Scarlets Fever: The good old days

The Scarlet's have made some new signings, including a promising 18-year-old lock named Will Evans who is 6'6" and has a great work rate. They also signed Ellis Mee, a 19-year-old full-back from Nottingham. The team hopes that these new signings will feature in the new Premiership. The Scarlet's have had a difficult history against the Dragons in doubleheader fixtures, but they are optimistic for their last game of the season against them. Welcome to Scarlet's Fever, the home of Suspense Central and Westeros' besterers. Hello and welcome to this reposition of the Scarlet's Fever podcast. Joining me big M as always are Carwyn and Cathroi. How are we? Very good. Yeah, got to agree with that. Very good. Nodding doesn't work on audio. We need to do these things for me to make sure you're right. Very good. Enjoyed some European rugby over the weekend, despite obviously no Welsh club, obviously a couple of Welsh players involved on Friday night, but no, it's good. Good, good. So we'll dive straight into the news for this week because the Scarlets have actually given us some news to talk about. We've had a new sign-in and a senior academy sign-in. So I'll start off with the senior academy boy because I've watched this kid play a few times and he's quite exciting. So we have got a 6 foot 6, 18 stone 5 lock by the name of Will Evans and he's only 18. So chances are he's got a few more inches and maybe a couple more stones to go. He is 6 foot 6, is he? Yeah. Because I was watching the clips that Scarlet's put out and I was thinking it looks big compared to other under 18s, but it's really hard to judge because some under 18s are still kids. So with the clips that the Scarlets have got, he was injured at the beginning of the year. So all of these clips were in Scarlet from last summer. So they've got it just shy of a year off to date. Just need to wrap it up across the world, by that size in the engine room, what we're looking out for. Honestly now, watching him for the Wales under 18s out in Parma, and obviously we've already spoken about his other father a couple of months ago when he was actually lying, but two of the things that you really take from Will's game is his carrying and his work rate. He hits everything that he can possibly see and that's brilliant from a lot. That's what you want. You want him tackling everything, hitting reps, and if they contribute a bit of carrying in there as well, then you're golden. And that seems to be exactly what he's doing at this age range. So I'm very happy, very excited. And in all fairness, the three senior Academy products that we've announced, we know we've got 10 or 11 signed up. They're all top quality. They all look to have really high ceilings and anyone watching our age grade 18s of the last year... I like to talk about it. It's bullying if we talk about it. It's bullying if we talk about the other teams. Yeah, right. Okay. Now, anyone who's watching knows that they're a special bunch and quite a few of them have got really high ceilings. So it'll be interesting to watch them progress, especially with the SRC, the new premiership, which we are fairly sure that these boys will be featuring in. That's exactly what I was going to ask you now. Is the hope that some of these senior Academy boys now will feature heavily in the SRC and that we see if they're ready for the next step, I guess, then in rugby, isn't it? Yeah. Well, we already know that Ian Sparrow, our 18s captain, the first one of the contracts to be announced, he signed up Sanderbury. We knew that a couple of months ago, courtesy of their club, Amundford, but obviously they've had photos taken with him in Drobos colours now. So that's a good one to see. It's interesting to try and pick out where Jack Pritchard and Will Evans will end up. Again, it'll just depend on the makeup of the squad. We still haven't had full confirmation of that. But if Berian Mortgen sticks with the Drobos, I'd imagine Pritchard will be with the Quinns and most possibly... Quinns, who are on the cast, have a really good team next season. They seem to be getting the pick of our Academy. Well, if you look at it from just an overall squad point of view, Drobos, we know, have got the strongest squad on paper. Well, even on the pitch, they've proved that over the last 18 months, two years. So whoever they're losing and to get this balance right, I don't think they're going to need too many of the better players. They've got such a strong core of that squad. It's going to be hard to beat them even if they lose, you know, 10, 15 players. Because everyone's going to be in that same boat. So we move on now to our Senior Squad sign-in. Senior Squad sign-in? I thought it was the Senior Academy. Senior Academy, but he'll go into the Senior Squad. You know what I mean. It's that type of player. Like under-23s will go on an Academy contract. It's just the way it works. He'd be training with the Senior Squad, etc, etc. So, is it Northampton? I've Northampton in my head for some reason, but I know it's not them. It would be a hell of a deal if we were signing the Northamptons to start in full-back. That wouldn't be it. But no, we're not, sadly. So we've got Nottingham, 19, slash maybe just turned 20, so some stats have changed when I was looking at him earlier. Full-back, Ellis Mee. We are pretty sure that he now stands at 6 foot 4 and weighs in at 92 kilograms. I can't find any stats of him from the Championship, though you might be able to help there. No, you struggle for Championship stats. To be honest, I wouldn't read too much into it. Nottingham didn't do very well in the Championship this season, so I would not read too much into it, to be honest. I mean, the highlights reel that they posted looks decent. Everyone's highlight reel looks decent. He's tall is my biggest takeaway from it. What I can tell you about him is he started four games in the Premier League Rugby Cup all at full-back and he's scored two tries in them. So, you know, he played against Harrison, Hartbury, Corbentree in that competition and another one that the name just eludes me. So, you know, he's not coming in to be first choice, obviously, but how are we feeling about this sort of signing him? Look, we needed a full-back, definitely, and, you know, it is how it is. As soon as a young kid signs to play for the Scarlets, all the articles are just counting down the days until he gets picked to play for Wales. Look, I can't say that I know about the guy here. I hope he's amazing and, like I said, we needed a full-back. So, fingers crossed, but it is purely fingers crossed at the moment. I wouldn't be surprised to see him at either Quins or Drovers, to be honest, based on his age and based on his level of experience so far. Yeah, I tend to agree with you there. It feels like he's a signing for future and I guess now is the time to sign for future because, obviously, with budget cuts ahead of us next year, it was going to be hard for us to attract a similar calibre of player to what Leinster signed from New Zealand, but, you know, he looks exciting. Paul Arachel. Paul Arachel, yeah, as in, as you know, I'm their focus player. But, no, to be fair, as we say, we needed a full-back. He's young, looks exciting, he's obviously Welsh qualified, which is another big tick in the plus column, but he needs a bit of time to adjust and, hopefully, he hits the ground running at SRC and then it's ready to make the step up maybe Christmas, early next year or maybe even a bit later, depending on injuries. I wouldn't chuck him in straightaway because what we can't afford to have now is players coming in low on confidence. We need players coming in who are buzzing and ready to go just to lift the rest of the squad because I'd imagine the majority of the squad will be feeling dejected at the end of the season after a tough slog. So, hopefully, Neil Blood coming in is buzzing and ready to go and we'll all be cheering for me in the back. Overall, I'm happy with this. We like to see sign-ins like this. We like to go, OK, there's a young talent, let's pull him in, let's see what he can do. I kind of feel it's a bit of a reaction sign-in because there's obviously Jack Davis with the drawbacks. He was the next tab off the rank and he's taken a bit of a bad leg break. But, regardless, if that means we've got an extra full-back in our ranks now who could potentially play European, maybe even higher standard rugby than all the better. But, like you've already said, I wouldn't be surprised to see him with the Drover's Quinns for at least part of the season. I don't see him in the top five, three-quarters a week or so unless we've seen injuries. I wouldn't expect to see him too soon. But, yeah, nice, apparently big, full-back. He looks a bit slender in his high-legs, for me at least. But, yeah, he showed a nice few handy skills. So, again, hopefully the SRP gets some coverage, maybe even Scrum 5 will pick something up and we'll get to watch some of these players from all the regions, not just our own. So, on to the main event, our last game of the season, Judgment Day, or not exactly Judgment Day, considering it's in Lechwyth, not the centre of Cardiff. So, we get to host the Dragons in Cardiff. And, you know, we haven't exactly got the best history against the Dragons when it comes to these doubleheader fixtures. Even on our, we'll come to it in a bit, even when we won the league, we beat the Dragons on Judgment Day by, like, five points. Like, we just can't, we can't do this fixture for some reason. Even the reverse, you know, Costello, I know he was still freshly back from injury. Any other game, at any other time, he would have swapped the Dark Penalty, no problem. He would have probably back-heeled it over if you asked him to. It's just something about the Dragons that, I don't want to say bring us down to their level, but they take us down from our level. Do you remember, do you remember Cowder said that after a Judgment Day game once? He came out after the game and was like, oh, I tell you what, Dragons are rubbish. I tell you what, they don't have drag you down to their level when you play against them. And he had to, he had to write a letter of apology to the Dragons, because he just said that in the post-match press conference. Bless him, Cowder, we love him, but he's, he's not always the most switched on lad, is he? He was a young man then, I want to say. I often think, though, that the Dragons are up for it more than us as well. Yes, we might drag down, but it always seems like they want that win more than us in Judgment Day. I think it's the same when they play the Ospreys at home. It's like, yeah, we've done these once or twice before, we know we can beat them. Even if they've got 15 nationals and we've got 15 boys playing in the public, I'm not saying that's this squad at all, I'm just saying that's the sort of comparison. They still come in thinking they're going to do it. And, you know, looking at this season, OK, we haven't had the best of seasons either, but if they can round it off with a win against us, you know, they'll be fairly happy going into the season. They lost to Zebra away. Well, look at the four regions results in Zebra, you know, that's all I'm going to say about which team is the best. Yeah, I think it's a huge game for both sides. Whoever comes out with a win, it makes a poor season look slightly better. Obviously, if the Dragons win, God help us, they do the double over us. But if we win with a bonus point, we've ended a poor season with two bonus point wins. And that's the best way to go into the preseason. So as much as I think there's nothing riding on the game, layered beneath the surface, I think it's quite a bit resting on the game as well, if that makes sense. Yeah. I mean, the only thing I'm really gutted about when it comes to this game is the fact that the Sharks put out a rather poor score against Cardiff. You know, if they put their first out in that game, we could have been in a position to leapfrog Cardiff in the table and that would have ended things really nicely for all of us. So on to the game itself. What are we expecting from our players? Let's talk about the team first. Do we anticipate any changes? Would you boys make any changes to the starting 15-23? Carwyn, let's start with you, Bert. Yeah, well, first thing, I'd be starting Costolo. I think the way he came on and controlled things against Ebre in the last 20 minutes, I wouldn't hesitate in starting him to go. I thought he was outstanding in his cameo and just seemed to control things better and just grounded us a bit and kicked the points instead of just getting carried away because we were ahead. We just need to win. Let's secure the win. I think we could need that sort of wise attitude on Saturday because, traditionally, they're tight games. They're not pretty and we just need to win. But apart from that, I don't think I would change much. I think everybody did enough against Ebre to earn another start. One thing I wouldn't do is get sentimental and give some of our departing players... I think that's exactly what they are going to do, though. I'd be shocked if Foxy doesn't play in this game. With nothing on it, as in, why wouldn't you? You probably expect Foxy to be involved. Would Kombi have been involved? Dan Jones, maybe? Obviously, those players, they've been good servants and they've stayed with us probably longer than maybe they should have for their own personal careers. But rugby is a business. It's driven by results. I'm a very sentimental person, I may add, but there's no space for sentiment in sport. I'd rather not give them a loving farewell at the Cardiff City Stadium and that we get five points on the table. That would look much better than giving Foxy a five-minute run-out against the Dragons, personally. To get off this fence I'm sitting on, I would definitely bring Costolo back in from the start. Other than that, I wouldn't change too much. But I don't necessarily think Peel may agree with me and listen back. I go with that. I pretty much agree. I think it's interesting to know, do we know if Fafita's in with the shout of being fit? No, we're not sure whether it's Loizy or Fafita. I think if Fafita's fit, I'd put him on the bench. The Dragons will wilt in the final 20. So if you bring in the likes of Fafita and Lloyd off the bench, I think that could really cause some damage against the Dragons. I'm not sure what to do about the start in front row. I think just as a general point, I agree with Carwin of same team, just Costolo in. But Dragons scrum can be solid. Coleman is very hot and cold. He can have terrible games. He can have good games. And Dragons line out is actually very good. I've been doing the stats for the Welsh regions every weekend. Dragons line out confusingly is probably the best in Wales on their own ball. Obviously, we're the best on our position ball. So I think just play the game, not the occasion. I think in the past, we've definitely been guilty of a bit of hubris going into the game. And that's what's led to very disjointed performances. It's just heads switched on. Get your head in the game and just do our thing. Because I do think we've got a better team than the Dragons. But we've got a better team than a lot of teams that we played this season and still lost. So yeah, I completely agree with Carwin basically is bring Sam back in for 10 at 10. I wouldn't be necessarily against Foxy wearing the 23 jumper. But that would mean you'd have to go 5-3 splits, which I think is wrong for us. But there you go. Yeah, I'm 100% with both of you. The starting 15 remains the same except for Costolo coming in for Lloyd. If Lousey and Foxy still are both fit, I would want to see them both on the bench. I've spoken plenty of times over the last few months about having Morgan Jones partner in either Craig or Lousey to start the game and having one of them come on, which if it goes ahead, it'd be great to see because I think that's the way we should be moving In terms of the front row, I can't see much change in just because of the work rate that Cardio, Conor and Kenzie Mathias have shown in the last few games. It seems to have gone up a level, so I can't see Peele changing anything with that. At least I hope he doesn't. 6-2 is what we've got to say. I'd actually be tempted to, well, I'm not tempted, I will put Archie Hughes in as my 9th over and have Eoghan Lloyd in the 23 shirt. I mean, before I were fine with three points against Ebreh, you know, Hardy just standing over the ball for five seconds. That's one thing I'm definitely not going to miss. I don't know if I mentioned this last week, but pick up the ball, crabside me for a second or two, I've got no support with you. Just do something. Ciaran! Ciaran! Pick up the fucking ball! So, that's our team sorted. Brave, brave Pugnell boys. What are your predictions? We'll start with you. I want both scores, not just a lot of it. I feel like it's an extra big game. Because I am planning on going. I haven't bought my ticket yet. Something tells me that I think I'm not going to struggle to get a ticket. I have never seen the Scarlets lose. That's one reason you might want to avoid this game. If you go, make sure you post your ticket. Obviously not the intimate details, you know what people are like. Post your ticket and make sure we know you're going so we can put the money down. I'll be filming a vlog. If I go, I'll be filming a vlog. You'll be able to see it all. Come on. I do. It's good fun. Come on, Scarlets. Jesus Christ. Don't lose this. Do you wonder what kit we're going to wear? Because it's red versus yellow, which probably means somewhere in the URC books, that's a colour clash. We'll both be wearing grey. Why am I so undecided on this? Scarlets by seven. No, no, I didn't say margin. I want scores. I want actual scores. All right, 27-20 to the Scarlets. I actually think we're going to do a bit better than that. 34-26. I think both teams might get a bonus point try because neither side has been able to defend much this year. I don't think if we tag for the first 20, maybe first half an hour, then I think we'll console from there and just always be the necessary two scores ahead. I'm going to go for the biggest of the lot, Len. I'm going to go for 36-16, but we're going in at half time, like 17-16 up, and then we're going to just nil them in the second half. It's going to be tight for that first half, bouncing back and forth. We'll take them to the cleaners in the second. So that's, you know, modern day reveal present times. And after this game, there's a little thing called a Wales tour. So a match in Twickenham, away to South Africa, and a two test tour in Australia. Is there anyone, either of you, thinking that we'll go for the first time? Or, you know, any shots? Ciarán, let's see how you would take on this. I think, yeah, I think he's going to take quite a young squad. Mainly because he has to. And secondly, because he's got nothing to lose by taking a few chances. I think Ellie James gets on the plane. I think he's a Gatland-esque type of 12. And yeah, I think he's probably my surprise package from a Scalis point of view. Unfortunately for anybody in the back row, I think we're so stacked there, there's no newcomers going to be coming from there. Second row, does the injuries we've had open the door for Morgan Jones? Yeah, that's the one I was waiting for. I've been doing some, me and Harley are doing a stats podcast on Thursday. And I've been looking at the stats. You would be shocked how good Morgan Jones's stats are. Not many people would, no one would say off the top of their head he should play second row for Wales. But if you think about it, Rolands isn't going to be available. Beard is injured. Jenkins isn't available. Teddy Williams isn't available. So they are scratching around for second rows. Now, I don't expect Morgan Jones to be picked. But if you compare to, if you go just purely off stats, which I don't recommend anybody does, but if you do, and you compare him to his peers, Morgan Jones's stats are as good in any department. Yeah, I mean, he was one that I was waiting to be named. I was hoping one of you would do it, and thank God you did. I can definitely see him being involved in the squad for South Africa. Whether or not he makes the matchday 23 is another question. I don't think he goes to Australia. I really don't. Unless he really shows something, you know, in those couple of weeks training for South Africa. But yeah, if he's not even involved in the training squad, then there's something wrong there. He's more than done enough. And I was disappointed with him a bit last season. I expected him to have pushed on a bit more, but that seems to have come over the last two, three months. And once you do that, you need a reward for it. And when you've got something like six, seven, eight locks unavailable, you know, when there's only eight starting locks in Wales at any given time, obviously barring abroad players, you know, it's going to be a massive hit if he doesn't get selected just for the South Africa training squad. So we've had Eddie James. Is there anyone else you think could be in with an outside chance? Tommy Lewis. Yeah, well, FCS. Good boy. Yeah, Tommy, he ticks a lot of things Gatland likes as well. He's big, he's strong, he's fast. And again, you know, it took Peel till March to listen to the podcast to find out Tommy Lewis is actually a rugby player. But yeah, he's a good one. I posted this, and I'm not advocating for it, nor do I think he's ready yet. But look at a Gatland first year where he's capped players like Tom Priddy, Christian Phillips without any real exposure to the pro game. Looking at the physique on Max Page, and, you know, just his out and out pace, I wouldn't be surprised to see him involved. Like I said, I don't think he's ready. I don't think he should go. But based on Gatland's history, you know, if he's looking for players like that to take, you know, Max Page has got to be right at the top. Who was the kid who went to Japan in 2013? Was it like David Howells or something? Yeah. Yeah. So these, they, like you say, Mark, they do have a record of picking wingers, but like early. Really? Yeah, but they had some league of experience in there, I think. I don't think Priddy did at all. I think he was like 17 years old or something. Yeah, he was the youngest. Who was that other guy? Was it Robson or something? Christian Phillips was another one. I'm trying to think of them all. I just think at the moment, unfortunately for Max Page, there's probably enough unexposed pace at international level playing in the regional game. Just sort of thinking Tommy Lewis, probably Tom Rogers. I know he's played for Wales, but he'd probably be in the mix. That's just from us. I mean, there's a few other wingers playing well enough to be on that plane at other regions at the moment. I think it might be a step too far. I think also the opposition. We sort of think, I mean, with no disrespect to Japan, but going on towards Japan is... We did lose one game. Yeah, well, yes, yeah, yeah. But thinking South Africa, then Australia twice. Is it the Reds who play then? Yeah, we played the Reds after as well. It's not even like a midweek. Yeah, it's just a jolly, isn't it? I just think it's probably maybe a step too far for Max Page at the moment, but he's certainly one to watch. If he gets game time early next season, then it would not surprise me if he's involved in the upturn on the next six nations. I just think this tour might come six months too soon for him. I can tell you one thing, though. People will not be happy with how many Scarlets are going to be in this Wales squad. There will be more than people think there should be. Maybe the second most. And one thing people will not be happy about is Scarlets starting in one match, get dropped to another, get replaced by another Scarlet. Yeah. Or a lot of Scarlets get dropped and replaced by another Scarlet. It's an endless loop. We seem to produce players in twos, in pairs. You know, we have twos for our halves, we have twos... Flipping it around, any chance that Cardo doesn't get picked? For me, I wouldn't have him picking Cardo for the six nations. I'm the type of person that, yes, there's a four-year cycle, but at the same time, you've got to win every match you have. And quite simply, if you've got a 34-year-old Scrimoff who isn't exactly your out-and-out starter by a country mile, then it's time to say, you know, ta-da. You know, we had Thomas Williams who, on his day, but I have to reiterate that, on his day, because he has many off days, is the first choice in Wales. So, for me... Did he give any out for the summer? No, they think he might be back. News today was that they think he was going to be back for the summer. Oh, OK. OK, because I had Gareth Davies in my original squad, no Kieran Hardy. We always say that about Hardy, though. We always say that he's not done that much for us to get a place, but he's just entrenched. No, it's the traditional Gatland buck. It is so difficult to get in his gun box, but it's even harder to get up to them. But when you look at Kieran Hardy, he came back from Jersey Red. He had a storming two and a half, three seasons with us. And since he's had regular training time with Wales, I don't know what's happened to him when he wears Scarlet. Is he not the right fit for the rest of them anymore? It won't be in a few months' time. Well, he's joining a team not to be first choice, so, as in, I don't think... He'll be clear first choice, then. He's clear first choice, then. He won't. Not the way young Morgan Williams has played. I think Hardy's going to struggle to stand. No. Even if Morgan Williams is playing better than him, Hardy will be first on that team sheet. It's as simple as that. Why sign him? Why sign a current Welsh international scrum half to be second choice, is my thinking. That's the same with me. I know loads of people who go, oh, we don't need him. Morgan Williams is better. You don't sign a player on that money to bench. When you're working off £4.5 million, you don't sign someone who's six figures to go on the bench. Yeah, exactly. It's a stupid business plan. I would say fantasy Ospreay, but we know Lance Bradley's in now and he doesn't seem like he's tough or anything like that, so that's good enough for him. So is there anyone else we can think, you know, I mean, Harry O'Connor, he picked up his first proper cap. Might go, depending on who else is available. Someone who's not a Scarlet yet, but could possibly be a Scarlet at Tight Head, Henry Thomas. Do we think that he's going to be back involved? Not for the Springbok game, because I think it will still be, it's outside the international window. By the way, just on the Springbok team, like there's a lot of chat in South Africa about who's actually going to be in that team. It's basically going to be the Sharks. To be fair, the Sharks, as a community team has run, you know, that's a good outing. And if that means, was it a Masuka, a 10, he's bloody well deserved. He's a bloody good player. I'll tell you what, I was watching the Sharks do that to Gloucester and I was thinking, we did alright against these really, you know. But you said the same thing after watching them against Gleamon, you know, it's amazing when you face a team and then you see that exact same 15-23 a fair week later and actually do a job on someone that's a hell of a lot stronger than you anticipated. Well, I hope the Lions get a few players in. I love the Lions. They're such a fun team. Shatuka's a maker. Well, he's getting signed by the Sharks next season. Sharks have already got one Shatuka and they're getting another one. Emmanuel Shatuka's unreal. They are, the pair of them. Like last year, I think Vincent is the one that went first He was outstanding last year and now Emmanuel does the exact same thing and ends up having it all. It must be hell being a Lions fan. Basically, being a development team, I wouldn't like to do that. Speaking of events at the weekend, Lions lost three Super Rugby finals in a row. No. Yeah. That's terrible. Yeah. Well, there you go, they're not there anymore. So, what was the original question? Talking about Wales probably. Yeah, Henry Thomas. Obviously, we've already had the voting come in to us. Does he make the squad after... Obviously, we think he's kept tied for the South Africa fixture. He really should be, it's still part of the season. Does he make the Wales squad, especially if they announce that he's signed for the Scarlets? If he's announced that he's come in to us, then yeah, he'll make the Wales squad. It's one of those classic, I want to play for Wales, I best move to the Scarlets type signings. We had plenty of those over the last five years. Look, he will get plenty of game time for us, he'll probably be good. I don't think he's another Wilgriff John. But, look, we're not going to be horrible. I hope he does sign for us, and I hope that he does very well. Yeah. In terms of Henry Thomas, he is an older player. Yes, he's a prof, so they tend to have a couple of extra years on top of that. Usually signing a player for a year or two years as a stock up, I'm really against. But when we look at our stock at tight end, we've got Harry O'Connor and Sam Wainwright, who are both URC, URC plus level. So having someone like Henry Thomas come in, who has done it at the top end of European rugby in France. He's week in, week out in the top 14, you don't get to do that if you're a shit tight end. Exactly. And I think bringing in someone like that, even if he's only going to start 10, 12 games over the season, just having him in that 23, guiding, especially Harry O'Connor, because he is the younger of the pair, and he's the one that seems to have the biggest ceiling, I think that would be invaluable. Even if it's just for the season, two seasons would be great, happy days. What I will say is, if we do sign him, I don't want to hear any of this Scarlett's week pack talk next season, because if we're going to have Alec Hepburn, Ryan Elias, Henry Thomas, like Lousey, Fafita, Craig, Moggs, one of them, and then Plumtree, Carwin, Dan Davis, Jared Taylor, whoever it is, there is absolutely zero wrong with that pack. So if we're getting flattened next season, and we're getting destroyed up front, it's not because of the personnel. No. I mean, people have been shouting, we need to strengthen our locks, we need to strengthen the boiler house. Our locks are fine. I know we are in the market for a couple more, as in Jack Dunne and Max Douglas, but Craig, Lousey, Moggs, Jack Price, Fafita and Plumtree in emergency, that's a good stable. That should be enough to see you through a season easily, if not a couple. But we are in the market for a couple of second rows. I don't think either of them will improve us, which is unfortunate. You know, Jack Dunne hasn't exactly set the world alight. We're now in Ireland where he started, or down in Exeter. A handy player, does his job, etc. But if we're signing players, especially NWQs, we've got to be signing them to be first choice. Otherwise, why waste an NWQ spot on someone who, A, isn't going to be starting week in, week out, or two, isn't going to be able to contribute a hell of a lot of experience to our younger players. And I don't see either of that with Douglas or Dunne. Thoughts, Calvin? Anything? Yeah, no, I think, yeah, just to agree with you, really. I think anybody we sign now has to improve the current match state 23. And in Hepburn and Henry Thomas, we've done that in the front row. It's hard as well, isn't it? Because on paper, when you look for our team, there's not many you'd say, he shouldn't be there, he's not good enough. It's just the case that this year, for whatever reason, it hasn't clicked, it hasn't worked. Next year, if they click, we could have another fantastic season, like we saw in 2017. And, OK, I don't think we'd win the league, because I think the gap between the top three or four to the rest of the league is probably too big to close in a season. But if we can get it right in team selection and in style we want to play, then I think we could certainly be a force to be worried about playing. And, yes, I think we need a few old heads in there, just experienced bodies, just in terms of galvanising leadership team in the squad. But if you were to ask me to name a player to replace somebody, I'm not, obviously, I say that, if Gordon Barrett came knocking on the door, I'm not going to say no. But at the same time, I know he's not going to be knocking on the door. But, yes, it's a tough one, because sometimes you look at a team and you think, he's not good enough, he's not good enough, he's not good enough. I'm not necessarily seeing that at the moment. Yeah, I'm optimistic for next year. I know that's not the question you asked me for thoughts on, in a sense, a massive tangent. But, yeah, I think, nail down the team selection, nail down how we want to play the game, and we'll be winning more than we lose. Yeah, I agree with that. We need to get a 33-man, essentially, matchday training squad. Obviously, we need more to carry us out for training. But it's going to be you 33, you are our boys who are going to be going into that matchday 23. And it's probably even going further, probably saying maybe 28. So probably saying, you know, you are the guys that are going to be playing, you are there as first-choice backup. But, yeah, I think there's one sign in that we're all waiting on, which will tell us exactly what we're going to be like next season. And that is, whatever the job title is called, but our head of rugby operations or performance director. I think that's the big one. That's the one that's going to tell us. Yeah, essentially, that's the one that we're all waiting on. They say, the scholars have said, they're going to scour the earth for the... I don't know how much belief I have in that statement. I hope it's 100% true. There's a lot of reasons to say that they scoured the earth to find coaches in the last few seasons. And it always ends up with, like, either Dave from down the road or some Australian bloke you've never heard of. Yeah, it's like, oh, you're a friend who needs a job. It seems to be that type of thing. That's never happened to my knowledge, just putting that out there as a joke. In case anyone wants to put that anywhere, I need to get that under the backup. Yeah, that's the one sign in I'm really interested in. But until we get a notice, I'm really unsure. Coming off the back of last season, I would have said we had a squad capable of reaching the top eight. Not easily, but probably with a game to stay. If you think about it, there should always be a Welsh team in the top eight because of the way that the URC is structured. Because you just have to beat the other Welsh teams. And then that's three you're on top of already. Zebra, you're on top of. And then Connacht and the Lions all have to play the really hard teams twice a season. So that's another two you should be above. So then you're really only competing with Edinburgh. And then if you get someone like Sharks who shit the bed, you're really just competing. You beat Edinburgh away and you're in. That's all you have to do. That's one thing that I think we've seen this season is no Welsh side has really been truly better than the others. I know all squads are obviously higher in the table. But if you look at the Welsh Shield, they have still, you know, they've lost the game, which is fundamental. You do not do. You know, if you want, if you're top Welsh side, you need to be winning these six games and really preparing yourself at the table. But that is what it is. And we'll move on to next season, especially after, what, five o'clock Sunday. I think we're finished by that time. We can turn off the TV, not be bothered by what else happens. So it is the 27th of May, 2024. For anyone who's listening, I understand that's not the date for you, but it's the date for us. So today is the seventh anniversary of the Scarlets being the reigning Pro 12 champions. No one else will ever get to say that. Unchallenged. No one even bothered tuning up to the park to say we won that title. They were too afraid. And I'm going to stick by that for the rest of my life. So Hugh has decided in honour of this anniversary, we're going to have a little quiz for anyone who is not watching via video, YouTube, etc. Eager Flash delivers notepad. So this is a special notepad with special things written down. I hope there's not special things written down, that'd be weird. So I think how I'm going to work this is I'm going to ask you a question in turn, because I did think about doing buzzers, but then I thought over Zoom might give someone an unfair advantage with their Wi-Fi. Mark, we know what you're like with your connection. I think it's just best I ask you questions in turn. So 12 questions, Pro 12, 12 questions. 12. Can we make it 13 just for a tiebreaker? In the event of a tiebreaker, I will think of something. He will think of something. What colour would you go wearing on my day if that's a tiebreaker? I've got I'm hopefully going to have a bit of a show and tell for the next spot as well. Teaser next week. The right. So here it is. The Scarlet's seventh anniversary being reigning Pro 12 champions of the world quiz. Of the world. Question one, Carwyn, I'm going to go for because you you're there. So it's a hard question. I'm going to be upfront with you. This first question is a hard question. And just to be clear, if anybody gets a question wrong, it passes to the other person to answer it. So to end the season, 2016, 2017 season, Scarlet's won 11 games in a row. What was the last defeat of the 2016-17 season in the league? Who was it against? Yeah, who was the last team to beat us? In the league? No, that's not how it works. Cardiff? No. Maiten? Yes. Dragons? No. Damn! It was Ospreys on Boxing Day. Our last league defeat of the season was Boxing Day. You mentioned about just losing to the Dragons in that season. I thought it was an earlier hint. No, we beat them, just only just. Oh, yeah. My bad. I'm not listening to you, as always. All right. OK. Mark, who was our top try-scorer of that season? Ooh. So 2016-2017, Sean McNicholl didn't come in until the November. I'd have to say Steph Evans. Correct. Steph Evans was our top try-scorer. Bonus point for how many? 12. No. What are you going, Coen? 14? No. In the league? 11. Oh. Overall? Don't know overall, only in the league. Ah. Do I get half a point for being closest? No. OK. Coen, top points-scorer in the league? Hmm. Pachel? Pachel is correct, yes. When we're thinking, can we make lots of erm noises so that the audio listeners are engaged? OK. All right. Mark, total tries that we scored in the league? Total tries that we scored in the league? Oh my God. Are you doing the playoffs or not? I'm going off the Wikipedia page. I assume it only counts the regular season and not the playoffs. One sec. No. OK. So 22 games. So I'll go four. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. Right. Who got... Who did I ask that question? Did I ask you that question, Mark? Yeah, that was my question. Yeah, OK. You can score now, I know. Yeah. Oof. Oof. You're on one point each. Yes. I was scared then. I was. Totally. Total points that we scored. OK. Jesus. That's OK. 513. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. 513. No. But I'll tell you what, I'm going to get who gets closest to this because I think it's a bit unreasonable to get a spot on. So 513. Mark, what are you going? If this calls, that's 514. Ah. I'm sorry. I'm only going to give you half a point. You shouldn't be giving stuff out like that. I will always look for the winner. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Karwin. I've done you. I've done you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. 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I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. Martin. The Scarlets in their victory against Leicester down to 14 men was a historic first ever semi-final away victory in the Pro 12 or whatever the league was called, history. Who was the second team ever to win an away semi-final? Ugh. Manchester? Nope. Cowan? I think. I think it was Glasgow. No. Oh, that was my second choice. It was us again. That's not us. We, we, the following year, we won a semi-final as well. I think Glasgow. Oh, you said it was against two. Oh, I missed out the question. I'll give Cowan half a point for that. No, no, no. I'm only joking. I'm just joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. 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I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. Who of the Scarlets and British and Irish Lions legend Ken Owens was Scarlet's captain this season, but he was injured on the day? Who captained Scarlet's on the day, in the final? One of our most famous adopted brothers from wee bonnie Scotland, John Barkley. Correct. Right. I'm just going to do some adding up to see. One question left. So I'm just going to do some adding up. Mark's got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and a half. It's the half that's going to change this. The half could be all crucial. Colin, you've got one, two, three, four, five. Six, I believe. No. Oh yeah, six. Sorry. You got the John Barkley one, didn't you? No. Hang on a minute. Please hold, Colin. Lee, you might need to edit this bit out. One, two, three, four, five. I thought I was on six. No, you're on five. Not sure. Barkley. Did these guys score us? Yeah. Nobody got question one, which was the Ospreys. And Mark got top five score versus Steph. You got top point score versus Patch. Yeah. Mark got closest to tries, I think. Well, nobody got tries. Nobody got tries. Point scores. That was me. OK, so Mark, you've only got seven. Oh, yeah. Nobody got tries, but somebody got points. Yeah, Mark got points. And then Mark got finishing position. But surely somebody should have got tries as well, then. I would have. I didn't run that rule. I didn't do that rule on that one. It's either for both questions, or neither question. No, it's not. Then I get an extra half a point. We both went over, and I was closer first. But I don't know who does even more better. Nobody got the tit-tackle question. OK, right. Look, OK. Mark is on six and a half. Calum's on five. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's it. There's one and a half between us. Sorry, I thought you said there were two and a half between us. That's what confused me. OK, so this is the decider, right? So this is, I'm going to give you three points for whoever gets this. So this is a game of. What? No. This is a game of who gets the end first. So it's naming the first 15 who started the game. Got to name all 15 players, one to 15 in order. And by the way, there's definitely one which we're going to get stuck on. So Mark, you're in the lead, so you get to go first. OK. Just to be clear, whoever gets to the end first, whoever names the 15th player wins. OK? So if Mark gets 14 in a row and then gets the 15th one wrong and Calum names the 15th one, Calum's won. So, Mark. 15 players start for the Scarlets in the grand final against Munster in the Aviva Stadium. In your own time, go on. Rob Evans. Yep. Ryan Elias. Yep. Samson Lee. Yep. The one you think we're going to get stuck on. Yep. Lewis Rollins. Correct. Tag Burn. Yep. Mr Aaron Shingler. Yep. You haven't got this written down? Nope. I mean, I wrote it down earlier, but I haven't got it up in front of me. Why did you write it down earlier? Because I wanted to have a look. I wanted to have a look. Right. I remembered I got Cubby. Then we had Barclay. Yep. Cowdole Patch. Yep. Who played Tiggs? Shingler. Yeah, Shingler. Oh, sorry, yes, yeah. Just testing. So, Cowdole Patch, Steph, Scott, Foxy, Sanjay McNicol. Yep. To be fair, you can't argue with that guy when he's done you there. He's got them all. Would you have got Lewis Rollins? Yes, because funny enough, I looked at the team today. I'm disappointed. We've both done the same thing. I even remembered how many different nationalities we had playing that day. All right, go on. All right, let's hear this. Just for the fun of it, let's hear it. So, match day 23, we had Wales. Yep. Ireland. Yep. Scotland. Yep. South Africa and Canada. Yep. How many did you say there? Five. Say them again. Wales, Ireland, Scotland. Yeah. Wales, Ireland, Scotland. South Africa. Yeah. Canada. Yeah. You're missing Australia and New Zealand. But they didn't play for Australia and New Zealand. They played for Wales. But it's at the time. They hadn't played for Wales yet at the time. They never played internationally for those either. So, unattached to a nation. I'll give it to you. Did David Boring play for the Springboks? No. He hasn't played for anybody, has he? So, he's not allowed to. He's unattached. He needs to stay unattached. It's all descended into chaos over here, ladies and gentlemen. Who can name the substitutions? Cal, we're never going to name the subs. Well, in order, or just... Just go for it. Fawkes. Yeah. Van de Meurwe. Kluge. Yeah. Boring. Yeah. Oh, man. Fawke. I just had a blank. Replacement hooker. Sorry? Replacement hooker. Yeah, I just had a massive blank. Is there a time limit on this? Just come in. I think you've won the quiz. It's irrelevant. So, Emir, Phyllis, was the hooker. Luced, I believe, was Wyn. Yeah. And, da, da, da, da, who la leaves that? Scrum Archon Yevans. It's a boy. Well, he's a brilliant boy. He went to Cardiff and then he got fobbed off. I love Will Boyd, but all my artists should still be brilliant. Yeah, that was the bench as well. Showing some love for Wyn Jones recently on social media. Who got Man of the Match? James. Yes, correct. Outstanding, yeah. I did a... Why are you at the end of the field there? I did a video about James Gibson Park on Pirate. And James Gibson Park... And it's an event that we're gonna win. Yeah. Oh, my God. Is absolutely bombed horrendously. I'm ashamed that for his try against Leinster, he hands James Gibson Park off. So, I put that in the video about three times. Just... Against anybody else, he'd have looked outstanding on Saturday. Against DuPont, he looked average. Sorry, I know that's changed the subject from the scholars, but he did very well. Just, yeah, DuPont... James Gibson Park's stats are good. DuPont's stats are stupid. They make no sense. It's ridiculous. Like, he is so far clear of any other player. In absolutely everything, he's unreal. So, there was one thing I know he wanted to bring up about the end of 2017 season. The game we played in the last round of the league. Who can remember that game? One of my favourite tries the Scars have ever scored from this game. It was the home dismantling of our nearest and dearest from across the bridge. Points for who? What was the score? 44-20. Points for who? I didn't see Caroline jump in, did I? Jesus, man. My favourite try of the Scars is, I think, if it was the second or the third one of that day, it was Steph Evans. We had a scrum in our own half. You know, Cowder just ran straight off the back, broke the line. Cowder tried to do that against Ulster, I think. They tried to run that move against Ulster. Yeah. Yeah, but what he did against Ulster, it was a pop back inside instead of outside, which is what this move was. It was two passes out to Steph and a nice first-field try from our own half against Osprey. Yeah. I love that try. I just remember Cowder just picking up, getting the ball off the back of the scrum of Farkley and just burning and just going past everybody. Fox was amazing in this game, by the way. John Fox was, that was one of his best scarlets games. One of the things I like remembering about this season is the fact that we came third. We beat fourth, second and first in our final three games. There is no disputing who were the winners of that league. You know, you have some times where, like you've got Munster, who came from Norway last season to win it all. You're not disputing the scarlets. They didn't deserve it. They beat the three best teams around them. It is what it is. Do we have any more to comment about? Well, that scarlets team went on to make up the stars of the Lions team that season. John Fox getting player of the tour. Sanjay obviously looked phenomenal from fullback in that same game. So the greatest try the Lions have ever scored, finished by Sean O'Brien. John Fox got two touches in that try and Sanjay made the line break to make it happen. And John Fox was asked after the game, is that the best try you've ever been a part of? And John Fox said, you obviously haven't been watching the scarlets. You've got to love him. He is a proper scarlet through and through. I'm gutted to see him go. I really am. I know he's not at the same height as he was earlier in his career, but what a stalwart. I mean, Foxy, for me, he's partially responsible for Joe Roberts as well. So his legacy will continue on. And you know what? I wouldn't be surprised to see him go into coaching as well. It's an interesting one to see where he ends up. Do a Will Gennier, go to America, sit on the beach and just play. I think Peter Clarke does with Rob Evans for a year. Yeah. That sounds nice. But he's got all his events here, so he'll have to keep flying back and forth. And I might do his head in a bit. That's a story for another day. On to the Dragons, for a nice comfortable victory on the weekend coming. It was great chatting with you boys again. Looking forward to reviewing the lovely win against the Dragons next week. Thanks for coming. See you all again, boys. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Rugby is always the answer.