TRAINING DAY
Thousands turn out to watch Wales tune up for autumn internationals
It was a low key weekend of Welsh rugby as all points of the compass point to Cardiff next weekend and the start of the autumn international series.
But there was still enough of the oval-ball action for a Welsh rugby winners and losers with Guinness PRO14 action this side of the border and the opening round of Premiership Cup games in England...
WINNERS ALEX MORGAN
IF making your debut for a west country giant aged 18 isn’t daunting enough, spare a thought for the former Llanishen RFC wing.
Having cut his teeth in the Gloucester Academy, the Welsh teenager was among a raft of youngsters the Cherry & Whites named for the Premiership Cup clash with Wasps on the weekend.
Given the wet and bitterly cold conditions, a sizeable crowd of 12,709 turned up at Kingsholm to pile even more pressure on the new boys.
But Morgan impressed even though the weather didn’t favour David Campese-like wing play.
A solid defensive effort was backed up by eye-catching runs, one of which led up to a try for England Under-20s international Lloyd Evans, who was born in Gloucester but has a Welsh dad, in the 31-7 victory.
MERTHYR RFC
WAS the Ironmen’s 22-14 defeat to Aberavon at The Wern last month merely a figment of our imagination?
Since then, Dale McIntosh’s side, while not firing on all cylinders, have regained their stranglehold on top spot in the Principality Premiership.
And they now have six games in a row at The Wern in which to ram home their advantage as they seek to make it a hat-trick of titles.
Their 20-0 victory on the weekend at previous leaders Ebbw Vale was built on a defence that gives nothing away except rib-tingling tackles.
Up front the forwards simply smelted down the Steelmen with the sort of display that’s been the trademark of the Eugene Cross Park side in recent seasons.
“We work hard week in, week out on our defence and we pay attention to detail. The players were really on point at Ebbw Vale,” said McIntosh.
“It was a big performance form us and it took a performance like that to wear down Ebbw Vale, so hats off to them. There were two good sides out there and it really was a big one.”
LLEWELLYN JONES
PUTTING one over a former employer is right up there with a lottery win, especially one that is wafting a big fat cheque book at gaining promotion to the Gallagher Premiership this season.
So the former Scarlets Academy product must have been sporting a smile as wide as the nearby River Trent on the weekend.
For having left big-spending Ealing Wanderers for Nottingham in the summer, the 6ft 5in back-five forward helped spring a RFU Championship surprise with a 42-27 win over the west Londoners.
Ealing’s second defeat of the campaign put a severe dent on their promotion aspirations while it was a record fourth straight home win for Nottingham, with Jones packing down at lock, in the second tier of English rugby.
SCARLETS
MISSING so many players missing, the coach driver, kit man and water boy could easily have had a sleepless night in South Africa over the prospect of a call-up for the Southern Kings clash.
The west Wales region had 21 players unavailable to them for the Guinness PRO14 match but produced a stirring late comeback to seize a bonus-point victory in Port Elizabeth.
They deserve huge credit for the resilience they showed after trailing 34-22 going into the final quarter.
You can read all about the two unheralded players who were described as ‘immense’ here.
JON MORRIS
THEIR greatest day will always be the victory over Wilson Whineray’s star-studded 1963 New Zealand touring team.
So Newport wouldn’t want to be the first team to lose to the struggling Welsh All Blacks on Saturday.
But that’s the way it was going at The Gnoll as Principality Premiership basement boys Neath were on track for their first win of the season.
It wasn’t the prettiest of tries the Black & Ambers wing has scored but his lunge for the line in the dying minutes, after a dart from No.10 Matt O’Brien, left Neath firmly rooted to the bottom of the table.
It also secured a third win on the bounce for Newport.
Head coach Craig Warlow said: “There was relief that we won the game and came away with the four points. They are going to win a game this year and you just don’t want it to be against you.
“It probably shows more about our character than our ability, we didn’t play for 70 minutes but we found a way to win.”
KEELAN GILES AND DAN EVANS
THERE was much to toast at the Bridgend Brewery on Friday night outside of their dramatic Guinness PRO14 victory over Connacht.
For their sojourn from the Liberty Stadium to the Brewery Field, saw gifted wing Giles get further up to speed, from the knee injury that kept him on the sidelines for 12-months, with a two-try haul.
That was the highlight of the evening until Evans, arguably the most overlooked player in Welsh rugby, grabbed a dramatic last minute try for a 22-17 victory.
JOSH ADAMS
THE Worcester Warriors wing was one of the few autumn squad Welsh internationals in action on the weekend.
And he had the honour of making history in becoming the first player to score a try in the Premiership Cup.
His fourth-minute touchdown after a Jamie Shillcock break helped Worcester to a 35-3 win over the Sale Sharks at Sixways with Adams their tormentor-in-chief.
He produced a man-of-the-match display and though not available for Wales’ opening autumn game with Scotland this weekend, could well get game time in the three remaining internationals.
CROSS KEYS
THE prospect of the Pandy Park outfit being dragged into a Principality Premiership relegation dogfight would have been unthinkable just a few seasons ago.
They beat Pontypridd to win the Welsh Cup in 2012 and two years later lost to the Sardis Road side in the final.
Pandy Park has been a traditional tough place to travel to, while on the road, Keys were always a well-drilled team that’s hard to unlock.
But it’s beginning to unravel a bit with head coach Greg Woods heading to Ebbw Vale last winter while players left in the summer. Star
signing Jason Tovey could now well be lost to the Dragons, heaping further misery on the club.
It may well be the reason behind their 73-12 thumping at Pontypridd on the weekend. The Valley Commandos left Keys shell-shocked under an 11-try bombardment.
“We are thoroughly disappointed after that poor performance,” said Keys skipper Leon Andrews. “Certainly, it is the heaviest defeat I have suffered personally in my 17-year playing career and I am gutted.”
WRU AND SRU
BOTH unions are coming under increasing pressure to donate a percentage of the Wales v Scotland profits from Saturday’s autumn international opener to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.
The Six Nations rivals clash in Cardiff this Saturday playing for the Doddie Weir Cup. The game is expected to net in the region of £3m.
The former Scotland international has Motor Neurone Disease and has set up a foundation in his name to raise funds to aid research into the disease.
A cup was attached to this weekend’s fixture to help raise awareness of the foundation and the disease but it has emerged that the charity will not be receiving a percentage of the profits from the match.
It’s angered fans, former players, pundits and journalists upon learning that there are no plans for the foundation to receive a slice of the gate receipts. It’s also prompted calls from some supporters for a boycott of the match.
JOE JONES
THE Premiership Cup, in England, can provide fringe first teamers with the springboard to mount a challenge to the established squad when the bread and butter league games get back up and running.
But if you’re introduced as a 52-minute replacement with the team already 28-3 in arrears, there’s precious little opportunity to shine. And that’s what happened to the former Wales Under-20 prop in getting a run-out for Sale Sharks at Worcester Warriors on the weekend.
Jones, signed from French club Perpignan on a five-year deal back in March, spent time with Welsh Premiership clubs RGC 1404, Cardiff and Pontypridd before moving to France.
He’s had eight games off the bench for the Premiership strugglers this term adding up to 112 minutes in all. THE BLUES YOU just don’t know what you’re going to get from the Blues from one week to the next.
Europe is a classic case going from their excellent win down in Lyon to their miserable Arms Park loss to Glasgow the following weekend.
Now back in Guinness PRO14 action it was the off-colour Blues we saw on the weekend in losing to the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.
Coach John Mulvihill could have few arguments with the final result; the Blues were some way shy of their best against a Cheetahs side who thoroughly deserved their first victory of the campaign.
They gifted the hosts the early advantage and didn’t make the most of their own attacking positions - notably when the ball was lost a couple of metres out from the Cheetahs line late in the first half, resulting in a length-of-the-field score for speedster Rabz Maxwane.
With the score at 14-3 at the time, it was a match-defining moment, but it was also a score that summed up a hugely frustrating evening.