174-19... regions suffer but it’s a great weekend
MUCH of the Welsh rugby focus on the weekend was pointed at the autumn international opener with the Wallabies on Saturday evening.
But it didn’t mask a truly lamentable performance from our four Welsh regions in the Anglo-Welsh Cup that provides a solid argument for making it just an Anglo Cup.
The Dragons, Ospreys, Blues and Scarlets crumbled to a combined 174-19 scoreline against Northampton, Wasps, Newcastle and Exeter respectively.
And it just wasn’t the eye-popping scorelines but the manner of the defeats by the Blues (57-0) at Kingston Park and the Dragons (41-7) at Franklin’s Gardens when defences parted like the Red Sea at times.
True the English clubs did have a sprinkling of first team regulars but the Blues were no means short of recognisable names and the same could be said of the Dragons in the east Midlands.
In Newcastle, the Blues had the likes of Rhun Williams, Tom James, George Earle and Jack Roberts among their ranks and the Dragons fielded Ashton Hewitt, Rynard Landman and Pat Howard at the Saints.
The Ospreys fared a little better in losing 36-12 at home to Wasps with a youthful line-up that included lock Rory Thornton and scrum-half Reuben Morgan-Williams.
The Scarlets paid the price for handing 12 players their competitive debuts, and a squad including four teenagers, as they went down 40-0 against Aviva Premiership champions Exeter conceding three penalty tries along the way.
With that in mind we give you Welsh rugby’s winners and losers outside the international arena in Cardiff...
WINNERS
MIKE RUDDOCK It was the perfect weekend for Wales’ Grand Slam winning coach.
Not only did the Lansdowne head coach see his side cement top spot in Division One of the Ulster Bank All Ireland League with a 9-0 victory at twice winners and title rivals Clontarf, but the former flanker and Dragons supremo had time to dash to the Aviva Stadium to watch son Rhys come off the bench to help Ireland to a record 38-3 victory over the Springboks in their opening game of the autumn international series. Ruddock has been the man with the magic touch at Lansdowne, the club that kick-started the rugby careers of seasoned Irish internationals like Gordon D’Arcy and Devin Toner, who became their 100th capped international, when leading the Dubliners to their very first All Ireland in title 2013 and repeated the feat two years later.
Now it seems the ex-Ebbw Vale coach could be in line for a Lansdowne triple crown. PYLE RFC In August we reported how the rugby club with a proud history of punching above its weight to produce Wales and Lions stars could be forced to fold.... after having just THREE players training in the summer.
Pyle took to social media to reveal their plight in raising a team. The Mid Glamorgan club have a proud history in the Welsh game winning the prestigious Silver Ball in 1976 and ‘78 as well as lifting the Division Five Central crown in 2009.
But they were in real danger of folding after 86 years in existence. They have produced a number of Welsh internationals in that time with arguably their greatest player being full-back Jack Bassett, who played five times for the 1930 Lions in New Zealand and Australia.
Scrum-half Clive Shell, full-back Howell Davies and back-rower Tim Fauvel were also former Pyle players to go on and win Welsh caps as did tough-nut prop John Richardson in the late ‘70s while at Aberavon.
The club posted on their Facebook account: “Calling out all rugby players if you fancy a season of pain then Pyle RFC is the place to play this year.
“At this moment we are struggling with only three players training so the chances of having a side this year are very slim.”
‘Slim’ they may have been back in August, but players did answer the clarion call and Pyle reached fifth spot in the table on the weekend with an excellent 55-22 victory at Aberavon Green Stars to leapfrog their hosts in Three West Central A with three wins from seven games thus far. CALLUM SHEEDY The Cardiff-born outside-half qualifies for Wales, Ireland and England and has just penned a new two-year deal with moneybags Bristol.
And judging by their 55-10 demolition of Rotherham Titans in front of a bumper 8,184 crowd at Ashton Gate a swift return to the Aviva Premiership is on the cards for Pat Lam’s side.
And Sheedy certainly played his part on the weekend apart from slotting over four conversions and a neat dropped goal. He provided the moment of the match with a when surrounded by a gaggle of Rotherham defenders and tackled just short of the line he threw a miracle off load into the hands of Tusi Pisi who used all of his power to get over the whitewash. PONTYPRIDD AND NEWPORT There was one winner and one loser at Sardis Road on the weekend but these two Principality Premiership rivals deserve all the plaudits for a game that would struggle to be bettered this season.
Though Ponty emerged 47-45 winners both sides crossed the whitewash seven times to give their respective defence coaches plenty to ponder this week.
Home skipper Dafydd Lockyer was followed over the line by Rhys Shellard, Alex Webber, Geraint Walsh, Morgan Sieniawski, Gary Williams and Diggy Bird. Bird also boasted three conversions and two penalties.
Matt O’Brien was the stand-out man for Newport as he bagged a hat-trick of tries and kicked five conversions.
Henry Palmer crashed over twice with Geraint O’Driscoll and Chay Smith also going over. SCOTT ANDREWS The 13-times capped Welsh tighthead made something of a surprise move to Bath in September on an initial one-month loan deal with the Aviva Premiership giants in the midst of a front-row injury crisis.
He’s seen some action off the bench for The Rec outfit and has now earned himself a two-month extension to his loan period.
And he got 80 minutes under his belt on the weekend and helped a stronglooking Bath outfit avoid an potentially embarrassing home Anglo-Welsh Cup defeat to Leicester on Saturday with the Tigers sending what resembled a third string outfit to the west country.
Trailing 31-19 to a young Tigers outfit in the dying minutes, the powerful Bath scrum took centre stage with a strong surge providing the platform for Zach Mercer to cross and then after back-toback set-piece penalties, the referee eventually ran out of patience and awarded a penalty try two minutes from time, which was enough to decide the spoils. Their reward was a second win of the competition and a place ahead of Wasps at the top of Pool One with two more games to come in January and February.