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I'm thinking L and B are his initials, if so, well done OFF.

Whens he Joining, Jason?

Never ever trust a Turk

In the case of Scarletnut careful what you wish for

Comments on Scarlet Forum

Demise of Scarlets Poor Board Poor Coaches, poor Team

Where is our pathway like the Ospreys ( reference to the Budgies few and far between now )

Wish we had Booth

If down to 3 Regions looks like we would be dropped

Sad to hear regarding a great club like Llanelli But Scarletnut actions and his pal Moffat coming back to bite them on the bum ?

Is it 'cos he is a Turk? More likely because he is a small-minded, small-town scribbler. Deke Leonard was a Turk but he could really write.

Confirmed by the Ospreys now as well.

Of course. This past year he took up 4 average player wages and next year it would have been over 4.6 wages. That is of course if the horribly inaccurate Welsh media is anywhere near correct.

Provence are currently second in Pro div 2 so will be very keen to secure promotion to T14 this year. Would not be a surprise if a deal was worked out.

The old Orange Free State which the Cheetahs represent was historically one of the biggest talent areas for young players. They struggled to retain them as the big 4 provinces of Natal Western Province Transvaal and Northern Transvaal had so much more money. I imagine they will have schools in the Free State that lay to a very high standard and have a regular supply of young talent.

Check out the Youtube pre-game presser. Toby says they were trying to bring these guys in as RWC cover and that they are at Llandarcy now,

Financial? I mean we are going to be footing at least some of the wages, which means the players stay in orbit of their parent club whilst getting game time.

Some competent experienced players would do me fine, to complement our young squad.

The problem with overseas signings is the need WRU approval to get a permit and the WRU seem intent on forcing the regions to play young welsh players who are not yet ready for this level to see them set back and make regional fans watch garbage rather than be allowed to bring in better talent for the fans of the regions to watch.

Your point is right though. There are players in those Porugal Chile and Uruguay teams that would push for a place in the full Welsh squad. The reality is they are not far behind us. The Chile 9 is better than any of our options at 9.

I'm just living in hope.

I hope he has more brains that Morgan does.

I wonder who...

Was anything said about the potential St Helen's move?

They would never discuss that in a public forum until it is officially announced. And there will not be an official announcement until the project is ready to go. There won’t be official comment on rumours.

The prices, wow!!! £73 for a replica, £102 for a match jersey...don't think they'll sell many of those.

I never buy rugby jerseys so no idea what is a fair price. They look ok to me but thought they may have more to say about Ecowatt assuming this is the major international sponsorship that has been forecast.

🤔email

Totally agree mate. Being an O's fan is as frustrating as it's ever been!

Thanks Tommy

He really is a nice fella.

I'm hearing the kit launch is next Wednesday. Macron. Sponsor ECOWATT.

Don't shoot the messenger if it's not accurate:)

Thanks for the info, keep up the good spying .

How imminent is imminent? Any update on this mate

Well "soon" was about a month, so who knows what "imminent" is

Was it "imminent" or was it "immanent" or was it "eminent"? Prominent, predominant, opponent, impotent.... could be anything, English being what it is and the appalling state of spelling since they invented Spellchecker.

Given the fact our shareholders had to contribute many millions under this new agreement to keep pro rugby alive I really fail to understand not buying a season ticket over the issue. I would urge you to think again. If everybody took your stance there may not be a St Helens to go to in the future

I think there must be more simply because there are three other TBC fixtures one on New Year’s Day. The Ospreys are desperately lacking

a CEO who can interact with the fan base on the journey they are taking. An outgoing personality who will interact with fans and potential fans is a crucial and missing part of this jigsaw. Just relying on the communications department to drop feed news to fans and force them to rely on rumour is not the best way forward.

Spot on. Having a one-way communication approach through social media makes ospreys feel a bit faceless, and detached IMO.

I didn't read it like that. "WoL understands" in a Steffan Thomas article about Ospreys usually means he made it up and Nigel Walker talking to Mark Jones about his future is normal. They were employer and employee then, they aren't now.

There may be a foundation to it all but right now it is just gossip like us moving to Ealing.

The WRU website this morning has this by Huw Bevan, interim performance director, speaking about the Under 20's.

"The appointment (of Mark Jones) was interim so we obviously need to have a look at that, and we will need a full time head coach going forward and obviously Mark, if he was interested in the role, would be a strong contender.

Ideally, we would like to keep him involved but we have to go through a process because as it will be a new appointment, we will have to fulfil our obligations as there could be other coaches interested in the role."

Definitely, I assume he’s completed the WRU’s Player to Coach Programme and hope the Ospreys have some sort of transition plan in place.

Even if it's just one game? Don't think moving one game to London is the end of the world, particularly if transport is provided etc.

I am disabled and my companion ST holders are both in their late 70s so going to London would be beyond us.

Even one game is frankly too many. We pay for the best seats at the Liberty and that is where the Ospreys should play their home games until such time as the supposed move to St Helens is completed.

Crowds at the Liberty are declining and this will certainly not help to bring in more people.

I really don't see any benefits playing home games away from the region. That's why I think it's yet more rubbish from the fool down west.

1. A possible merger with Russian region CSK Moscow 😳

2. Steffan Thomas life president.

Well, there must be some teams left that we haven't discussed a merger with 😂 Scarletnut actually writing a balanced piece would also be refreshing!

The very strong anonymous quotes they gave to TRP are probably as far as they will go. At the moment we are just getting Cardiff and us briefing against each other by talking to journalists who will print what they tell them.

I don’t think we are helping ourselves by not announcing season ticket arrangement and until we do those who brief against us will continue to use it to sow doubt.

Agreed.

What is the reason for still no season tickets? If we're being honest, Swansea's fixtures shouldn't even have a bearing as your just providing a ticket for x number of games next year, are you not?

@Squidge Most financially stable ? How so ? I understand the issue with the Dragons. But reports about director loans for the Turks and the Blues are normal are they not ? At least, they have directors to make those loans.

ST ned to announced to end this nonsense

Well the Scarlets and Blues almost went under Irish/Worcester/Wasps-style in the middle of last season so it's kinda by default.

I was intrigued that the announcement said “Retiring from international rugby”. With Beard and Rhys away, one more year would make perfect sense.

Exactly. It would have been easy to make a blanket announcement and say that the Baa-Baas game would be his last.

That was my immediate thought Paul. Booth has said in press conferenes that he consulted Tips on player retentions and that tips would be part of the furniture long after he was gone. Great coaches are generally born not made. Average coaches can be made.

I could see AWJ more as a figurehead CEO type than a coach.

These guys are generational talents and intelligent guys. We need to find long term roles for them

I understand first tranche of monies from WRU not received by Regions

maybe our boys once bitten / shy , they are waiting for monies to confirm the “agreed”contract prior final signatures

hopefully delay will not provide another Hawkins situation

WRU budgets run to Y/E June 31st so the regions are still covered by the £36M they got last July First. Considering that the PRB agreed and signed off the new deal and the PRB is dominated by the 4 region chairmen then they really should be a little more aware of what they have to spend.

I think the issue is that money due to the regions is being held up as Welsh govenment and Nat West consent is required to release of the funds due to their loan creditor status. Nothing really to do with PRB. Hopefully abandoning that stupid stadium roof top walkway idea will result in the consent being given.

No doubt a few choice words regarding their recent performances and being unloaded from the gravy train

lots of deadwood need removing , whilst I am a believer of experience mentors

marty holah with Tips and Marshall who AWJ stated brought a new ethos regarding not only training , but looking after your body

i don’t see much of that apart from AWJ and Tips

Booth has to take a large part of the blame for the final two games of the season. The tactics and selection were poor. But he has had a difficult job in handling a squad in the middle of a down sizing phase and preparing for games. Dai Young has had similar problems . The real guilty party. is Steve Phillips and the union for the way they have handled funding of the pro game.

Watching the semis of the big boys cup we will end up being thankful for a run in the Diddy men Cup next year because with their seeding I can see Cardiff having put 100 points on them in the big boys cup

Ref your last paragraph, I think the lads had that in mind against Cardiff on JD

What’s their concerns with him?

When senior players are asked to take 40% pay decrease they may tend to lose the faith in the poor guy who has to deliver it.

I wonder if that’s the exciting news the ospreys said was coming soon? The St Helen’s redevelopment I mean.

It was at the time of the Ealing rumours in early March when it was said at the Bennetton game that there would be news in two or three months that would show what complete nonsense this was.

Incidentally Ealing lost to Jersey at the weekend and now need a Jersey loss in the final round to finish top of the championship.

It is surprising that with the end of season dinner and awards tomorrow night we have release such little information.

Perhaps, with awards and eos speeches tomorrow, announcements will be made the following day...before the final game of the season, or not 🤷‍♂️

Fiddler, it's all according to whom Paul Rogers is alluding to as the horses mouth, because Paul is normally spot on with his information, if it's Nicky, AWJ or even Booth I'd believe him, that there are at least 2 locks coming in.

I would agree it would have to be on a long term deal if it is TW, don't forget probably Rhys and Adam would be away for large chunks of the season if Rowlands cannot get to 25 caps.

Rotation has helped in the form of our front row if we could afford him I'd be after him, it would certainly bolster us in the long term.

As with all info were relying on the accuracy of the person telling us.

What I will say is Toby has been very open with his giving of information this week so we cant be far away from hearing news through the official channels.

Just to add to the confusion on Teddy Williams, Cardiff went with a 6-2 bench option for their weekend game, the 2nd row starters were Timani and Seb Davies and on the bench were Turnball and Thornton and even Ratti covering, no sign of Williams, for their previous weeks game he was on the bench

Why could you not continue to play amateur club cricket there in the summer. The standard of pitch and outfield does not have to be the same standard as first class cricket?

God I hope so.

Do you know or hoping like me?

I know that there will be good news. What I don't know is when and who it will concern.

Firstly they haven't yet had all the five annual tranches of the CVC money so they couldn't have spent it on anything and secondly the hotel was financed by Legal and General. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/wru-moving-hotel-business-actually-23999182

They had to buy the old courts building many years ago in order to build the Millennium/Principality stadium (bus access ramps etc) which left them with a property they couldn't sell to anyone else.

My reading of various balance sheets is that the hotel is now worth £5M more than the £45M it cost, employs dozens in new jobs and returns near £1.5M a year clear profit for WRU to invest in rugby.

That’s a false equivalence. The English premiership clubs control their own tv and sponsorship deals for the league In a way that the wru won’t allow the regions to. The money they receive includes the money the wru have harvested from the league and tv deals. On top of that the English clubs are not impacted in the same way in terms of player call ups etc and the amount of time players spent in national camp

But they gave up a quarter of their income to CVC for the capital receipts and because the community game and their costs are underwritten that means the regions bore that reduction as well as the Covid losses. After all that 1.5 m is a pathetic return. That is why this is happening. Mismanagement of the CVC deal and refusal to pass commercial rights to the people taking all the risk.

It could have implications on Joe's development given that Toby has been careful about over-exposing him. We saw how he faded when Gatland kept starting him and Exeter have already lost 4 first choice backs for next season.

Why he has chosen to sign before RWC is the question.

Roots gone to Exeter as well.

Short career , but a bit young to be chasing the money

Yes, I believe it is. He shouldn't be too far away now from full fitness and if he goes well tomorrow, he could feature against Edinburgh and beyond.

That man has such potential it hurts to see what has happened to him. It seems like forever but he only signed for Ospreys at the end of February a year ago. Other players have been out for longer but if anyone deserves some luck it is Sam.

Both his boys are very good looking but Israel and Ezekiel are both very much male. There is a vid clip of Israel howling "Come on you Bath" when his Dad was there then a still of him sleeping like an angel in the back of the car.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/israel-faletaus-raucous-support-dads-21785581

My apologies to all concerned I honestly thought he had daughters, I don’t know where that thought came from.

Paul, that could well be true for Webb given his age but I would have thought that Parry had a couple more years in him? It could well be that we could only afford one year deals?