Our brand new Welsh rugby columnist, Jorden Marvelley, gives us her views on how the regions fared in the latest round of the RaboDirect Pro12.
A Welsh Derby Wash Out.
Friday night’s hotly anticipated clash between the Cardiff Blues and the Newport-Gwent Dragons was postponed due to the water logging of the pitch, much to the disappointment of the capacity crowd. Most of them had queued outside Rodney Parade for close to two hours.
The night was also set to mark the completion of the new Bisley Stand. The new stand is the first stage of the Rodney Parade regeneration and it provides seating and corporate hospitality.
It will be interesting to see when the game will be rescheduled for as the fixture list for both teams is now extremely tight considering that the Heineken Cup starts next week.
I am potentially about to open a rather large can of worms here but this regeneration seems a little overdue. I am very well aware that Rodney Parade is the one ground in Wales that consistently pulls in capacity crowds in the RaboDirect Pro12 whereas, the other Welsh regions struggle to half fill theirs.
However I can not help but think that a stadium with a new modern build would have suffered less in such weather conditions. I believe that drainage systems need to be looked into, this is not a comparison to other stadia as I do not profess to know what other drainage systems are like, but I think a review and upgrade may make the job of the ground staff etc… just that little bit easier.
Finally, I would like to highlight the extraordinary effort the ground staff and volunteers put in on Friday night to move the surface water and try to allow the game to go ahead, they did a fantastic job, there was little else they could have done.
West Wales Derby witnesses far too few sparks.
With the returning Wales stars back on regional duty after an extremely successful World Cup campaign, Bonfire Night had all the ingredients for a memorable derby day match between Ospreys and Scarlets. The hype unfortunately was all it turned out to be, just hype.
The game was scrappy for the most part, with the breakdown and rucks being hotly contested by both teams. Neither side chose to play expansive rugby opting instead for a tighter and somewhat flat game plan.
The Ospreys had the best of the chances in the first half with a scrum just 5 metres out from the Scarlets’ try line. As has been the case for some time in union, the scrum took any previously created momentum out of the game, with it being reset numerous times until the Ospreys got penalised and lost the opportunity to turn serious pressure into points. The Scarlets and the Ospreys did show case some great angles of running but both were lacking in the ability to finish.
The game became a battle of the fly-halves, as Stephen Jones and Dan Biggar both missed with their opening chances for points but it was Biggar who got the only score of the first half with a penalty after Jones got yellow carded for tip-tackling Tommy Bowe.
The Ospreys’ openside flanker, Justin Tipuric, was also shown a yellow for having his hands in the ruck while he was trying to play the ball but the Scarlets were unable to capitalise on the chance for points as the shot drifted wide.
After the 50 minute mark both sides saw a steady trickle of replacements come off the bench, both Shane Williams and George North added some instant pace and excitement but it did not develop much past that. The final score was 9-9 and those 2 points saw the Ospreys return to the top of the RaboDirect Pro12 table.
Tip-tackles
In less than a month a Welsh rugby match has been somewhat over shadowed by the controversial tip-tackle debate, it was certainly one that I have been engaged in with a friend. Was Stephen Jones’ tackle on Tommy Bowe worth a yellow or was it even a carding offence? The one thing we agreed on was that it’s definitely something that needs to be looked into. As things stand the decision is too dependent on the referee’s interpretation, it needs to be in black and white.
The way things stand players are going to be afraid to enter into contact or make big tackles, which would suck a lot of the atmosphere out of rugby union. I understand the need for safety but the game has evolved over the years. To quote a friend of mine: ‘The professional game is getting faster, more powerful and the physics are becoming more obvious.”
Surely then the rules should evolve too. What do you think?
The Rugby Diary 