Scarlets v Blues

[Stooo]

Wankers.

[UKHamlet]

Wankers.

We certainly wanked all over the Scarlets. Not even close.

[Billyfish]

Welcome back Cardiff. Where have you been all these years? A proper performance that. Scarlies looked ragged and jaded, but a lot of that was down to the Blues' work at the breakdown.

[Billyfish]

Scarlets were at 6s and 7s. Blues were just all 7s.

[UKHamlet]

Scarlets were at 6s and 7s. Blues were just all 7s.

As the analysts on ScrumV pointed out - against the eyties, the magnificent sevens were all trying to do the same job. They got away with it, solely because the opposition was weak. Against the Scarlets, they were running proper lines and acting as a backrow rather than a bunch of sevens.

[Billyfish]

Scarlets were at 6s and 7s. Blues were just all 7s.

As the analysts on ScrumV pointed out - against the eyties, the magnificent sevens were all trying to do the same job. They got away with it, solely because the opposition was weak. Against the Scarlets, they were running proper lines and acting as a backrow rather than a bunch of sevens.

I'm not clever enough to notice where they were standing, but they clearly had the Scarlets in trouble. Cubby was kept (relatively) quiet, Ken was was getting frustrated, Barclay was getting very red in the face, Allen was looking ineffective.

[cadofyddol]

With a lightweight pack, picking three 7's and a 6 in the second row it was crying out for a tighter performance from the Scarlets to avoid the Blues strengths.
Having said that the Blues forwards looked good where the Scarlets looked off the boil so it might not have made a difference.

[UKHamlet]

With a lightweight pack, picking three 7's and a 6 in the second row it was crying out for a tighter performance from the Scarlets to avoid the Blues strengths.
Having said that the Blues forwards looked good where the Scarlets looked off the boil so it might not have made a difference.

The Blues' tight five kept the much vaunted Scarlets pack at bay as well. They never once got the shove on, something that was totally unexpected given we had OAPs at 1,2 & 3. Felise was absolute dynamite. If he was Welsh, he would be straight into the squad, despite his age. Which is worrying.

[cadofyddol]

With a lightweight pack, picking three 7's and a 6 in the second row it was crying out for a tighter performance from the Scarlets to avoid the Blues strengths.
Having said that the Blues forwards looked good where the Scarlets looked off the boil so it might not have made a difference.

The Blues' tight five kept the much vaunted Scarlets pack at bay as well. They never once got the shove on, something that was totally unexpected given we had OAPs at 1,2 & 3. Felise was absolute dynamite. If he was Welsh, he would be straight into the squad, despite his age. Which is worrying.

I wouldn't say that the Scarlets have a much vaunted pack. They have a good front row but were looking decidedly lightweight in the second and back rows earlier in the season. They've improved on that and I was surprised how comfortably Cardiff dealt with them. I thought the Scarlets would have dominated at Scrum, but apart from a few penalties it wasn't as dominant as expected.
It will be interesting to see how the Cardiff and Osprey's scrums go as, I'm wondering if Danny Wilson employed a few tricks on Saturday to cope.

Wales are currently pretty short at 3, but the future looks pretty promising with Nicky Thomas, Dillon Lewis and Leon Brown hopefully progressing from their U20's form.

[UKHamlet]

With a lightweight pack, picking three 7's and a 6 in the second row it was crying out for a tighter performance from the Scarlets to avoid the Blues strengths.
Having said that the Blues forwards looked good where the Scarlets looked off the boil so it might not have made a difference.

The Blues' tight five kept the much vaunted Scarlets pack at bay as well. They never once got the shove on, something that was totally unexpected given we had OAPs at 1,2 & 3. Felise was absolute dynamite. If he was Welsh, he would be straight into the squad, despite his age. Which is worrying.

I wouldn't say that the Scarlets have a much vaunted pack. They have a good front row but were looking decidedly lightweight in the second and back rows earlier in the season. They've improved on that and I was surprised how comfortably Cardiff dealt with them. I thought the Scarlets would have dominated at Scrum, but apart from a few penalties it wasn't as dominant as expected.
It will be interesting to see how the Cardiff and Osprey's scrums go as, I'm wondering if Danny Wilson employed a few tricks on Saturday to cope.

Wales are currently pretty short at 3, but the future looks pretty promising with Nicky Thomas, Dillon Lewis and Leon Brown hopefully progressing from their U20's form.

It's pretty obvious he did. With an arse as big as Melon's I was surprised the ref didn't notice it was forming an almost perfect right angle with the direction of shove.

[Numbers]

With a lightweight pack, picking three 7's and a 6 in the second row it was crying out for a tighter performance from the Scarlets to avoid the Blues strengths.
Having said that the Blues forwards looked good where the Scarlets looked off the boil so it might not have made a difference.

The Blues' tight five kept the much vaunted Scarlets pack at bay as well. They never once got the shove on, something that was totally unexpected given we had OAPs at 1,2 & 3. Felise was absolute dynamite. If he was Welsh, he would be straight into the squad, despite his age. Which is worrying.

I wouldn't say that the Scarlets have a much vaunted pack. They have a good front row but were looking decidedly lightweight in the second and back rows earlier in the season. They've improved on that and I was surprised how comfortably Cardiff dealt with them. I thought the Scarlets would have dominated at Scrum, but apart from a few penalties it wasn't as dominant as expected.
It will be interesting to see how the Cardiff and Osprey's scrums go as, I'm wondering if Danny Wilson employed a few tricks on Saturday to cope.

Wales are currently pretty short at 3, but the future looks pretty promising with Nicky Thomas, Dillon Lewis and Leon Brown hopefully progressing from their U20's form.

Nicky Smith is a loosehead, I haven't heard of Leon Brown.

[cadofyddol]

The Blues' tight five kept the much vaunted Scarlets pack at bay as well. They never once got the shove on, something that was totally unexpected given we had OAPs at 1,2 & 3. Felise was absolute dynamite. If he was Welsh, he would be straight into the squad, despite his age. Which is worrying.

I wouldn't say that the Scarlets have a much vaunted pack. They have a good front row but were looking decidedly lightweight in the second and back rows earlier in the season. They've improved on that and I was surprised how comfortably Cardiff dealt with them. I thought the Scarlets would have dominated at Scrum, but apart from a few penalties it wasn't as dominant as expected.
It will be interesting to see how the Cardiff and Osprey's scrums go as, I'm wondering if Danny Wilson employed a few tricks on Saturday to cope.

Wales are currently pretty short at 3, but the future looks pretty promising with Nicky Thomas, Dillon Lewis and Leon Brown hopefully progressing from their U20's form.

Nicky Smith is a loosehead, I haven't heard of Leon Brown.

I know, which is why I said Nicky Thomas!

Nicky Thomas played at TH in the same Wales U20s team as Nicky Smith and looked a devastating scrummager.

Scott Otten who was the back up hooker in that U20s team to Elliott Dee and is third choice hooker at the O's grew up with both the Nicky's and they played front row together from something like the age of 13, up until Thomas left the Ospreys to join Gloucester a year and a half ago.

Leon Brown is the current back up in the U20s to Dillon Lewis and also looks to be an excellent prospect. He plays for Ebbw Vale I think

[Numbers]

I wouldn't say that the Scarlets have a much vaunted pack. They have a good front row but were looking decidedly lightweight in the second and back rows earlier in the season. They've improved on that and I was surprised how comfortably Cardiff dealt with them. I thought the Scarlets would have dominated at Scrum, but apart from a few penalties it wasn't as dominant as expected.
It will be interesting to see how the Cardiff and Osprey's scrums go as, I'm wondering if Danny Wilson employed a few tricks on Saturday to cope.

Wales are currently pretty short at 3, but the future looks pretty promising with Nicky Thomas, Dillon Lewis and Leon Brown hopefully progressing from their U20's form.

Nicky Smith is a loosehead, I haven't heard of Leon Brown.

I know, which is why I said Nicky Thomas!

Nicky Thomas played at TH in the same Wales U20s team as Nicky Smith and looked a devastating scrummager.

Scott Otten who was the back up hooker in that U20s team to Elliott Dee and is third choice hooker at the O's grew up with both the Nicky's and they played front row together from something like the age of 13, up until Thomas left the Ospreys to join Gloucester a year and a half ago.

Leon Brown is the current back up in the U20s to Dillon Lewis and also looks to be an excellent prospect. He plays for Ebbw Vale I think

Sorry, my mistake, our U20s seem to be producing a high number of decent front players as you say, that Domachowski looks like a big unit.