Winners & losers... hale and hearty Hartridge but big knee worry for North
THE Guinness PRO14 and Aviva Premiership took a break on the weekend for the opening rounds of the European Champions Cup and its often unsatisfying equivalent of football’s Europa League – the Challenge Cup.
There was also a sabbatical for the second tier Principality Premiership and Greene King IPA Championship in England with players engaged in British and Irish Cup action.
But it meant no shortage of Welsh rugby winners and losers on the weekend. We give you the pick of the bunch...
WINNERS
HARTRIDGE RFC A sporting story is being written in the shadows of the Celtic Manor Resort, in Newport, and there’s not a golf ball in sight.
Just a five-iron away from the home of the 2010 Ryder Cup, Hartridge RFC are making a meteoric rise up the National League ladder with their lifting of the Division Three East A title last season being their fourth consecutive league crown. And the club based at Llanwern High School, who just a few years ago were a junior union club, are showing no signs of letting up as Nantyglo found to their cost on Saturday.
Club officials very nearly had to raid the school’s maths department for calculators as Harts ran riot. They went through the century mark to record a 104-5 victory, though some claim on social media it may have been 114-5.
An acid test whether Hartridge can make it five titles on the trot comes next weekend when they travel to fellow high-flyers Cwmbran. LUKE HAMILTON To become a firm fixture in the Leicester Tigers first team, you must have something about you.
And the Pembroke-born 25-year-old is certainly earning his spurs at Welford Road with his ability to fill all three jerseys in the back-row.
The former Cardiff Blue, who left the Arms Park for Agen before moving to the east Midlands in 2016, was on the losing Leicester side at star-studded Racing 92 on the weekend.
But his try that helped the Tigers secure a losing bonus point at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir that could well prove priceless further down the line in the Champions Cup Pool Four shake-up. ALED BREW Saracens new boy Liam Williams wasn’t the only Welsh wing turning heads across in England in the Champions Cup on the weekend.
For Bath’s former Dragon Brew turned in an equally impressive performance as the west country side kicked off their European campaign with a 23-0 win over Benetton Rugby at The Rec.
Following up his crucial two-try contribution in the win over Worcester Warriors the previous weekend, nine-times capped Brew, whose last match for Wales came back in the summer of 2012 against the Barbarians, produced two moments of stunning skill to help subdue the plucky Italians.
No.8 Robert Barbieri looked odds on the open Benetton’s account in the opening exchanges as he raced for the line, but Brew emerged from nowhere with a spectacular smothering tackle in which he managed to get a knee under the ball to prevent the score.
Then Brew secured his unofficial man of the match award with the media later on when Springboks flanker Francois Louw executed a perfect switch and the Welshman sliced his way through the men in orange before sliding over for a brilliant try. ANGUS O’BRIEN He had pretty big boots to fill when the 23-year-old took on Gavin Henson’s No.10 shirt for the Dragons in their tough Challenge Cup opener at in-form Newcastle Falcons on the weekend.
And though the Falcons were much changed from the team that’s producing some Aviva Premiership shocks this term, they were able to field the likes of Toby Flood and Maxime Mermoz in an impressive back division.
But 23-year-old O’Brien didn’t look out of place in illustrious company pulling the strings expertly for the Dragons as they secured a losing bonus point in a 32-27 defeat.
“Gavin is our first choice for the first few games but to see someone like Angus (O’Brien) control the game, kicking so well and his play out of hand, it was excellent,” said Dragons coach Bernard Jackman.
“It’s good to see because he is young. We need two world class 10s and with Gavin’s (Henson) age profile we may look to someone like Angus to take over the mantle.” TOMOS WILLIAMS & GARYN SMITH These are two players who might not have had a chance to show their wares had this been a Guinness PRO14 weekend.
And they have given departing coach Danny Wilson a welcome selection headache for his final season at the Arms Park.
Centre Smith was man of the match in their 29-19 victory over Lyon in the Challenge Cup with the 22-year-old playing pivotal roles in two of the four tries scored by the home side on the night.
Inside Evans was Williams, making his second start of the season. Many would have him starting more regularly and he barely put a foot wrong as staked his claim to the No.9 jersey. LIAM WILLIAMS It was a bitter-sweet match for Welsh fans at Franklin’s Gardens as the man of the match performance from Lions No.15 Williams on the wing for Saracens was offset by the departure of Northampton wing George North with what looks like a serious looking knee injury.
But watching Williams run amok was a sight for sore eyes with the autumn Test series rapidly approaching.
The ex-Scarlet bagged two eye-catching tries in the 57-13 demolition of the Saints as the defending European champions pocketed a try bonus point.
The first saw Williams latch on to a long Chris Wyles pass to burst past Cobus Reinach on the left flank.
Then he picked up a tap-on by Marcelo Bosch and swerved over in the right corner. AARON JARVIS It’s always gratifying to put one over your former employers and Jarvis managed that on Sunday, even though he was only on the field for the final quarter.
The 31-year-old made an eyebrowraising move from the Ospreys to Clermont in 2016 and though life at the Top 14 big guns usually means polishing the bench, he played the final few minutes of Clermont’s Champions Cup final defeat to Saracens last season.
He had a bit more game time in Clermont’s 26-21 Champions Cu victory at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday.
“There is nothing better than beating your old team-mates, so this was good. I am enjoying it in France, it is a very nice lifestyle,” the 18-times capped prop told the BBC.
LOSERS
BRITISH & IRISH CUP Since Pontypridd made a fist of things in this competition a few years ago, the switch to regional Premiership Select XVs hasn’t exactly been a resounding success in Wales.
The Scarlets made it through their group last season before coming a cropper 84-7 last season while this campaign didn’t get off to the best of starts for the four Welsh teams.
It was a whitewash with the Scarlets going down 24-18 at Ulster A while JJ Hanrahan masterminded Munster A’s 24-6 victory over the Ospreys.
The Dragons lost 27-20 at London Scottish and the Blues went down 31-7 at home to Bristol. OWEN WILLIAMS The Welshman’s summer move from Leicester Tiger to Gloucester is a bit like the Cherry & Whites’ form this season... very much a roller coaster ride.
And though Gloucester started their weekend’s Challenge Cup clash in Pau joint favourites to lift the silverware this season, their odds would have lengthened somewhat as the French side ended a run of 13 straight defeats in the second tier of Europe.
After trailing 20-0 with 25 minutes left, tries from Ruan Ackermann and Ben Vellacott gave Gloucester hope and they looked like scoring a third try when Williams’ kick was intercepted by Frank Halai, who ran 80 metres to score Pau’s third try. EUROPEAN CHALLENGE CUP The second tier of European competition is just that and pales in comparison to fully-loaded teams going hammer and tongs in the Champions Cup.
Just like football’s Europa League, the Challenge Cup is a competition that is sometimes looked on more as an irritant than a chance to lift