United Rugby Championship

[paddy no 11]

Great try from the scartlets winger

What's the story with plumbtree, physically he's all there but does he just not apply himself?

[Sandydragon]

Great try from the scartlets winger

What's the story with plumbtree, physically he's all there but does he just not apply himself?

He can be a real roller coaster of a player. Excellent work followed by stupid penalty.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Cardiff fall short at Connacht. Scarlets and Dragons fall way short. Scarlets barely fired a shot, just that single great try off a spectacular Lloyd pass (Lloyd otherwise had an under par game). Dragons defence just isn't up to the job. So a Welsh whitewash, perhaps not surprising given the opposition. Same opposition Wales has next week. Yay.

[paddy no 11]

Some hard running from kieran Williams tonight paying dividend

[paddy no 11]

Crazy finish

[Sandydragon]

Good result that for the Ospreys

[Son of Mathonwy]

Nice. Ospreys did the hard work in the first 15 minutes - keeping Glasgow out and scoring 3 great tries. After that it was agonising to watch at times. Why did the Ospreys turn down 3 points when they were 22-19 up? They did their best to lose it in the second half but hey it's a great result to win out there and, overall, a great performance. Some players who wouldn't look out of place in the Welsh squad.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Some hard running from kieran Williams tonight paying dividend

He had a great game. Not sure who got MOM?

[newgalesurf]

Anyone watch the Dragons Zebre game. I can't get coverage here.

Seemed encouraging to be 21-7 up, but couldn't hold it.

I assume Zebre are much reduced by Italy call ups. But only a 10 pt loss in Italy is not bad

[Numbers]

Anyone watch the Dragons Zebre game. I can't get coverage here.

Seemed encouraging to be 21-7 up, but couldn't hold it.

I assume Zebre are much reduced by Italy call ups. But only a 10 pt loss in Italy is not bad

I did see it, it was a disappointing 2nd half from them after getting off to a good start and although losing by 10 isn't too bad they came away with no points and pretty much have sealed their fate as bottom side in the league this season. Huw Anderson was good I thought and Will Reed managed to get two jackal turnovers which is impressive, Woodman is getting a good run of games and is getting better, also Hewitt was back which is great to see after all his injury woes.

On another note you really should get a VPN and watch it on iPlayer, it's not illegal or anything.

You may be able to view it here tho I can't tell due to my work firewall: https://rugby24.net/zebre

[newgalesurf]

I think there is one network (Sportsnet) over here that may carry some URC on their streaming service, will have to check if the Dragons games are on it

They did buy out Setanta and rebadge as Sportsnet World, but stopped showing Pro12 (or Celtic league, Pro14 whatever it was called previously). I may look and see if I can get in

VPN could be problematic on my work laptop (personal one maybe, but I don't trust dem shysters)

[Sandydragon]

Once again, the Dragond manage to look decent for 60 minutes before grasping defeat from the jaws of victory.

Good win for Cardiff and also the Ospreys who managed to survive a host of injuries at the end to hang on

[Son of Mathonwy]

Once again, the Dragond manage to look decent for 60 minutes before grasping defeat from the jaws of victory.

Good win for Cardiff and also the Ospreys who managed to survive a host of injuries at the end to hang on

Yeah, well done Cardiff and Ospreys for hanging on to a small lead at the end. I don't know what the hell was going on in that Ospreys match (hopefully Mark Jones has a better idea), lethal attack and porous defence. Very exciting if tough on the nerves at times. Should have taken that easy 3 points late in the match but it all worked out (just). I wonder if Walsh will stick around for a couple more years and get Welsh qualified??

Scarlets were disappointing.

I really thought the Dragons had that one in the bag (I was obviously feeling anything was possible after the Ospreys match). Some excellent performances but they just can't hold on, can they? Some costly misses from Reed's boot.

[Sandydragon]

Once again, the Dragond manage to look decent for 60 minutes before grasping defeat from the jaws of victory.

Good win for Cardiff and also the Ospreys who managed to survive a host of injuries at the end to hang on

Yeah, well done Cardiff and Ospreys for hanging on to a small lead at the end. I don't know what the hell was going on in that Ospreys match (hopefully Mark Jones has a better idea), lethal attack and porous defence. Very exciting if tough on the nerves at times. Should have taken that easy 3 points late in the match but it all worked out (just). I wonder if Walsh will stick around for a couple more years and get Welsh qualified??

Scarlets were disappointing.

I really thought the Dragons had that one in the bag (I was obviously feeling anything was possible after the Ospreys match). Some excellent performances but they just can't hold on, can they? Some costly misses from Reed's boot.

If Reed had been more accurate then we could have put that to bed. But it’s harsh to blame him when the last quarter collapse seems to be a team wide thing.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Once again, the Dragond manage to look decent for 60 minutes before grasping defeat from the jaws of victory.

Good win for Cardiff and also the Ospreys who managed to survive a host of injuries at the end to hang on

Yeah, well done Cardiff and Ospreys for hanging on to a small lead at the end. I don't know what the hell was going on in that Ospreys match (hopefully Mark Jones has a better idea), lethal attack and porous defence. Very exciting if tough on the nerves at times. Should have taken that easy 3 points late in the match but it all worked out (just). I wonder if Walsh will stick around for a couple more years and get Welsh qualified??

Scarlets were disappointing.

I really thought the Dragons had that one in the bag (I was obviously feeling anything was possible after the Ospreys match). Some excellent performances but they just can't hold on, can they? Some costly misses from Reed's boot.

If Reed had been more accurate then we could have put that to bed. But it’s harsh to blame him when the last quarter collapse seems to be a team wide thing.

Agreed, the loss was a joint effort. It stood out though, because most of the kicking was good on the weekend, even Sheedy's!

[Son of Mathonwy]

Ospreys are resting quite a few of their backs whereas the Scarlets are full strength. Hope it doesn't bite them. Still some good players but not first choice. It'll be nice to see Rhys Davies and Max Nagy back in action from the bench.

Scarlets: Blair Murray; Macs Page, Joe Roberts, Eddie James, Ellis Mee; Ioan Lloyd, Gareth Davies; Alec Hepburn, Marnus van der Merwe, Henry Thomas, Alex Craig, Sam Lousi, Vaea Fifita, Josh Macleod (capt), Taine Plumtree. Replacements: Ryan Elias, Sam O'Connor, Sam Wainwright, Jac Price, Jarrod Taylor, Efan Jones, Ioan Nicholas, Dan Davis

Ospreys: Iestyn Hopkins; Luke Morgan, Evardi Boshoff, Owen Williams, Ryan Conbeer; Dan Edwads, Kieran Hardy; Gareth Thomas, George McGuigan, Ben Warren, James Ratti, Adam Beard, Tristan Davies, Jac Morgan (capt), Morgan Morris. Replacements: Dewi Lake, Steffan Thomas, Tom Botha, Rhys Davies, Morgan Morse, Luke Davies, Phil Cokanasiga, Max Nagy

[Son of Mathonwy]

Ospreys are resting quite a few of their backs whereas the Scarlets are full strength. Hope it doesn't bite them. Still some good players but not first choice. It'll be nice to see Rhys Davies and Max Nagy back in action from the bench.

Scarlets: Blair Murray; Macs Page, Joe Roberts, Eddie James, Ellis Mee; Ioan Lloyd, Gareth Davies; Alec Hepburn, Marnus van der Merwe, Henry Thomas, Alex Craig, Sam Lousi, Vaea Fifita, Josh Macleod (capt), Taine Plumtree. Replacements: Ryan Elias, Sam O'Connor, Sam Wainwright, Jac Price, Jarrod Taylor, Efan Jones, Ioan Nicholas, Dan Davis

Ospreys: Iestyn Hopkins; Luke Morgan, Evardi Boshoff, Owen Williams, Ryan Conbeer; Dan Edwads, Kieran Hardy; Gareth Thomas, George McGuigan, Ben Warren, James Ratti, Adam Beard, Tristan Davies, Jac Morgan (capt), Morgan Morris. Replacements: Dewi Lake, Steffan Thomas, Tom Botha, Rhys Davies, Morgan Morse, Luke Davies, Phil Cokanasiga, Max Nagy

Yep, very costly for the Ospreys' end of season run.

[Sandydragon]

I get the feel Jones underestimated that one. Fair play to the Scarlets for coming back.

Elsewhere Dragons got stuffed in Edinburgh.

[Son of Mathonwy]

I get the feel Jones underestimated that one. Fair play to the Scarlets for coming back.

Elsewhere Dragons got stuffed in Edinburgh.

Funny game. Nothing worked for the Scarlets for 20 minutes then a switch was flipped and nothing worked for the Ospreys for the rest of the game. I guess players need to be rested sometime but, yes, this selection was a miscalculation.

All Welsh teams now in the bottom half of the table.

[Numbers]

It looks like the highest placed Welsh team could well still be the Ospreys this season, the fixture list favours them slightly, here are the remaining fixtures:

Scarlets:

Dragons (A)
Leinster (H)
Lions (A)
Sharks (A)


Ospreys:

Cardiff (H)
Dragons (H)
Sharks (A)
Lions (A)


Cardiff:

Ospreys (A)
Munster (H)
Bulls (A)
Stormers (A)


So if the Ospreys win the two derbies they have at home then they will most likely be the top again, whether or not that will be enough to make the play-offs remains to be seen.

[Son of Mathonwy]

It looks like the highest placed Welsh team could well still be the Ospreys this season, the fixture list favours them slightly, here are the remaining fixtures:

Scarlets:

Dragons (A)
Leinster (H)
Lions (A)
Sharks (A)


Ospreys:

Cardiff (H)
Dragons (H)
Sharks (A)
Lions (A)


Cardiff:

Ospreys (A)
Munster (H)
Bulls (A)
Stormers (A)


So if the Ospreys win the two derbies they have at home then they will most likely be the top again, whether or not that will be enough to make the play-offs remains to be seen.

Yeah, the Ospreys had a run of really tough opponents at the start of the season - it had to get easier at the end. Much pivots on the Cardiff match of course, which is pretty hard to call. Lions and Sharks are both beatable, even in SA - I'd guess they'll win one of the two. Whereas Cardiff will struggle to get points from their last three matches.

Of course if the Dragons do the double on them then it's all over. I'd like to think that's a joke but I take nothing for granted after Saturday's collapse.