Cardiff will feature seven new signings in their opening pre-season friendly against Ealing Trailfinders tomorrow at the Trailfinders Sports Club.
You see, if you look at where they are today, it’s not because of what happened last week, last month or last year, it is because of the decisions made a decade, even two decades ago. They closed their academies. Why? I can’t fathom it.
It's semi-finals Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship and following last Tuesday’s weather-affected schedule, the hope will be that all six matches will be played to an 80-minute conclusion unlike on match day three when there were just four and a half matches completed due to the heavy rain making pitches unplayable.
Three matches are scheduled for Athlone: Ireland-Australia (2pm local time), France-Wales (4:30pm) and South Africa-England (7pm). Over in Stellenbosch, it’s Argentina-Fiji (2pm), Georgia-Italy (4:30pm) and New Zealand-Spain (7pm).
Three matches are scheduled for Stellenbosch: Ireland vs Georgia (kick-off 2pm local), France vs New Zealand (4:30pm) and South Africa vs Argentina (7pm). Over in Athlone, Wales vs Spain is the opening match (2pm) followed by England vs Fiji (4:30pm) and Australia vs Italy (7pm).
The Welsh signed off on the recent Six Nations with a fifth place finish following home wins over Scotland and Italy and are now preparing for pool fixtures in Cape Town versus New Zealand, Spain and defending champions France.
It’s safe to say Neath RFC are putting up one heck of a fight - and not for the first time in the club’s proud history.
Waikato will travel back down south this weekend to face Southland Stags at Rugby Park, Invercargill, in week 4 of the Mitre 10 Cup on Sunday afternoon.
Wasps have had a reputation in recent years for only bringing players in from elsewhere, but the revival of their academy has changed that and a new senior management position has been created.