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LONG READ 'If any Welsh side makes the URC knockout games, it will be worth applauding’

'If any Welsh side makes the URC knockout games, it will be worth applauding’
1 month ago

When the Ospreys clinched the old Celtic League title by beating Border Reivers at Galashiels in 2007, champagne toasts and hip, hip, hoorays from those running the region were conspicuous by their absence immediately after the game.

Smiles frequently gave way to serious faces during post-match interviews.

The following morning then head coach Lyn Jones woke to a newspaper story claiming he faced the sack. Jones stayed in post for another year, but back then league silverware wasn’t seen as enough for the Ospreys, who were looking to Europe to sate their ambitions.

Shane Williams
The Ospreys side which won league titles in 2007, 2010 and 2012 was laden with Wales stars (Photo David Rogers/Getty Images)

Cardiff and the Scarlets similarly had designs on prospering against the best the continent could offer. Maybe the strong second-placed league finish for the capital club that year and a creditable fourth-placed return for their west Wales rivals wouldn’t have prompted too many renditions of Happy Days Are Here Again at either of those regions, either, such were the aspirations back then.

So what amounts to a glass half-full campaign for the Welsh pro sides these days?

Rewind to the start of the season and there were plenty who expected the four, operating on modest £4.5million budgets, to be the United Rugby Championship’s whipping boys, but heading into last weekend, the penultimate round of an 18-game term, the Scarlets, Cardiff and Ospreys were all chasing top-eight finishes and play-off spots.

Scarlets, Cardiff and Ospreys have won 24 league games this term, compared with Munster, Ulster and Connacht boasting 20 between them.

Against the expectations of many, the trio have proved largely competitive in the league.

Indeed, their efforts compare favourably with those of the Irish sides other than exceptionally well-heeled Leinster, who stand apart with a players’ budget that some estimate at £12million and others suggest could exceed £14 million.

Scarlets, Cardiff and Ospreys have won 24 league games this term, compared with Munster, Ulster and Connacht boasting 20 between them.

The Scarlets trek into the final round in sixth, having picked up momentum the longer the season has gone on, with their win over the Lions extending their run of recent successes in the league to four. They have profited from some shrewd business last summer that saw Marnus van der Merwe, Blair Murray, Ellis Mee, Henry Thomas, Alec Hepburn and Max Douglas among those welcomed through the arrivals’ lounge in Llanelli. Credit Dwayne Peel, James Davies and anyone else involved in the recruitment process out west: a sharp eye for a player and advanced powers of persuasion are key to any team-building story.

Marnus van der Merwe
Marnus van der Merwe has been a powerful force for Scarlets on both sides of the ball (Photo Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

All the above have delivered for the Scarlets, with Van der Merwe and Murray the standouts, the latter impressing enough to merit Wales caps in the Six Nations and a mention in multiple Lions tour squad conversations.

Skilful and with an eye for a gap, the 23-year-old is an easy-on-the-eye player who obviously didn’t receive the memo advising that a Murray should never be hurried. This one can move from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye and has a penchant for scoring tries, with 12 to his name in all games this term, including five over his last five outings.

But every side needs grunt to complement the pretty stuff and Van der Merwe has helped supply it for the Scarlets. After an especially strong effort from the bearded hooker against the Stormers in Llanelli in March, a South African journalist compared him to Malcolm Marx, saying he’d had the visitors’ breakdown in chaos.

Opponents know all about it when they run into Marnus on the gainline, with more than one having cause to reflect this season on the extra meaning that can be loaded into the phrase ‘hit by a van’.

The man from Nelspruit also carries hard and finds his lineout targets, while ball-carrying opponents know all about it when they run into Marnus on the gainline, with more than one having cause to reflect this season on the extra meaning that can be loaded into the phrase ‘hit by a van’.

Little wonder the Springboks are showing interest in him.

Others to the fore for the west Walians include Gareth Davies, Vaea Fifita, Sam Lousi, Taine Plumtree and Josh Macleod. Plumtree missed out on Six Nations selection but in recent weeks he has been putting forward a strong case for a recall.

He occasionally walks a fine line with his discipline but at 6ft 5in and 17st he packs a presence and can impose himself physically, as he showed against the Lions. His region have used him a lot at No. 8 since Sione Kalamafoni’s departure and he has shown up strongly, but many Scarlets watchers believe he can be even more effective as a six. Wherever he plays, he catches the eye.

Taulupe Faletau
Taulupe Faletau has shown his enduring class for Cardiff but it was not enough to earn a fourth Lions tour (Photo Huw Fairclough/Getty Images)

What of the rest? Cardiff dropped out of the play-off spots after a blank return from their date with the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld – the toughest away fixture in the league, according to Matt Sherratt – and so need to dig out a big performance for their final game against the Stormers in Cape Town.

The Welsh team’s season has been blighted by running aground financially, with the Welsh Rugby Union needing to step in with a rescue package, none of which is the fault of players and coaches at the Arms Park, who have overseen a better campaign.

The assumption is stationery shops in the Welsh capital might have been pushed to cope with extra demand for pens and paper last week from those keen to fire off letters of complaint to Lions coach Andy Farrell after the omission of Taulupe Faletau from the squad to tour Australia. There again, maybe the green ink era is well and truly behind us and a fusillade of emails would have done the job. Whatever, the decision to pass over Faletau for the trip to Australia wouldn’t have floated too many boats in CF10.

From a Lions perspective, the hope is Farrell doesn’t come to regret the call to make the back row a Toby-less zone.

A look at the tape of his effort off the bench against the Bulls last Saturday reinforced the view that there could well have been a significant selection misstep, with the 110-cap forward putting in 13 carries in 17 minutes.

So what if he’s 34? Last weekend he played like he was 24.  From a Lions perspective, the hope is Farrell doesn’t come to regret the call to make the back row a Toby-less zone.

The Ospreys? They’ll be disappointed at the way their campaign has veered off the road of late. Wins over the Stormers, Benetton and Glasgow Warriors, at Scotstoun, have been among the season’s highlights, but they haven’t looked the same since failing to make the most of home advantage in the European Challenge Cup quarter-final against Lyon, who have since gone on to reach the final.

Jac Morgan
Ospreys flanker Jac Morgan was the only player from a Welsh side to make the Lions squad (Photo Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)

Just a couple of points separated the sides in Swansea on the second weekend in April. Doubtless, the Ospreys will be lamenting that it could have been them facing Bath in the showpiece in Cardiff on 23 May, but such are the fine margins in top-end sport. Chances need to be taken.

Pluses over the year include the efforts of Kieran Hardy, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Morgan Morris, Harri Deaves, Justin Tipuric, Jack Walsh and the redoubtable Jac Morgan, a player who seems to find new ways to excel every time he takes the field.

Those searching for negatives over the regional campaign won’t take too long to find what they are looking for. The Dragons have once again bombed on all fronts, no Welsh side was left standing at the business end of European competition, just one player from the regions has made the Lions squad and off-field arguments still rage about finances and the way forward for the Welsh game.

If Welsh rugby made Ben-Hur, watchers would be looking for the wheels to come off Charlton Heston’s chariot the moment it came out of the shop.

“If I made Cinderella, the audience would be looking out for a body in the coach,” said Alfred Hitchcock. If Welsh rugby made Ben-Hur, watchers would be looking for the wheels to come off Charlton Heston’s chariot the moment it came out of the shop.

And yet on the pitch it hasn’t been a complete cave-in from three of the pro sides over the past eight months.

Glass half full, then? It depends how much weight is given to the adversity factor.

From here, the handicap of pitifully modest budgets has been huge to deal with.

Under those circumstances, if any Welsh side makes the URC knockout games, it will be an effort worth applauding.

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Comments

3 Comments
S
SK 37 days ago

If Scarlets qualify as they should well do from this position then well done to them. That is a good solid effort after a long hard season and a tangible improvement from them. Ospreys have to be disappointed with their season, Cardiff making the play offs would be great but the task may be beyond them this weekend against a highly motivated stormers side determined to finish fifth so that they can possibly have a crack at the Sharks should they lose

c
ch 37 days ago

Good luck to Cardiff and Scarlets but I think it is a sad state of affairs if we consider 8th place worthy of applause. I think Scarlets will make the play offs but not Cardiff.

c
ch 37 days ago

It is somewhat misleading to compare the number of wins of the 3 strongest Welsh regions with the 3 least strong Irish regions. The significance is the region from each country omitted from the equation. Dragons in Wales and Leinster in Ireland. If the 3 stronger Welsh regions played Leinster twice instead of Dragons twice and vice versa for the 3 weaker Irish regions then the Irish teams would have more wins than the Welsh teams.

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