plenty of Welsh representation in the latter stages of the British & Irish Cup. That’s the good news. The bad is that it won’t be coming from any of our four Welsh regions but the heavy Welsh-influenced Ealing Trailfinders after the west London outfit made it four wins from four with a comfortable 35-19 bonus-point victory over Rotherham Titans at their Vallis Way ground. It may have been played nearer the Thames than the Taff but there’s no mistaking how the win was made in Wales with former Ospreys and Scarlets No.8 Allen, ex-Dragon Robling and Aberdare-born Bridgend back-rower Ellis, who had games for the Liberty Stadium region, among the try-scorers. And not to be left out former Scarlets and Wales Under-20s hooker Lawrence was the man of the match.
ALED BREW
You just can’t keep the Bath battering ram out of the headlines and on Saturday he maintained his rich vein of form with a royal show against three-times kings of Europe Toulon. From the very start when Rhys Priestland’s kick-off was plucked from the air by the former Dragon ahead of aerial giant Samu Manoa, Brew provided the heartbeat of an epic 26-21 victory at The Rec with some trademark lung-busting runs up the touchline.
It’s led to some learned observers to proclaim Brew is perhaps even better than the raw-boned 20-year-old model that won the first of his nine caps in the 2007 Six Nations Championship against Ireland. Bath’s director of rugby Todd Blackadder has already announced his desire to offer the Welshman a second extension to his contract in the west country that runs out in the summer of 2018.
CEFNEITHIN RFC
Last week we highlighted how the home club of Barry John and Carwyn James - have seen eight of their 11 fixtures cancelled in Division Three West Central C.
The west Wales club actually played as many games in pre-season as they have in the league so far this term. Matches have been called off for a variety of reasons, including a clash with Wales autumn internationals, ground conditions, opposition unable to raise teams and even a wedding!
It’s left them facing a horrendous ixture backlog and the prospect of having to play two games a week every week in April. But we’re happy to report they managed to get a fourth league match off their books and did so in some style with an emphatic 62-10 win over Pontyates. That bonus point win puts them seventh in the 12-strong table with as many as seven games in hand on clubs above them. Cramming in 18 matches between now and the end of the season with the worst of the winter still ahead of us is the biggest task ahead of them.
TRYSTAN LLOYD
Success back on home soil for a Welsh exile is always to be savoured and it was the turn of the former Llanelli back-rower to show his wares at a thing cold Ystrad Mynach on the weekend. The 26-year-old Carmarthen-born back-rower spent three seasons with Llanelli playing 46 times before moving to Yorkshire Carnegie in the summer. And he played a big part in Carnegie ensuring a maximum of 10 points in their back to back games against the Dragons Premiership Select with a 20-17 win on the artificial surface at the Dragons’ training base. The Dragons led 14-0 at the break and Carnegie were seeing their hopes of overhauling Jersey at the top of the table, or even making the knockout stages of the B&I Cup as one of the three best runners-up, slipping away.
And up stepped Lloyd to finish off a powerful surge from the pack at a short-range lineout to give the Yorkshire visitors the impetus needed to go on and seal victory.
GARETH DAVIES
The Scarlets have looked down and out in their Champions Cup pool on more than one occasion this term but by hook or by crook they remain alive and kicking heading into a massive trip across the Severn to Bath next month. And it was scrum-half Davies who provided the European momentum out in Treviso to keep the Champions Cup boiling darting over from a close range scrum to give the west Walians a 24-0 half-time cushion. It took less than four minutes for Davies of the second period to bag the vital bonus point with his fourth try in two games.
The Scarlets briefly moved top of Pool Five before Bath’s 26-21 win over Toulon. Toulon’s losing bonus point meant Scarlets dropping back to third in the table, but they are only a point behind the English and French clubs.
DWAYNE PEEL
Irish eyes are certainly smiling on Ulster’s backs coach as the province