GLAM ARE OFF TO A GREAT START
IT was Welsh rugby’s very own belated version of Brexit as the regional game sees one firmly in the remain camp and another heartbreakingly leaving the European scene.
And as we pick through the Blues’ Challenge Cup semi-final win over Pau, the Scarlets’ Champions Cup lashing from Leinster, there was also plenty for the Welsh rugby fan to digest elsewhere.
So we give you the winners and losers from the weekend ....
WINNERS PONTYPOOL
THE former giants of the Welsh game created history in the WRU National Championship by becoming the first team to go through the whole season unbeaten.
Win number 22 came at Narberth in what was to prove to be one of the toughest away days in the season against the third-place Otters.
Pooler found themselves five points adrift with 15 minutes to go before Rhodri Jones ran in a third try for the visitors with 10 minutes to go and Matthew Jones added the extras to put his side ahead.
Brendan Lampitt and Rhodri Usher scored the other tries for Pooler and Jones ended with 12 points to end the season with 168 points in league and cup matches. It was only the third game of the season in which the champions failed to pick up a bonus point as they ended with a total of 107 points out of a possible 110.
Since the Championship was instigated in 2013, no team had gone through the season unbeaten, but Pontypool’s ‘Invincibles’ managed to go one better than the previous season when they won the title with 21 wins in 22 matches.
JARROD EVANS
HE’S been the form fly-half in Wales over the last few months and is keeping his high-profile rival for the No.10 jersey at the Arms Park filling in at full-back.
But Gareth Anscombe can have few complaints at present as Evans again showed against Pau in the European Challenge Cup semi-final on the weekend exactly why he should be inked in for the Welsh summer tour to Argentina.
Evans, 21, was once again outstanding as the Blues beat the starstudded French side 16-10 to book a Challenge Cup final meeting with Gloucester in Bilbao, next month.
“He’s got some great skills Jarrod and goes to the line really well. He’s a really good distributor at the line and is a good running threat,” said Anscombe.
“He’s probably playing with a lot of confidence at the moment. It’s been good to see. I’ve been here since the start when he was just an academy guy.”
CARMARTHEN QUINS
ANY away win in the Principality Premiership is something to be treasured... but when it’s against the defending champions and on live TV, then it makes it extra special.
And that’s exactly what the Quins achieved in beating Merthyr 33-21 at The Wern on Saturday.
Powerful left wing Morgan Griffiths snapped up two of the touchdowns while hooker Rhodri Clancy also powered over for a try to add to the two scored in the first half by flanker Ellis Lloyd and fly-half Iestyn Wilson.
Victory for the Quins in this top of the table encounter moves them to within two points of the summit although, crucially, Merthyr do still have a game in hand.
“Everything we asked of our boys, they delivered, so it was excellent,” said coach Richard Kelly.
“What is really pleasing is that our boys are adapting to the different challenges they face and still coming up with some good rugby.
“We managed to deal with the well-drilled play of Merthyr and showed them what we could do as well.”
RHYS LAWRENCE & LLEWELLYN JONES
WELSH rugby may have a love-hate relationship with the British & Irish Cup... more hate than love in recent years after the advent of Regional Premiership Select sides.
But a Welsh corner of leafy suburban west London have made it all the way to the final this season after Ealing Trailfinders chalked up an emphatic 36-16 semi-final win over Bedford Blues at their Vallis Way ground on the weekend.
Trailfinders could well have been slugging it out for the right to play in the Aviva Premiership next season had it not been for the dominance of cash-laden Bristol.
They stand second in the table and are preparing for a B&I Cup final with Leinster A.
Despite having a glut of Welshmen in their squad, it was left to Swanseaborn former Scarlets and Bristol hooker Lawrence and towering Scarlets academy lock Jones to come off the bench and help the Trailfinders book their final ticket.
FRANKIE JONES
HE’S 18 and lives a decent Leigh Halfpenny kick away from the Talbot Athletic Ground.
So if to make your Aberavon debut as a raw-boned teenager wasn’t enough for the lively wing, Jones iced his cake with a try against the WRU National Cup finalists Newport
to make it a Principality Premiership debut to remember.
Jones went over the whitewash on 16 minutes in what was to be a comfortable 41-5 victory for the hosts over the Black & Ambers
Wizards head coach Jason Hyatt, said: “There were some good tries, plenty of intent and a good debut, Frankie Jones did well on the wing.
“He’s a young 18-year-old. He’s come just across the road from Cwmafan, it’s always pleasing when you see local youngsters coming through and given an opportunity at Premiership level.
“Hopefully he’ll use this as a springboard to kick on and develop his professional rugby career.”
LOSERS KIERAN HARDY & RORY BARTLE
THE two Welshmen plying their trade in the stunning Channel Island of Jersey couldn’t help the Reds break an incredible British & Irish Cup jinx.
While Leinster were putting the Scarlets to the sword in the semifinals of the Champions Cup, there seemed to be a role reversal for their A team in the last four of the B&I Cup against Jersey.
The Reds were leading 27-8 with barely five minutes to go with former Scarlets and Carmarthen Quins scrum-half Hardy among their three try-scorers.
But somehow they pulled defeat from the jaws of victory as the Irish visitors pounced for three tries, all converted by Ciarán Frawley, whose touchline conversion with the final kick was enough to win it.
Jersey coach Harvey Biljon said the Reds were “jinxed” in the B&I after losing by a single point in last year’s final to Munster ‘A’ in Cork exactly one year ago - and by the same margin at the semi-final stage to Leeds Carnegie in 2016.
MIKE RAYER
THE 21-times capped gifted former Cardiff full-back has come close to getting his hands on some meaningful silverware during 13 years and counting service as head honcho at the Bedford Blues.
There was a British & Irish Cup final in 2011 and a Championship final two years later for the man whose coaching CV has taken in Cardiff as well as the Barbarians.
But for the man, who played 367 times for Cardiff and was honoured a testimonial year at Bedford in the 2013-14 season, there will be no return to the B&I Cup final in 2018 as a seven-minute first half try blitz from Ealing Trailfinders gave his Bedford Blues an uphill task they just couldn’t surmount.
Nine points from Will Hooley’s boot along with a converted Michael Le Bourgeois try was the consolation for the Blues in their 36-16 defeat.
THE SCARLETS
THERE was huge expectation for Welsh representation in a Champions Cup final for the first time since Cardiff in the inaugural 1996 Heineken Cup.
But it was Leinster who will go through to contest the final against Racing 92 in Spain next month after swatting the Scarlets aside in an utterly dominant 38-16 win at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.
Leo Cullen’s men were relentless as they put the Welsh region to the sword, notching first-half tries through James Ryan, Cian Healy and Fergus McFadden, and adding two more after the break from man-ofthe-match Scott Fardy and Jonathan Sexton.
They had clearly done their homework after last year’s Guinness Pro12 semi-final defeat to Scarlets, McFadden’s try on the stroke of half-time giving the Irish province a 24-9 halftime lead.
Leigh Halfpenny’s three penalties from three attempts, and a slight scrum advantage, were Scarlets’ only positives in this one-sided Celtic clash, and they salvaged some pride late on with a try from their former Leinster forward Tadhg Beirne.
THE OSPREYS
OSPREYS have come off on the wrong side of the scoreline on occasions in the past when they have gone to Italy with full-strength lineups.
So it didn’t take much to deduce they would come unstuck when they pitched up in a sweltering Parma to face a Zebre team bidding for a record.
And the improving Italian outfit duly notched up their second win in a row over Welsh opponents, having put the Dragons to the sword a week ago, with a runaway success at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.
It was a record sixth for them in a Guinness PRO14 campaign with right-wing Mattia Bellini getting a hat-trick of tries as they romped to a bonus point after crossing the whitewash six times.
Zebre are just two points behind Connacht in Conference A and could yet overtake the 2015-16 champions if they beat Benetton next weekend. But what of the Ospreys? There was hardly a first-teamer in sight with qualification for the title play-offs having disappeared last weekend against Ulster but the rookies showed spirit.
The Welsh side’s interim coach Allen Clarke endured a tricky night but will have learned something after giving first starts to winger Dylan Moss and back-row Giorgi Nemsadze, as well as blooding Dewi Lake from the bench.