Origin Series

Good day out today. Thought Aberavon the best of the three sides we faced but the two best players from the semi pros were the Swansea 10 and 8. The restarts from the 10 were superb in terms of their hang time.

The good news was I dont think we have a back three problem. Moyse looked good chasing the high ball. Far better than any of our wingers last year not called Cuthbert. Conbeer was good in attack as expected but his defence was not really tested. Houston showed some nice touches at 15 and was positionally sound but the serious good news was Lewis Edwards who was mistakenly referred to on the team sheet as Liam Edwards. If this guy is not this years bolter I will eat my hat. The other impressive player for me was Tristan Davies who looks to have continued his trajectory.

The bad news was our depth at tight head is going to be seriously exposed. Henry was not in the squad and his availablity for the early games is uncertain. Warren played the first game and struggled against Rowan Jenkins. Given what happened to him as sub against Edinburgh and the Lions last spring when virtually every scrum was a potential reverse gear and penalty we are going to have a scrum issue as Botha cannot go 80 every match. Botha played against Bridgend and the first half against Swansea but when he came off Warren did not return and Steffan Thomas opted for uncontested scrums when he came on to replace Botha. I think we had better hope the Cheetahs have some decent tight heads we can loan or this could cost us. Botha looks our single most important player