What do you think the choice XV's for the regions will look like after the RWC next season?

ML wrote:wait until all the foreign signings are announced - there is no way the Os for instance are going to fork out money for SH players and then leave them on the bench in favour of youngsters (unfortunately).

wales606 wrote:Its far too soon for Robinson, and Filise will still best Andrew. Tito was starting to be faded out last season.

Ian Gough Interview wrote:Are players like Mathew Morgan, Kristian Philips going to be given a chance in the first team next season?
It’s up to them - if they train hard and show the right attitude then I‘m sure they will get their chance and make their mark

welshy824 wrote:i hope for the blues that the new coach gets rid of parks, buys matthew morgan and puts him at 10-sorted

hold on, maybe i should be blues coach =D ...

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Scarlets During RWC

(15 - 9) D Evans, A Fenby, G Maule, N Reynolds, L Williams, D Newton, G Davies
(1 - 8) I Thomas, E Phillips, R Thomas, S Timani, D Day, A Shingler, J Edwards, B Morgan
(bench) P John, P Edwards, K Myhill, R Pugh, N Cudd, A Williams (if we sign him), J Williams, A.N.Other

Post RWC

(15 - 9) M Stoddart, G North, S Williams, J Davies, S Lamont, R Priestland, T Knoyle
(1 - 8) I Thomas, M Rees, R Thomas, L Reed, D Day, J Turnbull, J Edwards, B Morgan
(Bench) P John, P Edwards, K Owens, S Timani, R McCusker, G Davies, S Jones, A Fenby

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Honestly I think that if they were made an offer that they would probably not take it, and if they did take it I have a feeling that Stephen would probably end up turning down the move himself. But that is only my view form how i read things. I have a feeling that Jones will be first choice fly half in the major crunch matches still this season, and probably still get a fair bit of game time next season too.

maestegmafia wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Scarlets During RWC

(15 - 9) D Evans, A Fenby, G Maule, N Reynolds, L Williams, D Newton, G Davies
(1 - 8) I Thomas, E Phillips, R Thomas, S Timani, D Day, A Shingler, J Edwards, B Morgan
(bench) P John, P Edwards, K Myhill, R Pugh, N Cudd, A Williams (if we sign him), J Williams, A.N.Other

Post RWC

(15 - 9) M Stoddart, G North, S Williams, J Davies, S Lamont, R Priestland, T Knoyle
(1 - 8) I Thomas, M Rees, R Thomas, L Reed, D Day, J Turnbull, J Edwards, B Morgan
(Bench) P John, P Edwards, K Owens, S Timani, R McCusker, G Davies, S Jones, A Fenby

Do you think if The Scarlets were made an offer for Steven Jones they should take it, and do you think he would be interested?

luckless_pedestrian wrote:It'll be interesting to see how much game time Matthew Morgan gets. The Ospreys seem to want a kicking ten so even if he does start, will he be encouraged to play his natural game or instructed to kick?

nottins_jones wrote:

luckless_pedestrian wrote:It'll be interesting to see how much game time Matthew Morgan gets. The Ospreys seem to want a kicking ten so even if he does start, will he be encouraged to play his natural game or instructed to kick?

Is Edwards still looking to get him to come to the Dragons or is that just a rumour? Maybe Ospreys know he's off considering they just signed yet another sub-standard SH journeyman in that same position.

nottins_jones wrote:Turkster, Andy Fenby... and no Priestland in your team? You serious?

nottins_jones wrote:Signing the semi-pro fly-half from Australia was a joke. Not the first dead-rubber signing by them though, I just see it as draining funds when there's fly-halves available in the Region, funds we don't have in Wales right now. Not even sure how he is classed as semi-pro either when you consider Australia don't have any league's below the Super 15.

luckless_pedestrian wrote:It'll be interesting to see how much game time Matthew Morgan gets. The Ospreys seem to want a kicking ten so even if he does start, will he be encouraged to play his natural game or instructed to kick?

nottins_jones wrote:Signing the semi-pro fly-half from Australia was a joke. Not the first dead-rubber signing by them though, I just see it as draining funds when there's fly-halves available in the Region, funds we don't have in Wales right now. Not even sure how he is classed as semi-pro either when you consider Australia don't have any league's below the Super 15.

AlynDavies wrote:

nottins_jones wrote:Signing the semi-pro fly-half from Australia was a joke. Not the first dead-rubber signing by them though, I just see it as draining funds when there's fly-halves available in the Region, funds we don't have in Wales right now. Not even sure how he is classed as semi-pro either when you consider Australia don't have any league's below the Super 15.

Not trying to be too cynical but have you seen this guy play?
On what grounds is this signing a joke?
A lad come up from Australia who has a Welsh father, who knew Scott Johnson and he's been given a short term contract by the Ospreys, he will be placed at Bridgend Ravens in the Welsh Premiership for a few months to see how he progresses. He's on very little money and a short term deal, if he works out great, he may be offered something better by one of the regions, if not he will go back to Australia. Nothing ventured nothing gained. I'm not sure how you can criticise the Ospreys for making the effort to give Welsh people a chance. no one seems to be criticising the Scarlets for signing that Tongan Lock from Carmarthen Quins, at least the guy the Ospreys signed can play for Wales!

nottins_jones wrote:I didn't know it was only for pre-season training. No I've not seen him play but if he were that good a Super 15 Franchise would have had him by now. What sort of honours does he actually have? Might give an indication as to how good he may be. We are never short of outside halves, particulary west. You can't bring in someone this in-experienced to replace Hook when you have Biggar and Morgan as your outside halves Alyn.

To me shows Ospreys aren't being very ambitious altough I could re-tract that should they bring over Nonu as it was rumoured. Why don't they try to bring back Brynteg School product and NZ U20 Rhys Llewelyn by offering him that type of contract? Wales lacks 13's.

nottins_jones wrote:I didn't know it was only for pre-season training. No I've not seen him play but if he were that good a Super 15 Franchise would have had him by now. What sort of honours does he actually have? Might give an indication as to how good he may be. We are never short of outside halves, particulary west. You can't bring in someone this in-experienced to replace Hook when you have Biggar and Morgan as your outside halves Alyn.

To me shows Ospreys aren't being very ambitious altough I could re-tract that should they bring over Nonu as it was rumoured. Why don't they try to bring back Brynteg School product and NZ U20 Rhys Llewelyn by offering him that type of contract? Wales lacks 13's.

AlynDavies wrote:
The Ospreys can only show as much ambition as they have money. Cuddy spends a lot out of his own pocket but frankly the gulf in funds Welsh rugby can afford and the Roman Abramovich type benefactors buying up French clubs.
The WRU funds the regions £6M a season, divided 4 ways. So at the most they have a budget of 1.5M each from the WRU. The regions have budgets of £3m to £4.5m at the most. Some of the French Clubs have a budget of £14m!
How can the Ospreys match that type of money?
The Ospreys have approached big name players but the last one they offered a contract to were told a Japanease club had offered him £500k a season for half as many games as he would of had to play for the Ospreys, while the Ospreys offered him less than half (£200k) of what the Japanease club did! The player wants to make money for as long as he can so went to Japan, it's a no brainer!

maestegmafia wrote:Which is why the Regions are choosing not to try to compete on the money scales with the wealthier nations clubs, it is pointless. Much better to concentrate as much as possible on young players.

This also errs towards Scot Johnson wanting Gatland to clarify the rules on players playing within Wales being selected over ones that are not.

If Wales refuse to pick players outside of Wales it means the regions potentially have to pay a lot less to get signatures of those with National representational ambitions.

manofgwent wrote:Alum. All those players will Serbs Wales well?
Gareth Owen? 23 and only plays LV. I's he a full back or 10 or centre?
Kristian Phillips? Not good enough.
Prydie? A wasted season. He should gave been given more game time before his injury late in the season.
Baldwin. Behind 2 welsh hookers.
These players need exposure at the highest level and of your list only a few played regularly last season. What does it say to the youngsters when the ospreys have signed 3 players, 2 of whom are NWQ. One is 32 and the other 29. The signing of bearman i's crazy. I hope he does well because before his long term injury, he was fantastic for the dragons, but why would you sign an injury prone 33 year old? He isn't the same player as he was, but he's still a million times better than sideways jones.
Ospreys fans think that the coaches will put an emphasis on youth. Man are they gonna be disappointed.
Also the person who said Morgan would play 10 with biggar 12. How ironic that the ospreys chose biggar over the excellent hook. Hook looks elsewhere to play in his favoured position and now you're thinking of putting biggar at 12. Genius!
Matthew Morgan was linked with the dragons, but as much as I would love to see him at save. We have Tovey and steffan jones and having one or two of those sat on the bench wouldnt be good for Wales.

AlynDavies wrote:

manofgwent wrote:Alum. All those players will Serbs Wales well?
Gareth Owen? 23 and only plays LV. I's he a full back or 10 or centre?
Kristian Phillips? Not good enough.
Prydie? A wasted season. He should gave been given more game time before his injury late in the season.
Baldwin. Behind 2 welsh hookers.
These players need exposure at the highest level and of your list only a few played regularly last season. What does it say to the youngsters when the ospreys have signed 3 players, 2 of whom are NWQ. One is 32 and the other 29. The signing of bearman i's crazy. I hope he does well because before his long term injury, he was fantastic for the dragons, but why would you sign an injury prone 33 year old? He isn't the same player as he was, but he's still a million times better than sideways jones.
Ospreys fans think that the coaches will put an emphasis on youth. Man are they gonna be disappointed.
Also the person who said Morgan would play 10 with biggar 12. How ironic that the ospreys chose biggar over the excellent hook. Hook looks elsewhere to play in his favoured position and now you're thinking of putting biggar at 12. Genius!
Matthew Morgan was linked with the dragons, but as much as I would love to see him at save. We have Tovey and steffan jones and having one or two of those sat on the bench wouldnt be good for Wales.

Owen is 22 and is a utility player, he has done pretty well this season. He's actually played 50 times for the Ospreys and 11 times this season in various positions, he's used where he is needed.

How can you say Kristian Phillips isn't good enough at 20 years old! Robery Howley didn't get his first Wales cap until he was 26, yet you write off a kid who's only just leaving the youth team! there may be a long term problem with us having too many players to develop but Phillips has never done anything to suggest he won't make it as a professional, and those 2 tries he scores Vs Leicester this year were brilliant!

Prydie got very unlucky with his injury but a wasted season? He's come from no where and made his Wales debut and did pretty well in his 3 tests, as well as getting 7 games for the Ospreys prior to his injury.

Baldwin is 4th choice behind Hibbard, Bennett and Mefin Davies (3 Wales Internationals) but there is nothing to suggest he can't do a good job for us. the Ospreys are lucky they produce such a log jam of talent through their academy that they have all these players competing for places!

The signings of the back row players are extremely sensible.
Jerry Collins has left to go to Japan.
Steve Tandy has left to become Bridgend's head coach.
Marty Holah left to go back to New Zealand.
Andy Lloyd got injured and was forced to retire.
Ben Lewis got injured and was forced to retire.
Justin Tipuric looks like he will be part of the Wales squad from now on due to his perfomances last season.
Basically our back row has taken a hammering this season with us losing 5 players, of course we needed to bring players in! Bearman was a good choice simply because he's versatile and we needed someone Welsh qualified! He was the only decent player available. Both players are stop gaps that fit in with our budget and keep us ticking over during a World Cup year.

Hook has been given every chance at the Ospreys at Fly Half and hasnt delivered, if he had put in performances he would of sealed his place in the team. The Ospreys needed someone consistent and Hook hasn't done that job. Biggar hasn't been much better but the Ospreys do score tries with Biggar at 10 and Hook in the centre. Hook left partially because of money Welsh regions simply cant compete with French clubs wages, we couldnt get near what the French offered him, and he decided on a change of scene, who can blame him?

Quite frankly I think your views are scewed by jealousy, the Ospreys are hammering out talented kids, and now just because the Dragons have managed oooo maybe 3-4 people recently your a bit full of it...

maestegmafia wrote:Well said Alyn

I dissagree with your point regarding Hook and Biggar.

The Ospreys knew Hook wanted to leave as soon as the big money offers started rolling in over two years ago, he renegotiated about 18 months ago. That is one of the reasons they started to give Biggar his chance.

umbrella14 wrote:cant tackle dosnt want tackle, bit of an issue.

AlynDavies wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Well said Alyn

I dissagree with your point regarding Hook and Biggar.

The Ospreys knew Hook wanted to leave as soon as the big money offers started rolling in over two years ago, he renegotiated about 18 months ago. That is one of the reasons they started to give Biggar his chance.

You've probably summed it better than me. But on the one hand we have Hook going to the strongest league in Europe and we have 2 young kids Biggar at 21 and Morgan at 19 fighting to be the next Ospreys fly half.