United Rugby Championship

[Son of Mathonwy]

Having said that, the Scarlets look pretty strong:

Scarlets: Johnny McNicholl; Tom Rogers, Jonathan Davies (capt), Scott Williams, Ryan Conbeer; Dan Jones, Gareth Davies; Steff Thomas, Daf Hughes, Harri O'Connor, Sam Lousi, Tom Price, Aaron Shingler, Dan Davis, Sione Kalamafoni.

Replacements: Taylor Davies, Kemsley Mathias, WillGriff John, Blade Thomson, Tomás Lezana, Archie Hughes, Rhys Patchell, Steff Evans.

Wales's loss is the Scarlets' gain, as they have McNicholl, Foxy, Scott Williams, Conbeer, Gareth Davies and Patchell available.

Other than them having no second row cover on the bench, they'll do well to get anything out of this match tbh.

I guess Shingler could help out if needed. They're up against it though.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Way way too many mistakes from the Scarlets. They made it exciting though. Arguably deserved a fourth try but . . . too many mistakes.

[Sourdust]

Half time in Pretoria and my team talk would be: "Okay lads, obviously tackling is off the menu today, so can we have two more tries please? Ta!"

[pompey-zebra]

At last! A Welsh team.wins something! Sharks 0-35 Cardiff. Well done Cardiff! Although it shows how scarring yesterday was that even at 28-0, I was fearing the worst.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Amazing result for Cardiff. That match must have been played in an alternate reality to the rest of Welsh rugby. Can we all go there??

[Sandydragon]

I admit that I saw the score line angry first though was that another Welsh team had just been stuffed. I had to re read it twice to make sure it wasn’t a typo.

Great result Cardiff.

[Sourdust]

I was quite happy about Ospreys getting the BP, but this is something else. I watched the whole match in a state of utter disbelief.

Of course, as others have said, I didn't really believe that Cardiff weren't going to somehow balls it up, until about the 76th minute.

[Sandydragon]

Well the Dragons vs Cardiff game was certainly entertaining. I was hoping that we would finally break the hoodoo but somehow we found a way to lose it. But it was a cracker and both sides went at it big time. the Cardiff backrow had better balance which was a major contributor and they took their chances better. Hewitt butchering an absolute certain try early on set the time a little.

Bit quite a few players were out to make a statement to the Welsh management.

[UKHamlet]

Well the Dragons vs Cardiff game was certainly entertaining. I was hoping that we would finally break the hoodoo but somehow we found a way to lose it. But it was a cracker and both sides went at it big time. the Cardiff backrow had better balance which was a major contributor and they took their chances better. Hewitt butchering an absolute certain try early on set the time a little.

Bit quite a few players were out to make a statement to the Welsh management.

I haven't seen the game - the BBC blocked my attempts to watch it in Africa - but I followed it on the website. Looked a cracker. The Dragons are growing into a real team. Next season, all being well, they'll be a force with which to be reckoned.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Derby time + fighting for the new coach's attention = Two great games

The Dragons weren't hard done by but were pretty unlucky to lose that at the end.

A thumping win by the Ospreys (okay, helped by the red card I suppose ) was a late Christmas present for me. (Even if it was pretty much a bottom of the table clash ). Shame about the interception from Webb but he was excellent otherwise. Everyone was going for it . . . Cuthbert even scored!!. Loved Williams's try at the end.

[Sandydragon]

Well the Dragons vs Cardiff game was certainly entertaining. I was hoping that we would finally break the hoodoo but somehow we found a way to lose it. But it was a cracker and both sides went at it big time. the Cardiff backrow had better balance which was a major contributor and they took their chances better. Hewitt butchering an absolute certain try early on set the time a little.

Bit quite a few players were out to make a statement to the Welsh management.

I haven't seen the game - the BBC blocked my attempts to watch it in Africa - but I followed it on the website. Looked a cracker. The Dragons are growing into a real team. Next season, all being well, they'll be a force with which to be reckoned.

Depends how many players we lose!!!

[Sandydragon]

Derby time + fighting for the new coach's attention = Two great games

The Dragons weren't hard done by but were pretty unlucky to lose that at the end.

A thumping win by the Ospreys (okay, helped by the red card I suppose ) was a late Christmas present for me. (Even if it was pretty much a bottom of the table clash ). Shame about the interception from Webb but he was excellent otherwise. Everyone was going for it . . . Cuthbert even scored!!. Loved Williams's try at the end.

The ref was even handed although I disagreed with only giving Roberts a yellow for his little falling out with young. Both deserved a card for that.

Fair play for that last minute turnover to win the game.

[Sourdust]

Had to watch a home Os game on telly for the first time in years. Great one to miss!

Not a classic, and any gloss taken off by the early red. I can see the technical justification for Williams only getting yellow (of course I can, I'm an Os fan!) but have to admit the incidents look VERY similar; equally bad tackles, with equally serious results, but with minimally (but crucially) different circumstances. I don't envy refs having to sort that out. Had the game been at PyS, might both cards have been different colours?

Still, nice to get 5 points, and great to see that ruthlessness at the end. Someone actually used their brains and realised there was nothing to lose in chancing it (unlike Webb earlier ) and gave the crowd a cheer to go home with. 34-14 flatters us a bit but we're not in a position to be aplogising for that. Scarlets managed to make a fight of it, at least. Patchell was excellent IMO.

Dragons v Cardiff was a really good watch, and a credit to both sides. Massive stones from Cardiff to pull it out of the fire, same-old same-old from Dragons unable to hold on. Dragons have improved a hell of a lot, but still; with them leading, at home, with a minute left, I was confident that Cardiff could score. That's a problem.

[newgalesurf]

Don't want to sound too much like sour grapes as Cardiff did what they had to do to pull out the win, but few questions:

- Thought retaliation would cause a penalty to be reversed, always used to. No issue with the Roberts yellow as it was dumb, but surely the judo throw to the ground deserved a yellow too? I would have expected this to result in both players in the bin and a Dragons penalty (not that this made a difference to the result as Dragons came out of this +6 on scoreboard)

- Also at the end, Cardiff kick to touch on a penalty. The Dragons player launches from well in the playing area and taps the ball back into play. I thought this was valid and would prevent the lineout, or are there different rules on penalties

[Sandydragon]

Don't want to sound too much like sour grapes as Cardiff did what they had to do to pull out the win, but few questions:

- Thought retaliation would cause a penalty to be reversed, always used to. No issue with the Roberts yellow as it was dumb, but surely the judo throw to the ground deserved a yellow too? I would have expected this to result in both players in the bin and a Dragons penalty (not that this made a difference to the result as Dragons came out of this +6 on scoreboard)

- Also at the end, Cardiff kick to touch on a penalty. The Dragons player launches from well in the playing area and taps the ball back into play. I thought this was valid and would prevent the lineout, or are there different rules on penalties

Totally agree on the first point. Both should have receuved a yellow or a bollocking.

For the tap back into play, I think the player now has to start in the field of play and end up back in the field of play as well. I seem to recall that changed a season or 2 ago. Remembering some of the athleticism that ive seen players use to keep the ball in play in that situation, I’m not a fan of that change.

[Sourdust]

For the tap back into play, I think the player now has to start in the field of play and end up back in the field of play as well. I seem to recall that changed a season or 2 ago. Remembering some of the athleticism that ive seen players use to keep the ball in play in that situation, I’m not a fan of that change.

As I understood the law until recently - and as clearly also understood by many officials - there was no such thing as a "plane of touch"; the ball was in play until directly or indirectly grounded out-of-bounds. Effectively, the playing area was the entire atmosphere of the planet, plus the surface of the pitch! Thus you would see players in touch leap into the air to tap back a kick that was headed dead, and all was fine. Now the "plane of touch" is talked about constantly and appears to have been codified?

It's still confusing to me what counts as "in/out of play", as we often see players involved in rucks/mauls who not only break the "plane of touch" with a stray elbow or knee, but actually step INTO touch, and as long as they're not in direct contact with the ball, that seems to be allowed.

[Sourdust]

Quite a drop-off in quality for today's derbies IMO.

Sca / Dra was fairly uninspiring. I'm not sure if 14 men winning a half of rugby 17-0 against 15 men is a credit to the former, or an indictment of the latter. Let's be generous - well played, Scarlets.

Car / Os started promisingly but degenerated into a typical derby arm-wrestle. The conditions mitigate a lot of that, to be fair. I felt a draw was a fair result, Os can't really claim to deserve the win after two such bad mistakes in the dying moments. But we got lucky, and we'll take that.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Quite a drop-off in quality for today's derbies IMO.

Sca / Dra was fairly uninspiring. I'm not sure if 14 men winning a half of rugby 17-0 against 15 men is a credit to the former, or an indictment of the latter. Let's be generous - well played, Scarlets.

Car / Os started promisingly but degenerated into a typical derby arm-wrestle. The conditions mitigate a lot of that, to be fair. I felt a draw was a fair result, Os can't really claim to deserve the win after two such bad mistakes in the dying moments. But we got lucky, and we'll take that.

I thought Moriarty's needling of Kalamafoni had won them the game, but no, there was a gulf between the teams in the second half.

For me, the Ospreys deserved the win because Cardiff should have had someone sent off for accumulation of penalties a long time before the last 7 minutes of the match. Cardiff must have been getting towards 20 penalties by the end. The Ospreys did do their best to hand Cardiff a draw at then end though. Owen Williams had had a great game up till that point. Walsh is a liability at full back although he did have his moments. Tough to be up against Liam Williams though.

[Graigwen]

For the tap back into play, I think the player now has to start in the field of play and end up back in the field of play as well. I seem to recall that changed a season or 2 ago. Remembering some of the athleticism that ive seen players use to keep the ball in play in that situation, I’m not a fan of that change.

As I understood the law until recently - and as clearly also understood by many officials - there was no such thing as a "plane of touch"; the ball was in play until directly or indirectly grounded out-of-bounds. Effectively, the playing area was the entire atmosphere of the planet, plus the surface of the pitch! Thus you would see players in touch leap into the air to tap back a kick that was headed dead, and all was fine. Now the "plane of touch" is talked about constantly and appears to have been codified?

It's still confusing to me what counts as "in/out of play", as we often see players involved in rucks/mauls who not only break the "plane of touch" with a stray elbow or knee, but actually step INTO touch, and as long as they're not in direct contact with the ball, that seems to be allowed.

Requiring players and officials to take account of an invisible boundary seems to me to be an invitation to confusion and argument. I see no benefit in asking officials to judge whether wind has blown a ball back into "play" after it has broken the so called plane of touch. I strongly believe that for the playing area to be "Effectively, the playing area was the entire atmosphere of the planet, plus the surface of the pitch! " would make the game easier to officiate. More important than that, it would improve the game as a spectacle and reward athleticism.

Rugby is a complex game that does require constant modification of laws. It is the opposite of football (soccer) where the aim should be to keep rules as simple as possible. Of course we need to give priority to safety, but also improve the sense of theatre.

.

[Wallpaperman]

Quite a drop-off in quality for today's derbies IMO.

Sca / Dra was fairly uninspiring. I'm not sure if 14 men winning a half of rugby 17-0 against 15 men is a credit to the former, or an indictment of the latter. Let's be generous - well played, Scarlets.

Car / Os started promisingly but degenerated into a typical derby arm-wrestle. The conditions mitigate a lot of that, to be fair. I felt a draw was a fair result, Os can't really claim to deserve the win after two such bad mistakes in the dying moments. But we got lucky, and we'll take that.

I thought Moriarty's needling of Kalamafoni had won them the game, but no, there was a gulf between the teams in the second half.

For me, the Ospreys deserved the win because Cardiff should have had someone sent off for accumulation of penalties a long time before the last 7 minutes of the match. Cardiff must have been getting towards 20 penalties by the end. The Ospreys did do their best to hand Cardiff a draw at then end though. Owen Williams had had a great game up till that point. Walsh is a liability at full back although he did have his moments. Tough to be up against Liam Williams though.

The scrum was pretty key in both games. Thought Cardiff v Ospreys was going to be an open game, but it started to rain heavily after about 15 minutes. Owen Williams must have been hugely relieved to see Evans get too low on his place kick at the end. Great to see a full house.

[Wallpaperman]

Same again for the Dragons after the first 15, getting killed in the scrums. 10-0 down, scrum half in the bin and looks like a penalty try for the Bulls too.

Gonna be a long night I think

[pompey-zebra]

Try Bradley Robert's. Good response from the dragons. Sam Davies converts.

[Wallpaperman]

Fair play to the Dragons, some sustained pressure on the Bulls’ line and a nice lineout move sees Bradley Roberts in at the corner, quality conversion too from Sam Davies. 7-17 after about 25 minutes

[Wallpaperman]

Oof. Some great hands in midfield from the Dragons, looks like they had a 2 on 1, but great tap tackle on Rhodri Williams. Penalty Dragons though

[Wallpaperman]

Dragons get to the 5 metre line, ref incorrectly deems the ball unplayable. Dragons killed again at the scrum, penalty Bulls to clear their lines