Scarlets Fever: Let's discuss Llandovery and Foxy!

Welcome to Scarlet's Fever, the home of Sussman Central and Westerer is Besterer. Hello and welcome to Scarlet's Fever, the Scarlet's Fan Podcast bringing you everything you need to know in the world of Scarlet this week, and you need to know a lot, trust me. Joining me this week as ever is Carwyn. Carwyn, how's it going, mate? Very good, thank you. Yeah, better than the weather's turned now, it's because I'm the rugby really, but no, it's good to be back as we, what, discuss the end of season in May. In May, yes, exactly. So no Big M and no Lee Griff with us tonight. Unfortunately Big M is off sunning himself, he's a Turk in Turkey this week. And Lee, as we know, is trying to step back from podcasting because he does it too much and he's in trouble all the time for always being podcasting where he should be doing important things like mowing the lawn or stuff. Have you been doing outside jobs since the weather's been nice, mate? Well, I've done a few bits and bobs last week. Didn't do much over the, I had a quieter weekend this weekend. Managed to burn my face though, but no, I haven't started any heavy summer duty jobs yet. I had a go at washing the patio. I did not do a very good job. I need to have another go. The Jetwash has got a specific attachment, I think, which are four patios, but it's just not very good. It just leaves like, and the amount of grime, because the patio, we haven't done the patio here ourselves. So it's still the same one to the people that we bought the house off. And for some reason they put light coloured stones down. So it's just like the difference between a clean and slightly dirty is like night and day. It's a nightmare. Yeah, yeah. Well, Lee's probably got a month of rain now, so don't need to worry about it till middle of July, probably. Probably, that's the kicker. So for those who are watching on YouTube will have noticed, and the people who listen to the audio version are about to learn, you're wearing a well-known and famous or infamous Scarlett's kit this week. You're wearing the famous rhubarb and custard yellow top pink shorts kit. Not my favourite kit, I have to say. As I explained to you off air, I could, I think it could be done, but the transitional blend from the pink shorts to the yellow torso, I think looks quite unsavoury, but you were telling me that you think you like it. Yeah, it wasn't the probably, it's not probably the most flattering of kits, but it's a bit different. It's one of those kits where I bought it because I thought the likelihood of us ever getting a kit like this again is small. It's a good talking point. It's handy for away trips, if people are trying to find you. I remember going on a cold Friday night to, was it Franklin Gardens or Welford Road? I can't remember, but somebody spotted me in the crowd within minutes wearing this, on telly with this shirt, and proceeded to tweet me or Facebook me. So it's one of those that it's easy to spot in a crowd. But yeah, I thought with the leavers this being announced, it's time to get some old shirts out of the wardrobe and give them a dust down for the end of season shenanigans. Who's the manufacturer on that one? Is it Cougar? It is Cougar indeed. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Decent hit rate for Cougar I feel like. I mean, you've not been on the pod long enough to hear my Castor rants. I'm not a fan of the Castor design. And I think, you know, people didn't like Macron when we had them. I think Macron have got better a lot since. But just Castor ones don't do it for me at all. No, I've got to agree with you there. Old school is better. Yeah, definitely. Right. Lots to get through this week. There's so much news, you can't believe quite how much news there is. And we'll start off with the good news. And that is the incredible, undefeatable Frandovrig have secured. It says here the treble. We'll talk about that in a second. But once again, defended their premiership title at home, beating Newport 14 points to seven, which is not a scoreline that these teams will face very often. I didn't manage to catch much of this. Did you manage to catch much of this one, mate? I watched the highlights. I was hoping to get down there, but other things cropped up in the end. So I've sort of recorded it and then fast forwarded it after. And yeah, as you say, 14-7, not a scoreline that either side will have been familiar with this season. Even when they played each other, the winning team has sort of comfortably won in both fixtures prior to the final. But home advantage, really, isn't it? And I guess with the two teams being so close in every sort of stat across the league this year, there's always going to be one of those close-run finals. I'm probably fine. I know the scoreline on top one, but in terms of how close it was, it's probably what the final deserved, really, because both teams felt they'd probably done enough to win the league throughout the year. Yeah. I mean, fair play to Newport. I've watched them a lot on SLC this year, and they've been a great watch, and they've got some great players. Obviously, delighted that Randoviri got the job done. It was a very, very tense game. I think Randoviri were hanging on by the skin of their teeth for periods, especially in the second half that I watched. They didn't manage to catch the whole game. And I've got to be impressed by the fact that, other than each other, there was no team in the ground that was on their level. And so both teams haven't had to do much defending all year, much last-ditch. And Randoviri's last-ditch defending was absolutely sensational. The number of times that one of Newport's flying wingers was through, and you thought, it's try time here, and then Randoviri comes out of absolutely nowhere and just takes them to ground with a metre to spare. Absolutely fantastic. In terms of Scarlett's players on the pitch, we had Ed Scragg and Max Page. We also had Harry Thomas and, I think, is it Kieran Abraham in the 23 as well? They were both on the bench. So yeah, on the treble side of it, so the treble is defined as PUP winners, league leaders and league winners. Is that a treble? Is league leaders, is that not on the same level as the other two? Well, I don't know, because in rugby league, the league leaders of the Super League get handed a trophy, and then there's a separate one for winning the playoffs. I don't know if it's the same with the Welsh Prem, I don't know, but it's a bit tedious, but because it's Santa Fe and they're within our region, I will definitely say they've won the treble. Had it been a team outside the region, it would probably have been a dubious double, but it's sort of whatever you want to call it. It's no mean feat to do it, especially when they've been pushed so hard by Newport this year. It's a shame that one of them had to lose, because they've both 104, 105 points over 24 games. It's bonkers. I think off the top of my head, that means out of 24 matches, we've got 21 games where they've had a bonus point victory, which is pretty special. I know there's probably a big gap between the top and the bottom, but yeah, you've still got to go out and do it over 24 rounds is pretty spectacular. Yeah, I think for me, having to beat this Newport team to do it makes it a hell of an achievement. It's a bit of a shame that this Newport team, I don't know, they might go on and win it next year, who knows, but it's a bit of a shame that it will be forgotten, because it will just look like our Llandewi were in a dominant era, whereas actually no, this Newport team is absolutely class and a lot of their players will be playing for the Dragons next year, I've got no doubt to them. Yeah, that's the thing, isn't it? I think we're more likely to see more of the Llandewi players in the EDC than the Newport players, because they'll get promoted to the region based on how they've played this year, because yeah, they've been a catch to the team. That's a good point, actually. That's another angle that I haven't seen anybody talk about is Llandewi's last ever Welsh Friendship title as we know it. They're not playing in this competition anymore, they're joining the EDC now, so they'll be shooting to be the first ever EDC champions. So it's a big deal, basically, is what I'm saying. Something that you and the boys on Odd Cymru spoke about was the reason why it was slightly difficult for Scarlet's fans to watch this game, and that's because it clashed directly with the Scarlet's game. So Scarlet's game kicked off at five minutes past three, Llandewi kicked off at 20 minutes to three, which is a weird kickoff time anyway. For those of us not blessed with the best language in the world, mate, what was the point that you guys were making over on that pod? Well, it's a bit disappointing, really, isn't it? Obviously, we didn't know when the pictures came out who'd be the two teams in the final, but when you think about it, a large chunk of Llandewi fans might have also wanted to watch the Scarlet's and vice versa, especially with the weather as it was. Many people who would have liked Parker Scarlet's had the games not clashed might have tried to do both, because both would have been done possible had they had some of the stupid kickoffs we tend to see with rugby these days. But it was just a bit of disappointment that they'd clashed in a way where you couldn't enjoy both matches, because obviously, as well, with it being Scarlet's last home game on Saturday, then there was a lot of farewells, goodbyes, fans loud on the pitch at the end of the game, and just sort of clash that with, arguably, the biggest game in the Welsh premiership calendar. Probably, it's not the biggest Welsh game in the Welsh premiership calendar. It was just poor planning. Why not have the premiership final on the Sunday, just so that gives an opportunity for more people to go and watch it? Because it wasn't the best game in terms of size scoring for the neutral, but for rugby fans, it was a real tussle between the two best amateur sides in Wales this year. Yeah, definitely. I know that kickoff signs are a sore subject for many people, and there will be people who think that Scarlet should have moved. But there was no, there's literally no rugby on Sunday. It was a bit of an open goal for me. So I know the reasons why people don't like games on Sundays. But for me, I think someone should have gone. It just begs the question, like, is anybody even having that conversation? Is anybody even saying behind the scenes, hang on a minute, we've got a bit of a clash here. Let's move things around. It's just disappointing. Oh, well, the whole, the full 80 is on YouTube, if people do want to watch it on S4C's YouTube channel. You can watch the whole thing there. And if you don't speak Welsh, there is English language comms as well for it, if you're interested. So congratulations to Flandovry. If we now look down to Championship West. Okay, so I'm about to do Mark's famous spreadsheet. Okay, he has already made fun of me for not being able to pronounce all the names. So I'm going to try and you're probably going to have to correct me. Okay, no problem. Champions of Championship West was Narbeth, promoted overall. So obviously, with the EDC happening, lots of teams are getting promoted this year. So promoted was Narbeth, Brecon, Llangenech, Pontymine and Newcastle Emlyn. Division One West, there was one game this week, it was Llanelli Wanderers against Gowerton and Llanelli won that one 27 points to 25. There's a star against Gowerton's result. I don't know what the star means. But anyway, I've decided that in the championship next year, I'm going to support Llanelli Wanderers because it seems like a fun club with things happening. So yeah, so champions we already know in the league with Llanelli Wanderers, they did the double winning the cup as well. Promoted was Llanelli Wanderers, Gorsanen and Gowerton. Relegated was Wittland, which is a bit of a shame. I believe that's John Fox's club, more on him later. Division One West Central champions Gleneast, promoted Gleneast, Tondi and Knessig Hill, is that right? I think it's Knessig Hill, I think. Yes, it is. Sorry, that's just me not being able to read, not me not being able to pronounce. And then relegated was Bryn Amyn. Then going into Division Two West, Milford, bloody hell, Milford 71, Amun United 19. And then it was Fishcars 41, Amun United again 7. So Amun United had eight games in 24 days, which might assure me is 35% of Amun United's season was played in the space of 24 days. Yeah, fair play for them to get the fixers done, isn't it? As in, that's no mean feat. Yeah, I hope they had a bit of a party at the end to celebrate it. So champions of Division Two West was St Clair's, promoted was St Clair's and Tenby, relegated was Turquoise, Ponte Baren, I'm sorry, I'm not very good at reading, and Amun United. So Amun ended up going down again to that, it's a shame, they'll feel hard done by. Division Three West A champions, Lahn, promoted Lahn, relegated Neyland, St David's, Pembroke, Pembroke.Queens, Fran Gwim and Fran Abadda. I guess this is all to do with the restructuring. Division Three West B, Betis were beaten 37 points to 33 by Flandailo. Kev Nathan beat Betis again, so Betis two games this week, 64 points to 26. Flandailo beat Binya, 45 points to 19. So champions was Betis despite those two defeats, promoted again Betis and then relegated. Newport, New Dock Stars were relegated. Trim Saron, Furness, Flanderby, Binya and Trigarum. Again, what's that? One, two, three, four, five, six, relegated there. There was apparently two postponements in Division Five West Central. Ponce Yates and Kumrach was postponed, as was Penneback and Kumrach. I guess. So it says here that Kumrach were removed from the league. So when you're back, you'll have to tell us why. I'm sure there's a story. There's a story there somewhere. Yeah. Seven Sisters beat Pantephenon. Pantephenon, thank you. 85 points to 14. And then champions with Seven Sisters and promoted with Seven Sisters and Ringos. I think that's it. There's a WRU Youth Trophies here at the end. I don't know whether that's this week or not. So we'll save that for Mark when he comes back, because we know he loves his youth trophies. Can I chuck in a bit of other community news then? Yeah, go on. A bit of a shout out for Snelly Warriors, the all-inclusive team based out of Snelly. They played their 400th game in their history over the weekend, where they drew 31-1 with Buryport. They played their whole matches at Buryport RFC, so it was a big celebration. Since 1994, the club have played 400 games and they go all over the country. I think some of them have even travelled the world playing. So a big shout out to Snelly Warriors and the amazing work that they do as a club. Fantastic. Great way to end the community section. So that's more or less the end of the season now, unless Mark brings a surprise to us next week. I guess the next topic for us to talk about then, moving on from that, is big news around Foxy and player departures this week. So let's start with the most talked about one, which will be Foxy. He's leaving the club. He's not announced that he's retired, but he has announced that he's leaving Scarlett after 16 years, I want to say. In 2008, he made his debut. He had a couple of years at Claremont, but we won't talk about those. How do you sum up a player like Foxy playing for the Scarletts? It's a dream really. It's been a dream to support, to follow. Funny enough, I played cricket with Foxy back in 2014. He was a very fast bowler, but he was a feared bowler at that age playing for Whitlam Cricket Club. But no, he's a very humble guy. He was just on the field. He just did things that most players dream of doing. He's another one of those where he's of a group of players that, unfortunately, have all retired at the same time. That's just another legend. I saw somebody call him the goat. It's hard to disagree because, be it in a red shirt of Scarlett, Wales or even the Lions, he was magnificent. Gatland picked him over Brian Driscoll when Brian Driscoll was one of the best players in the world, and Foxy never looked out of place. That's the calibre of player he is. It's interesting that he's not choosing to retire. I'd imagine he fancies a year or two in the sun somewhere again. MLR, I'm feeling. Go play with Rob Evans at Miami or something like that, or LA. Go play somewhere like that. Why not have two years in the sun of Miami and then sail off into the sunset with a lovely pay packet to end your career on? He's been magnificent. It's an honour to have been able to watch him play for the Scarletts. Definitely. I couldn't agree more with everything that you said. It's a bit of a shame, really, the way that he probably hasn't gone out on his terms. He got that knee injury at the 2019 World Cup, and he never really came back from that. He managed to get another championship with Wales, playing in the 12 jersey under Pivac. When players retire, I go and I try to put a couple of clips together and share them on socials and things. Even when I was doing clips for Ken Owens and George North, Foxy was in all those clips. You watch them and you think, my God, this guy is terrifying. He is stupid good. People don't think of him as being Pacey. In 2017 against the All Blacks for the Lions, he turned and caught Bowden Barrett from a standing start in defence. That's how quick he was. And I guess people remember the yard of Pacey's loss. Of course, the handoff is infamous and probably the thing that we remembered most for, but don't forget as well, he was the best defensive 13 in the world as well. So his game reading was flawless. He had that incredible combination with two inside centres, Jamie Roberts and then Adley Parks. Really, at his peak, which lasted probably from 2012 to 2019, the best 13 in the world, I have no argument. And definitely the best back that the Scarletts have produced in the professional era. And it's just about everything. So obviously, I was watching 2017 clips. And the way that we did this thing of overloading the far touchline with three players, and it would be Steph Evans right on the touchline, Foxy one inside him, and then a player on the inside. And the play was, get the ball to Foxy in the tramline, and then a try will happen. And it was like literally from our own 22. And whether it was a kick or a handoff or a line break or an offload, it resulted in a try every single time. It was ridiculous. And he could burn people for pace. He's just a completely flawless player. And just so grateful that he's played for my team, all of the teams that I support. And let's just remember him for his peak and just best of luck team. Like you say, go and sit on the beach somewhere collecting a fat pay packet, Foxy, and continue being a legend. By the way, no one has anything bad to say about him. He's never been involved in any controversies. We spoke to Scott Sneddon on here. And we were like, what car does Foxy drive? He must drive a nice car. And Scott Sneddon was like, no, he just drives a normal car, normal bloke. And let's be honest, he looks damn good as well. Let's just be up front. Yeah. So DR Foxy is, I think, all we get to say. Right. So he was sort of the headline lever amongst all the levers. I'm going to share the screen now because Mark's spreadsheet is all about the squad. He's got a spreadsheet all about the squad, of course he does. And he's kindly highlighted all the players that have left. Have I shared that? Hosted disabled screen sharing. Oh, bugger. Right. OK. I'll do my best to describe it. So a lot of levers. A lot of levers. So let me just count. Hang on. In terms of just players. Now, they've included the likes of Samson Lee and Johnny McNichol in this. He obviously left a few months ago. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, including Academy players, which is, by the way, more than last season. So kind of what was your reaction to seeing the list? The size of it surprised me and worried me a bit, because obviously when you see, as you say, 17 names on a list of levers, it does sort of beg the question, where does that leave us? And whilst a lot of the names, I sort of expected them to be there. And as you say, a few players have already left before this list was announced. But the big shock for me was Ryan Combie. Ryan Combie had been on the list. And just sort of, I don't know, because obviously his strike record was 33 tries in 78 games, which isn't all that prolific, but in a team that's been struggling to score tries. And when you think about this season, most of his appearances have been maybe off the bench, so it hasn't been a full 80. It's quite a good strike rate. So I don't know what the reason is. It's a bit of a shock, really, that his name was on there. I did expect to see a wingers list that hadn't already left on the list then, but I didn't think it would have been Ryan Combie who we'd be losing. So all rugby only has him down for 66 matches to the Scarlets. All rugby can be a bit iffy sometimes. I thought it said 78 in the Scarlets. It did say 78 in the Scarlets. So I do go with the Scarlets one. Apparently 58. So all rugby has him down as 26 tries in 58 starts. But I go with the Scarlets. What I will say about the Scarlets statement about Ryan Combie is it just says, Ryan Combie played for the Scarlets. He scored 33 tries in 78 games. And that was it. Yeah, I don't know what we can read into that. Maybe the thing, maybe overthinking it, but it wasn't a whole lot of praise. Compare it to Dinkie, for example, who's also leaving. Everyone else above him in the list has got three lines. He's got one. Yeah. I mean, we didn't really understand why he wasn't playing so much. I can only assume there's been some kind of fallout, to be honest. And that's pure speculation. I don't know anything. But just the way it's ended is just odd. I saw Dragons fans tweeting, obviously tweeting in a joking way, looking at a leavers list and like, well, which one of these do you reckon we should pick up? And we know all the Scarlets. What's his name? Baldwin, Corey Baldwin. He's leaving to go and play in Australia. I think Ryan Combie really does a job for the Dragons. I think he's easily good enough to keep playing. Oh, definitely. If you imagine Combie and Rizzo on the wings, they'd be quite decent. That's a good combination. So if I go down the list then and then I can use my spreadsheet to explain. Now, for some reason, Mark has highlighted leavers in green, which is the opposite colour to what I've used. Although, now I said that, I'm worried he's red, green, colourblind. I'm sure he'll let me know in the group chat. Either way around. So in the prop department, we've lost two loose heads this season. Steph Thomas has gone to Ospreys, which we know already. Wynne Jones has also left. Now, a lot of Scarlet fans aren't happy about this. And there's a lot of rumours about the nature in which this has happened. Now, we won't comment on those because we don't know. We don't know. There's a lot of people are saying the same rumour that it's not ended in a great way. What do you make of that? He's been covering both sides of the scrum this season. Would you have kept him on? Or do you think it was time to move on? I would have definitely kept him on. But obviously, I'm not privy to anything that's gone on behind the scenes or any conversations that have happened amongst players, coaches, etc, etc. But I think I thought it was inevitable that he would be leaving at the end of the season. I think it'll be interesting to see where he goes next. Again, I think he's only 30, maybe 31. So he's got plenty of years left in him. Obviously, he does have a heavy part to play in the family farm. So I can't imagine him wanting to move too far. So will another region be looking at him or possibly a Gaelic apprenticeship club just across the bridge, who I think also released 17 players from their playing squad. So they might be looking to bolster in certain areas of the field. But yeah, again, it's a shame in how it's ended, because I don't think he's been treated with the respect he deserves. I think he's got 50 plus caps for Wales. He's a test lion. He's gone into professional rugby the hard way, not from an academy, but by learning his trade. He's played against men for the best part of 10, 14, 10, well, say 12 years then. So he's gone about it the right way. And yeah, whatever's happened is a shame that it ends like this. But again, I'm sure he'll be picked up because he's too good to be retiring now from professional rugby. So that leaves us in the loose head department with Kelsey Macias, Sam O'Connor, who we've barely seen, and Josh Morse, his senior academy. We haven't seen him either. We know he's signed Alec Hepburn. So you'd say Macias and Hepburn is our number one, number two, number one, and Sam O'Connor to get a bit more game time. Sam O'Connor, I think, played in the game against Leinster earlier on in the season. I'm not sure how many other games he's got for us this season. So a bit, well, definitely worse off as far as we know, next season. Tight heads, Joe Jones has left. Oh, well, without being horrible. Next time the Alesharks ring us up and say we've got a tight head for you, put the phone down. Yeah, don't answer. Do you know what? It's not even, we can't even really comment about him as a player because he's barely played. No, exactly. Yeah, it's just how they work out and yeah. Yeah. So best of luck in the future, Joe. So that leaves us with Harry O'Connor and Sam Wainwright, pretty happy with that. And then there's Will Couch, his senior academy, but I don't think we'll see him much. So I think we should be bringing in another tight head. We know that Samson Lee's left as well, although he hasn't played for a long time as well. Hooker, we've lost Ken Owens. Edwin Swart is going back down to South Africa and Lewis Morgan has been released from the senior academy. So at the moment, we've got Ryan Elias and Sean Evans are the two senior hookers in the squad. And then there's Harry Thomas as well in the senior academy who played for Llanddowri this season. Yeah, you'd expect it. Oh, and we signed the guy from the Cheetahs. Oh, yes, we did. Marnus van der Merwe, something like that. Yeah, Marnus van der Merwe, so he's coming in. So not too bad in the hooking department. Well, I don't know, because you presume Ryan will be involved with the Welsh squad again, so that rules him out for a large chunk of the year. Do we need one more as cover or do you just promote from the academy as and when we need if there's games on during the entire period? If only Ryan is getting picked, then I think if you've got van der Merwe, Sean Evans and Harry Thomas, hopefully getting a few more games, I think you're okay on paper. When you pick up a couple of injuries, you start looking a bit shaky. But I think that's true pretty much across the board. Of course. We've got Isaac Young as well, Senior Academy as well. Right. Locke is interesting. Locke is interesting because no one has been announced as leaving. We haven't lost a Locke and we're still rumoured to be signing more. Max Douglas and another guy from Exeter, whose name escapes me. So we've still got Sam Lousey, Veth Vita, Morgan Jones, Jack Price, Alex Craig, Ed Scragg, Olly Close and Senior Academy as well. And of course, Karin Plumtree can play there as well. So we're actually stacked for Locke. Now, of course, we've got three injured at the moment. So we kind of need to be stacked. But it's odd to me that we're rumoured to be signing more. Maybe they thought Lousey was leaving and him staying has changed that plans or something. But whenever people talk about signing for the Scarlets, people always say, oh, you need more Locke. But we've actually got loads. Yeah, I think they're sort of looking more and more at versus how players can probably play in the back row or in the second row and just change, chop and change as they need. It'd be interesting to see, because obviously there's been a few rumours maybe around one of our other Locke's potentially leaving. Craig, I've heard a few rumours that he could be a target for, I want to say Edinburgh, but I might be wrong there. He levels them up something. He levels them up a lot. Yeah, and especially the way he's sort of played these last couple of months. I know he's picked up a knock, but he's just, he became another Jake Ball overnight almost. I don't want to sort of, not name Alex Fahey himself, but yeah, he's just, he's become a different player and he's sort of made that starting second row position next to Sam Lousey's, his own. And yeah, it's sort of taking the chance when you get it really, isn't it? Yeah. So not showing for depth in the Locke's department at the moment. Back row, so a lot of people were expecting, there was no official rumours, but there were people I think expecting announcements of leavers in the back row. So Ewan Shenton and Luca Giannini are both leaving, I believe, both senior academy. So no full senior players are leaving. So Josh McLeod is staying. He was one person that some people thought might be on his way. Dan Davis, Cohen Tupelo, Tame Plumtree, Jared Taylor. Eddie Leatherbarrow is another one that people thought might be off currently, as far as we know, is on the books still. And Ben Williams, of course, is going absolutely nowhere. Not too much to talk about there, I don't think. Obviously, the attrition rate in our back row has been horrendous as it has been for most back rows, to be honest. Going into scrum half, we know that Kieran Hardy is leaving. Not fussed about that particularly because we've never struggled for scrum half depth and we never will, I don't think. Dan Jones is leaving in the fly half department though. So what do you make of that then? So our fly half options next year will be Costello, Titcom and Ewan Lloyd. Are you happy with those three? Do you think we need more specialist cover or do you think we can piece it together with our utility backs? I think we'll be able to piece it together, to be honest with you. I think Sam Costello's career has probably been a few years ahead of what people were expecting. So he's become a senior player at a very young age, where maybe people didn't expect him to be this far forward already. And Dan Jones is just a solid cover to have for that. But now, I think Dan Jones has been a great servant. He probably didn't have the razzmatazz maybe of some of our other fly halves, but he was solid and he gave you an 8 out of 10 every time he put on the shirt. So he's been a great servant. I'd imagine he'd pick up a contact somewhere just because, again, I don't think age is against him and I can picture him in the EDC. We assume that the EDC teams will be smashed with some senior players to help with the group. I can picture him playing for WNW or Kamalden in the EDC. He's a Kamalden Quinn's product, actually. So that actually works quite nicely. Moving into the centres then. So another one who people thought might be leaving Johnny Williams is not announced as being leaving. The centres confirmed as leaving are Jonathan Davis, as we mentioned, and Scott Williams. So let's just have a word on Scott Williams then. Another Scarlet's legend. You say Scott Williams to me, the two moments that stick out is the try at Twickenham and the try against La Rochelle in the quarterfinal, which he didn't have to do that much for. He basically just ran it in, but it's still an iconic moment and he's given it the finger as he goes across the line and things. What's your Scott Williams thoughts and what's your Scott Williams moment? Well, to be fair, it's the Twickenham one. I was in Twickenham that day. That was good. Yeah, I lived in London at the time and managed to get a ticket to a play for Quinton RFC up there. And one of the players was, he had a debenture and he got three or four tickets for every game at Twickenham. Managed to get one for the Wales game, happened to be that one. So yeah, that's a very big memory. But yeah, Scott, I know he's just been so, so unlucky with injuries and had he stayed fit, you've just got to wonder where he could, how far he could have gone because the skill that was there, the potential was there, the strength, everything about his game was there. He just couldn't stay fit for long enough. And again, it's a shame really the way his career has come to an end because probably his best rugby is six, seven, maybe eight years ago now, which feels like an age ago in terms of rugby career. But yeah, that tie against La Rochelle, as you say, it's just, if you want to highlight the game, it's him with a finger as he goes over for the tie. And yeah, another just humble player. I can't imagine anybody having a bad word about him. He just seemed sort of by the book and just looks like a guy that you'd want to coach, that you'd want to see him coaching somewhere because he's got so much to give. What a lot of people I don't think will realise about Scott Williams is he was 21 when he scored that try in Twickenham. Wow, I didn't realise he was that young. He's 33 now. 12 years ago, wow, yeah. Yeah, I didn't realise he was that young when he scored it. It's a mad stat. Impress your friends with that one. Where are we going next then? So I still think we need another centre though, Simon. I mean, you and Nicholas can cover there. So we've got four players who can play centre. Joe and Lloyd in an emergency. I'd like to see another centre. We need a good fast 13. I feel like Eddie Gaines, Johnny Williams. Oh, we've got Joe Roberts, obviously. But Eddie and Johnny are very similar. Joe's different. But yeah, I think just a better 13 cover if Joe misses a few weeks or months. And we've spoken about this on the pod before. Once you get into the back three, you are thinking, oh, Jesus Christ, like. Our back three players at the moment are Steph Evans, Tommy Lewis, Kian Abraham, Tom Rogers, Jack Davis, you and Nicholas. That's one, two, three, four, five, six players, one of whom is a senior academy for three positions. Now, we think that Jack Davis has got a good chance of stepping up. We also think someone who I've not mentioned there has got a good chance of getting a Scarlett's game would be Max Page. It feels like we need another fullback though. Yeah, I think all the players you mentioned there, great players, but they all feel the same sort of player. I think there's not a lot of variety there. Yeah, I think we need almost an old head fullback to come in. Just sort of a bit like when Lee Harpenny came in and he would just direct his wingers off a string where he'd want them and he'd move them around the park and everything would go sort of, he'd channel everything. I feel like we haven't got that leader a 15. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, and I think we've probably missed that leader across the back line, really, as in, you've got nobody to, what do you think, Scott Williams, Foxy, Lee Harpenny's gone, Gerry McNicoll's gone, sort of all the big hitting names in the back line have sort of gone within two seasons and it just feels, apart from Gareth Davies, we're lacking a strong leader to sharp the odds in the back. I should point out as well, Ewan Lloyd can cover fullback, but Sam Corsello's not going to play every single week and if Ewan Lloyd is going to continue to be the go-to for when Sam Corsello isn't playing, then, I don't know, there's a big conversation to be had about Ewan Lloyd's impact and the role he's been playing in this team and it's not a critical conversation, but it's just a kind of, he's in danger of falling between two stools for me. Yeah, another one, unfortunately. Another player who's left is Callum Williams, again, Senior Academy. Apparently he's had a horrible time with injuries and he's now no longer part of the Scarlets going forward. So, best of luck to him next. We never really saw anything of him at the Scarlets. So, that's the ins and outs then. Oh, I should mention there was a couple of staff departures as well. So, Sarah Davis, team manager, has left. We think that's part of a wider restructuring. So, best of luck to Sarah and thank you for everything that you've done for the Scarlets. Sorry, say again? I used to play with Sarah at Whitland up until boys and girls were separated, I think. She was a very good prop back in the day. Great stuff, great stuff. Like I say, best of luck to her. Interesting one, Rhys Jones, strength and conditioning coach, has left. He has been part of the strength and conditioning team for the Scarlets for 16 years, going back to the final days at Stradi Park. Interesting, because strength and conditioning has been an area that we've struggled in on the pitch this season. Yeah, so maybe it's just they've thought he's given plenty of time and years to the Scarlets and it's time just to get some fresh ideas, different perspective of how to do things and just try and better us in that respect. As you said, we've really lacked on the pitch this year and something has to change, because we can't have another year or two the same as we've had this year, or all fans will lose hope. Yeah, exactly. I'm just scanning the bottom of the statements. Anyone from mentioned? Lewis Morgan, I think we've mentioned. Luca Giannini, yes. Justin Grilliam has left as well, but I don't think we mentioned him. So best of luck to the senior academy lads who have gone on in search of their next adventure. So, the cat's down here trying to keep me company. Right, I'm not going to talk about that. I've got my notes, something to talk about, a bit of a whinge to have, I've decided I can't be bothered. Let's talk about the actual game then. Against Ulster, finished 31 points to 20 in favour of Ulster. So I'm going to start with the three words. Thoughts, always get your three word thoughts in at the end of the game, on Facebook and on Twitter. I'm looking for Facebook first, because it's got Alexander on Facebook, because we've got an average age of about 65. 11 comments. Oh my God, Colin Stroud, I'm not reading all that out. That is very much not three words. Can you, I'll see if I can show you it. Hang on, wait, I need to do it on self view. Oh, wow. Yeah, that is a long list. Paragraphs, paragraphs. So we're not going to, Colin, thank you for your teaser. I'm not going to, I'm not reading that out. It's not the Colin Stroud podcast. Owen Leclerc, Dan Jones to Dragons. Don't see how that helps. I think Owen is a Dragons fan. Gareth Young says, on to next season. Peter Davies says, make it stop. James Nicholas Rogers says, same next season. We don't know that yet, James, cheer up. And Hugh Williams says, discipline is non-existent. Oh, controversial. So we've got non-existent hyphenated. So we've had a bit of a, bit of a debate, break out amongst the people on three word thoughts about what common, what constitutes a word. So someone, someone commented, ha ha ha. Is that three words? Ha isn't a word. Well, apparently there was a big argument about 100% as well. Hmm. What's your view on 100%? Is that, is that one word? Is it three words? Is it no words? Well, it all depends how it's written, I guess. If it's numerically written, you'd, I think if you were typing it in word, it would count as one word. If you put numerical 100% there after it, where if you'd write 100%, it would count as three words. So it depends how it's written. Whether discipline is non-existent, I agree it's three words because I agree with the statements. See, I think if it's numbers, numbers aren't words, numbers are numbers. So I think you, and percents, symbol isn't a word. So I think 100% is no words. Yeah, okay, well. That's my point of view. So I like to game the system like that. Emojis also, in my book, not words. So you can leave as many emojis as you like, Colin Stroud. Do that next time. And then you're in on the technicality. Can I be bothered to read out the three word thoughts on Twitter? I probably should, since people left and got a scroll. I can tell you what I wrote if you want. What, sorry? I can tell you what I wrote if you want. Yeah, tell me what you wrote. Same old story. Unfortunately, again. Unfortunately, again. Here we go. Three word thoughts, 15 comments, jaw top, yeah. Joe Brown wants to know about the Tongan players. They were all injured apart from, oh no, Carl Witt's not Tongan. He's part Tongan, but he's Welsh as well. He's called Carl Witt, for God's sake. I wrote size shrug drink. Yeah. Yeah. Rap, who I think was probably Lee on his other account. Small steps forward. Brian Guest says unacceptable performance again. Don't agree with that. 20%er wrote season ticket renewed. Big fan of you, mate. Oh, optimism, we like that. Jonathan Bates wrote same old story, similar to you. Joe Brown left two separate three word thoughts, which for me is allowed. She said allowed on pitch, which we know scholars like to do, and lovely sunny day, which was also nice. Rich wrote 80 minute game. Can't argue. Sinclair's under 16's RFC. I think that's probably an official account. I think whoever's left that needs to go onto their personal account if they want to leave feedback. Wrote not a surprise. David Mark Evans wrote errors in key moments. 20%er again came back, oh, you ruined it. You were so positive. The second three word comment was pile of cow dung. And Cameron wrote pretty effing pathetic, but then he's disqualified because he left something in brackets after that. Words in brackets are words. Right, well, come on then, mate. What was your assessment of that game? Oh, well, at the end of the game, I was very, very frustrated again. And obviously it's another defeat in a season that's been full of defeats. Little did I know at that point that we'd have been the best performing region in defeat over the weekend, because things got a lot worse after we played. But no, you know what? Ulster had the job to do for their season, and they did that. The scoreline was probably better than I thought it would be for us, because I just feel like this season I can just finish, do one, get into pre-season, reset the batteries, refocus the energy and start again. The next two games, yeah, it's nice to have another two games, but really, whatever happens, happens. That's how I felt for a few weeks, to be honest. It's just going through the motions because we have to. There were some individual performances which pleased me. I thought Carwyn Tweed-Pulotto played well and took his try well. Discipline. We just know how to shoot ourselves in the foot, don't we? Sort of just before half-time, down to 13, and you're just like, what are we doing? And key players as well. We don't help ourselves at times, and as critical as I've been of Dwayne Peel, sometimes you've got to feel for him and be like, he can only do so many things. Sometimes the players need to look at themselves and take ownership and sort of say, yeah, we were found. For me, that was one of my thoughts at the end of the game, was you can't really pin this one on Dwayne. I think he got selection right. I think having Ewan Lloyd on the bench was the correct call, and with injuries and things, his hands were tired to a certain extent, but I do think he got it right. Of course, we ended up at the end of the game with Johnny Williams playing blindside flanker, and Jared Taylor and Same Plumtree in the row. So currently, I believe we have zero fit locks, which is not a good position to be in. Also, it was interesting to see Same Plumtree packing down at eight and Carwyn at blindside for most of the game. I agree. I think Carwyn had a very, very good game. 25 tackles, no misses. And a try, of course, and a very good finish for his try as well. With Plumtree, for when he was on the pitch, he was still probably our best player. I still think he's the best six in Wales. Obviously, when he slapped that ball out of someone's hand on the floor, he must have thought he was wearing his Richie McCaw invisibility cloak. And unfortunately, he wasn't. Gareth Davies' one is the frustrating one for me. It's the moment you don't need people doing that. We tried to do our best French director impression and not find the angle to show that it was a clear trip. But then once the referee decided, no, I'm yellow carding him, suddenly the angle appeared that showed it was a clear trip. Every day of the week. We know that, you know, Gareth Davies is old enough and ugly enough for us to be able to tell him to his face. Maybe I wouldn't say this to his face. He has moments where Mr. Brain takes a tea break, shall we say. But, you know, for the first half an hour, he was great. He was looking back to start. And I was happy with him starting. I said, he's in bad form, but he's a great player. Play him through the bad form and he'll get better again. Definitely. But just in that moment, deserves a bit of critique, I think, for getting himself sent off in that situation. That was the game, really. Yeah. Going down to 13. Apart from that, I don't think Ulster gave us too many issues. We did. They were held up three times. But two of those, we deliberately let them cross the line to hold them up and get to. Yeah. So, am I imagining things or is the defence getting better? We can see there's four tries, so it's hard to argue that. But has there been an improvement? Yeah, definitely. Because early on, as in, we were letting people pass that this tackling is going out of fashion. Early on in the season, I questioned whether we knew how to defend. So, it's getting better. But I'd imagine it's been such a long season for these players and they've had to go into the post week after week, watching the opposition kick conversions, kick conversions, kick conversions. It's going to get you down. They're probably confidence-wise as low as you can get. The heads did tip when we went down to 13 as well. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's just, it's been a horrible slog. As in, I think, sort of early on in pre-season, they just need to have fun and enjoy being on a rugby pitch again, because they can be enjoying this. Because week after week, it's the same old story, really. They're just, they're getting better, but the gap in quality is still there and we're still losing comfortably. I know 31-20 doesn't sound like a comfortable defeat, but it was. We sort of, as you say, once we were down to 13, sort of the game went and that was that. But, yeah, there are signs there that things can improve. It'll just be interesting to see now if this directive rugby comes in, how the dynamic of all that works as a coaching setup, because I think the best thing for this team is for any off-field disruptions not to affect them, and that they can just go about their business and building as a squad again. Because I'd rip out the handbook that they've been given this year and give them a fresh, clean one come July, August and start again, because we'll just forget about this season in the history books. Yeah, sadly, sadly. While we are getting better, there are still three issues that we've had all season that remain to be issues. One is fitness. One is not playing with territory, trying to do everything from our own 22 still, and it's just Ulstead just takes the moment to step up a gear, manage to get the tries, and we just let them into our 22, giving them a hand every single time. And what was the third one? Fitness, territory and, yeah, just not kicking, not kicking enough. Yeah, and kicking at the right time as well. So, top teams, they know when to kick and how to kick. Well, usually we'll box kick it because we've run out of ideas what to do, and box kicking just gives the ball back to the opposition. Sam Costello put in a lovely kick in the first half, an under, overhand, pinned them in their own five metre. Just more of that, he can do it. Discipline being the other thing, but it's just been a problem all season long. I spoke to, I interviewed a coach on Pirate last week, and he basically advised that discipline starts at home. If you're indisciplined on the pitch, it suggests that the coach isn't being hard enough on you in training. So, if you're listening, get the whip out. Yeah, well, you've got to, I think. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Just on Sam Costello as well, I'll mention him every week because he's my favourite player, I'm not sorry. He's still like the glue that holds the team together. He is doing everything. He stepped into play scrum half whilst Gareth Davies was off. He literally does everything in this team. He, by the way, it's easy to forget that we were winning at half time in this game. Yeah, but yeah. 6-3, but we, if you look at, I look at stats of players a lot, too much probably. And if you look at the stats of the best five halves in the world, their pass, their kick, their run, their pass stats are all pretty level. There's always one more than the other, of course, but it's normally the high double figures, high teams for both. Like Manny Le Boc has something like 12 carries, 15 passes, well no, 12 kicks, 15 carries, 18 passes, something like that against the Dragons. Marcus Smith always has his three categories pretty level. Sam's at the moment, lots of passes, lots of kicks, almost no carries at all. And he, we know that he's carried a lot in the past. Now, I just wonder whether this is him playing with a bit of a millstone around his neck, knowing that he's got to be on his feet to organise the whole rest of the team, or whether this is something to do with how Gatland wants him to play for Wales. And they don't want him to be at the bottom of rocks. They want him to be up organising everything as well. Or whether it's just a symptom of how the Scarlets are playing around him. And meaning he doesn't have the freedom to go off and try something ball in hand, but he's just stopped carrying for some reason. And I don't know what it is. Could it be because the pack is under so much pressure, and the pack is usually moving backwards at a rate of knots that he's either got to quickly kick it or quickly offload it to whoever's playing 12 to crash ball it up and that he's not being given the time and space to see the breaks that he might have seen elsewhere? Yeah, potentially, potentially. Although this one did go quite well against Lulz, so you wouldn't know it from the stats, but you have to watch it again. It did go okay. I don't know. You also have to wonder like what kind of coaching he's getting, because there's no fly halfs. There's no senior fly half for him to learn from. There's no fly halves on the coaching ticket. So yeah, he just has to kind of... It's a key period of his career, this for Sam, which is tough to say because he's so young. I still fully back him. I don't have any questions about his ability or his vision in the team whatsoever. So it's been a funny season for him. Wales is number one, but helped by... Not helped. He deserves to be Wales' number one, but there's no one... He's out on his own. I can imagine he feels a huge pressure on his shoulders. He must do, because yeah, as you say, the gap at the moment is pretty big. And yeah, somebody needs to sort of threaten him, really, and really hold it. It's not happening at the moment, is it? Goal kicking fantastic again off the team this weekend. Okay, so that was that game. Not angry, disappointed. Expected. It's been worse. Once you've watched the Bulls game and the Black Lions game and the Ospreys games and things like that, you find yourself struggling to be that angry about... Oh, exactly, exactly. The thing is, we were one of the better performing, losing teams on the weekend. We didn't ship 50 points. We didn't ship 60 points, like some teams did. So it's sort of, yeah, a small step forward and not the worst Welsh region of the weekend. So I'll take that at this stage of the season. You've got to take the little wins when they come along. Still got Zebra then. So previewing Zebra, the headline is this. There might actually be a team worse than us in the league. That's all you need to know. So let's just talk about Zebra's key attributes, according to the Aussie website, which is mostly good, but occasionally funny when it comes to stats. So Zebra's attack is worse than ours. So we have scored 29 tries. Okay, no one has scored fewer tries than us. But how many have Zebra scored? 38. No, shit, there's quite a lot more. Come on, find me something. I'm on attacking stats at the moment. Zebra rubbish stats. Zebra's fewest metres gained, fewest clean breaks. Really, I thought the Ospreys had a monopoly on that stuff. Anyway, defence. Come on, Zebra, you've got to have a rubbish defence. See, the ranking of the defences for the URC website are a bit funny because the URC says that Leinster's got the worst defence in the league. Okay, not true at all. So Zebra most tackles missed out of anybody, which I don't think would be a massive surprise. Worse than us. Yeah, worse than us. We've got, well, this is total tackles missed. So yeah, they've missed 65 more tackles than us across the season. Percentage-wise, there's not much in it, to be honest. Turnovers lost, they've lost 180 turnovers. We've lost 192, which is more, but that might just mean we've had the ball more. Oh yeah, more ball, yeah. Yeah. Honestly, there's not as big a gap in some of these that I was hoping for. Kicking. They kick more. Everybody kicks more than us. A man with no legs kicks more than we do. To be fair, they kick a reasonably large amount. Discipline. We are the worst. For goodness sake. This is a disaster. Wednesday penalties conceded third. Is that third most or third least? Third least? Oh, okay. So they're quite disciplined. Actually, to be fair, I did speak to some Italian podcasters, and they said that Bennison have really cleaned up their acts around discipline this season. Zero red cards for the season. Line-outs. Oh, bloody hell, their line-out is decent. How are they bottom of the league? Line-outs lost 24, line-out success percentage 88, third overall. The reason they're bottom is they've only won one game this year, and that was in the Challenge Cup against the Daggers. No, they've won one game in the league. They've joined with Cardiff and they beat the Sharks at home. Yeah, but they beat the Sharks at home in November. So it's a 2024 calendar year. They've only won a Challenge Cup game. Hmm. Well, it's a bit disappointing, to be honest. I've looked at Zebra's stats, and they're better than us in almost everything. Apart from in the table. And we're away as well. This is a big game for them. This is a huge game for them. If they can win this, they can finish the season with a positive narrative because they're going to be, I think their last game is against Glasgow, I want to say. Yeah, so they're going to get humped by Glasgow. So this is their one where they can say, we can spin a positive news story about our season if we beat Scarlet. So we've got to go away. Be interested to see what team we pick. I'll be disappointed if we rotate a lot, to be honest. I think we've got to go full strength. Got to go two five-pointers. Because as poor as our season has been, if we pick up 10 points and the Sharks and Ospreys do us a favour, we could finish above Cardiff. And we? Cardiff are currently eight points ahead of us. I didn't realise that. Wow. Okay, now I'm invested again. Yeah. So in what's been a terrible season, we could still be the second best Welsh region. Obviously, spin the negative on that, we could also finish as the worst Welsh region over the course of the season. And we finish out right bottom, if Zebra beat us and Dragons beat us, could we finish 16th? Yeah, yeah, we will finish 16th. If we lose both our games, we finish bottom. Don't want to do that. No. Okay, so we need to win these games with the bonus points. You know, Ospreys last season won five URC games. So if we win five games this season, Who knows? I'll say with my chest that it means that we're going to qualify for the playoffs next season. Right, exactly. But also, we'd end the season with sort of two good performances, two good wins, I should say. Yeah. And we would be able to say we turned a corner. Definitely, that's what this team needs. Yeah. And yes, it's against the, you know, Dragons and Zebra is the two worst teams in the league is who we're finishing our season with. But you know what, like we said, if we lose those games, then we are officially the worst team in the league. So it's a matter of fact of where we are. Everybody else has got to play those teams. Yeah, we start the season in South Africa. It's only fair we get to finish the season back easier. Yeah. So come on, Scarletts, let's get the job done against these. They're shit. We're shit as well. So it's a shit off. Let's be the least shit. And finish the season with a bit of prize and hopefully manage to carry that over to next season. I'm just a little bit nervous with the player turnover. And who knows what's going to happen with the coaching ticket. It could just end up being a rinse and repeat. And next season, we're straight back to square one. We need to give ourselves something. I just think that with the, you say the player turnover, the majority of us starting 15 will remain the same. It'll be maybe the off the bench players or those covering for injury plays. That will have changed. The backbone of the side will pretty much stay the same. Well, the type five, we've only lost Wynn Jones, who was playing regularly. But not this year, though. He's sort of been more of an off the bench job this year. Yeah, yeah. Back row, like I said, haven't really lost anybody. So the pack is actually more or less unaffected by the archers. And then back line, who's the first choice player that we've lost? I mean, I guess, you know, going back to the leavers list. Could you frame it as losing Deadwood? Who's the best? I mean, Kieran Hardy, obviously, is the one, current Wales international that we've lost. Ryan Combeer, again, losing Jonny McNichol is a massive loss. I don't think I realised how much of a negative impact losing Jonny McNichol was going to be at the time. I don't know if anybody's watched Super Rugby, but he's been fantastic for the Crusaders as well. He's gone home. Stayed back in there, hasn't he? Yeah. Fair play to him because he's gone home. So hold nothing against him. Yeah, to be fair, probably first liners that we've lost, Kieran Hardy, Jonny McNichol and Ryan Combeer. And Ryan Combeer hasn't been playing. We think he should have done, but he hasn't been. The core first team really isn't too badly affected. Which is about having a season of players staying fit. If we could put our best 15 or best 23 out, week in, week out. On paper, we look dangerous. It's just getting that squad together throughout the year, for a large part of the year without being affected by injuries. Yeah, we've talked about it before, but I don't think by any stretch of the imagination, we've got the worst squad in Wales. No one needs to tell us they're not going to perform this season, though, do they? Yeah. I think it's going to be close, or probably closer than I'd want it to be, but I expect us to win 35-29, getting a bonus point or something along those lines. I don't think it's going to be that high a scoring. I think it's going to be edgy, because I think both teams are going to be nervous. It's going to be a bit like a relegation six-pointer, even though it's not relegation. So I'm going... I can see it being like two points. I'm going 21-19 to Scarlett's. No bonus points. No, no bonus points. I'll be delighted if we do. Don't get me wrong. We'll have to see what the injury situation is like, because if we're playing... If we start Tame Pluntery and Jared Taylor in the back, in their second row, I'll have a slightly different view. Nothing against those players. Yeah, of course, yeah, yeah. Yeah, 100%. All right then, mate. I think that does it for us. I don't know how long we've been going in and out of it. Thank you for listening to the Scarlett's Fever podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Please subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen to us, as it really helps us spread the word. You can find us on all the usual social media channels, or email us on welshregionalrugbypod at gmail.com. And remember, whatever the question, rugby is always the answer. Bye.