It’s seems rather crass to attempt to put a price on Wales Euro success, how can you evaluate the magical days and nights in Lille, Toulouse and in financial terms ?

Years of heartache finally put to the sword by this wonderfully humble group of men, have not only resulted in our emotional and spiritual fulfilment, but due to the financial rewards this competition provides, Wales have also been victorious in providing a considerable financial legacy for one of the poorest football associations, who last year made a profit of £20,000

Wales have already bagged over £12 million force their heroics in France

£6.4 million for taking part in the tournament 

£812,000 for each victory in the pool stages

£2 million for reaching the quarter finals

£3.2 million for reaching the semi finals

The knock on effect of packed houses in Cardiff , for World Cup qualifying matches,  will boost the coffers even further, starting with the visit of Moldova on September 5th ,which should be a huge welcome home party .

In the meantime we all have a semi final against Portugal to look forward to….Priceless ! 

The Football Association of Wales was founded in 1876, five years before the Welsh Rugby Union, it has always been taken as read that rugby union is the national game of Wales, but is the wind of change sweeping through the sporting landscape of this country ?

Success is obviously a vital factor, and many fans are fickle, so in view of recent international football success it is not surprising that there are questions as to which code currently holds the nations heart.

There is no doubt that the fans in Bordeaux, Lens and Toulouse have displayed a passion that one would have once thought was exclusively reserved for the oval ball team,  and not just passion, but also the wonderful choral support that has been sadly missing from Welsh rugby for many years.

To hear the great Welsh hymn, Calon Lan,  sung in Bordeaux when Wales beat Slovakia in their opening Euro 2016 match , brought a tear to my eye, it took me back to the 1970s, the days when singing in harmony was the norm at Welsh rugby internationals .

There is wonderful innocence about the Welsh football followers , they are savouring every moment, living every kick and pass,  and during the match the football is the priority ,and not the nationalistic social drinking fest that rugby internationals have now become for many .

The real truth of course is, that most football fans will watch rugby, and most rugby fans will watch football, but if you look beyond the international arena, the attendances for the bluebirds and The Swans are at a level that the Pro 12 rugby regions could only dream of achieving.

Two days ago the back page of Wales on Sunday reflected on the huge gulf in emotions between the codes , as the abject gloom of the manner of defeat in New Zealand contrasted starkly with the glorious and unabated joy that was palpable,  as Wales defeated Northen Ireland in Paris to reach the quarter finals…. Yes…. That’s right ! The Quarter finals of Euro 2016.

I for one am probably looking forward to Wales FIFA World Cup qualifiers in September more than the Autumn Rugby Internationals, and I never imagined that would ever happen.

Perhaps the years of childhood, and adult, deprivation of Welsh football panini stickers, Esso coins and newspaper pull outs have finally caught up with me , or have I just been caught up in the huge tide of joy, bewilderment and euphoria rolling in  between Barry and Bordeaux, Treorchy and Toulouse, Lampeter and Lille, and Pontypridd and Paris ?

Whatever it is ,I am sure there is enough love and enough room in our affections for both codes, but this French summer romance is something very special , and my heart will never be the same again.

All hail this great summer of sport, well to be accurate it’s actually hail, wind and rain at the moment.

June is not even half way through, and already there has been an awful lot of memorable sporting action to digest

I seem to have entered a twilight world of non stop sport this month,  I’m not sure quite what’s happening to me, Ive leapt up from my sofa as Iceland equalised against Portugal, I’ve sighed dejectedly, and hung my head in my hands, as Albania failed to hang on for just one more minute, to claim a draw against host nation France in Marseille, strange days indeed.

For me Euro 2016 is “Its a Knock Out” with the unwelcome added ingredient of crowd violence, the beautiful cities of France providing a glorious backdrop to the sporting action, (we will gloss over Marseille).

Flaming June is over the half way mark, and the bright warm orange colours of summer have yet to show their beauty, as Spring is reluctant to give up its meteorological hold on us.

But we have seen in contrast plenty of blue, the colour of the spectators hands and feet at Roland Garros, throughout the freezing cold and wet tournament in Paris, where the only warmth was provided by the sunny smile of Garbine Muguruzza, after she defeated Serena Williams to win the French open women’s title.

This last week, the colour red has been the dominant hue

We had Red faces in Hamilton, after Wales were humiliated by the Chiefs, an Irish Red card in Cape Town, yet even that did not stop the men in green from gaining an historic win over the Springboks, and the Red Dragons awoke from a fifty-eight year hibernation, to roar majestically in Bordeaux.

Incidentally, the colour red also reflects the state of my bank account, due to the purchases of Panini stickers, rugby programmes, newspapers and magazines this month.

If you are Welsh, then all colour would have drained from your cheeks during this last sporting week.

Whatever the sport, we in Wales do last-minute defeats better than any other country in the world.

What we would give to be able to enjoy the last ten minutes of a sporting encounter, without having to check our systolic and diastolic rates repeatedly, and defeats in Manchester and Lens this last week have only added to the back catalogue of defeats suffered in this heart breaking manner.

Wales Under 20s were leading New Zealand into the final minute, and there were ninety seconds left in the Euro 2016 match between England and Wales, when our faces turned from red to white, as the opposition achieved a vital score to snatch themselves a favourable result.

In the Southern Hemisphere winter has arrived, and the beaches of Australia and New Zealand have seen plenty of pasty British bodies, due to the unseasonal warmth, but nothing compares to the heat the Wallabies have had to endure, as an uncontrollable white tide washed away their hopes.

The tide in New Zealand had been flat calm, but there were a few waves, and a fair bit of swell for sixty minutes in Auckland before the storm passed.

In windy Wellington the All Blacks blew away Wales, in a second half period of ten minutes, before a red sky lit up the damp dewy night, during the last fifteen minutes of a hard-hitting  pacey test match.

But, as the New Zealand press reported “Dai Hard 28” was a victory to New Zealand.

So as we enter the final throes of June there is still an awful lot of rugby, and plenty of other sporting action to be played.

The forecast for next week ranges from a deep depression sweeping in from the south  to a massive high centering over parts of the British Isles, it all depends on your team , your sport and your results

I think I’d better take a brolly !

I find myself in the curious position of leaping to the defence of an England player ,who has been part of a winning team that recently defeated Wales.

Have I become a proper journalist as  a result of this damascan type conversion ? Well we can but hope.

The Ford family have not had the greatest few weeks, coach and  Dad Mike being dumped by Bath, and son George getting the boos from his own countrymen for his kicking display against Wales last Sunday, I guess neither of them will be buying lottery tickets this week.

Firstly Mike is a great coach, and in my opinion Bath have made a big mistake in dispensing with his services, he will be snapped up very quickly.

As for George, well he won’t be dwelling on the moronic booing.

As a hugely dedicated and talented rugby player, he will be churning up inside , and having sleepless nights reliving  the missed kicks, whilst attempting to discover the probably inexplicable reasons for such a poor display.

Well I would rather my player miss six kicks in a warm up international, than one in a grand slam decider, and  if there is ever a good time to have a shocker with the boot, then this was the match in which to do it.

But this type of behaviour is not exclusive to those who inhabit the lofty towers of Twickenham.

Plenty of  so called Wales fans  booed Neil Jenkins at the start of his career , because he had the temerity not to be born in the same mould as Barry John or Phil Bennett.

The same people were In floods of tears when he played his last game for Wales , against the Barbarians many years later at the Millenium stadium.

In another comparison to last weeks match ,  I once witnessed “Jenks” have an awful day against Ireland in Cardiff, where he missed six kicks at goal, he left the field utterly dejected, and after that game I don’t think he missed another kick for seven years.

Rhys Priestland has also suffered a torrid time from the Welsh boo boys

When you see how much effort these boys are putting in, it might just be worth sparing a thought for how bad they are feeling , without having to cope with the boos and jeers on top of everything else.
FROM BOOS TO BOOZE

Many people I have spoken to, are fed up of having to leap up from their seat every few minutes, as people head back and forth to the bars,during play at international matches.

To many match goers the rugby is now a secondary cabaret,  a mere back drop to a night out on the ale.

At Wales v France in Cardiff, during this years RBS 6 Nations, I was sat behind a lady with an £ 80 ticket, who spent the entire match either fetching Beer ,or constantly looking down at the floor to count the number of empty bottles she had collected

I knew this to be the case because I saw her fingers move individually, as each bottle was noted during the complex mathematical calculation that was taking place.

The trouble is that alcohol sales are a huge income for host unions, so they are not going to give a stuff about suffering spectators, no more than they care about Friday night 6 nations games in Cardiff, and Aviva trains, the most lethal combination of disruptive factors known to mankind.

I would suggest bars close 10 minutes before kick off, and open again at half time ,before closing for  the second half.

Finally,

As my colleagues and friends head to Australia New Zealand and South Africa, or prepare for Rio, the Sportsdragon will be here,adjusting the central heating thermostat on a daily basis ,whilst bringing you all the rugby news, and updates from Euro 2016 and Wimbledon.

Please join me for my Friday podcasts and the Monday roar

@MPsportsdragon

http://www.thesportsdragon.com

Keep warm till next week !

As Wales prepare to celebrate a very special sporting day, on Saturday, my mind turns back to a dark November afternoon when I turned on the radio to hear the shattering and unbelievable news that Gary Speed had died.

The shock and dismay  felt by so many people on 27 November 2011, was only worsened by the fact that he had taken his own life.

Football seemed an insignificant folly in the face of a young man’s death, a popular and charismatic person who on the face of it appeared to have it all, had been taken from us.

Football, and particularly Welsh football was stunned, and somehow through it all a new national manager had to be installed .

To take the job in those circumstances takes a special kind of person, one of Gary’s best friends, and a fellow international colleague proved to be such a man.

Chris Coleman grieving in his own right, took on the role which he has handled from day one with dignity and sensitivity, as the team grieved along with the fans, Chris Coleman stood strong and guided everyone through turbulent waters

When results didn’t go his way there were no excuses, despite the fact their were many, he retained his dignity as the team united and continued to grow with him and around him.

The squad have all been through such a lot together, experiences that put the game of football into perspective, but ultimately ones which have bonded this group of players  creating a spirit, a strength and unity within the squad that transcends sport.

Gary sowed the seeds of this wonderful success, his great friend Chris has continued the legacy and added an extra dimension to it.

Next Saturday in Bordeaux our tears will be ones of joy at reaching the finals of Euro 2016 ,but also one’s of  sadness for the tragic loss that set us all on this remarkable journey.

Wales motto “Together Stronger” could not be more apt.

As Euro 2016 gets ready to kick off , and Roland Garros takes spring into summer in the leafy boulevards of Paris, England and Wales end their exhausting seasons with three test series’ in Australia and New Zealand respectively.

So as Wales head to the land of the long white cloud, it’s worth bearing in mind that even though I am fifty eight years of age, Wales have never beaten the All Blacks since i came into the world.

In fact 1953 was the last time the men in red were victorious over the men in black.

The nearest thing I’ve experienced to a win was the when Wales won the Haka stand off in 2008, but that just made the All Blacks angry, and they beat us yet again.

It’s been a familiar tale throughout the years , even the great Welsh teams of the 70s could not defeat New Zealand, although a memorable day at Stradey Park, Llanelli, in October 1972 was a huge consolation for us Carmathenshire folk.

This tour sees Wales take a vastly experienced squad that have regularly won Northern hemisphere honours, and tasted World Cup knock out experience, but wins against Southern Hemisphere teams have been few and far between.

There is no doubt that there has never been a better time to face New Zealand, now that Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Conrad Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Kevin Mealamu and Tony Woodcock have all retired, but the task is still daunting to say the least.

The All Blacks have not played since the Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham last October, so surely Wales best chance lies in that first test on June 11.

Wales will have to be at their very best just to be in with a chance of a victory in the the three match series, and that is the challenge for a team that have a reputation for being notoriously slow starters.

The first test sees the men in red return to a familiar RWC 2011 venue, Eden Park, in Auckland, before visiting Wellington a week later.

In between the first two tests Wales will be warmly welcomed in Warren Gatland’s home town , Hamilton, where they will face Super Rugby outfit the Chiefs, before ending their tour with a third test in Dunedin.

The  Weekend
As I write, the Welsh squad, and entourage are assembling at Heathrow, DVT socks at the ready, for the long flight to Auckland.

Their final run out took place in front of 81,128  sun drenched spectators at Twickenham, on Sunday, where they faced an England team devoid of any Saracens and Exeter players, who played in the Aviva premiership final the previous day.

Wales started brightly and with pace , racing to a 10-0 lead before everything started to slowly unravel, resulting in a 27-13 win for the home team.

Paying the price for not selecting a specialist “7” Wales conceeded twenty turnovers, the other damning statistic is the twenty one tackles they missed.

A team with so much talent at its disposal is having far too many off days, and this is something that Wales clearly have to address.

A Dan Cole knock on ,missed by the officials, and the TMO resulted in a try for England at a crucial point of the match ,with the score at 15-13 to the men in white.

From then on in, Wales played with greater inaccuracy and as their set piece started to creak,they never looked like closing the gap.

George Ford only landed one kick out of seven attempts, which puts the scoreline into perspective.

The weekend saw the Lyon Kings, Saracens defeat Exeter Chiefs in front of 77, 109 at Twickenham in a pulsating final, on a hot and sunny Saturday afternoon, whilst a more modest crowd of 34,450 ,witnessed the Connacht dream season end with the men in green crowned champions after defeating Leinster at Murrayfield.

It has been a long hard season, and whilst the curtain falls domestically , a whole new production is about to premier globally

Let the games begin !

Summer is nearly here,  so it’s time to dig out the factor 50, or turn up the thermostat on the central heating, depending on which part of the UK you live.

In a season that seems to have no beginning and no end, the rugby circus packs up it tent, and heads to all parts of the world, bringing you the clowns, the Lyon tamers and the exhausted players walking a tightrope.

There are twenty two major internationals to be played in June, stretching from Sacramento to Suva, from Tokyo to Tucuman, and from Cape Town to Calgary.

As a fan the prospect is stirring, from a player welfare point of view it is bordering on the insane.

The one big plus is the fact the the so called tier two nations are getting a look in at last, with meaningful fixtures, and to give them a chance to experience Pro 12 refereeing at first hand.

But this article comes with a warning !

Plan your barbecues, family days out and holidays with care, one simple error and you could miss not just  a game, but the Euros, Wimbledon and Roland Garros.

Saturday June 11 is a prime example of the doomsday scenario that can occur if you do not plan properly, here is my recommended itinerary 

0830 New Zealand v Wales

1100 Australia v England

1500 South Africa v Ireland

1700 Wales v Slovakia (Euro 2016)

2000 England v Russia (Euro 2016)

And Saturday June 11 is just the start, so to prepare you, here is a list of the summers major international matches.

 Also next Sunday May 29, England face Wales at Twickenham , with a team devoid of any Saracens or Wasps players, who will be competing against eachother the previous day in the Aviva Premiership final.

Now I would go and watch Wales play England at needlework, but this surely has to be the most meaningless encounter in the rich history of matches between the two nations.

Wales fly out to New Zealand the following day, and I will be previewing the tour in a special Bank Holiday roar next Monday.

Le Weekend

A pulsating match in Dublin last Friday night saw Leinster beat Ulster to reach the Guinness Pro 12 final in Murrayfield on Saturday, where they will meet Connacht who defeated Glasgow Warriors to set up an all Irish final.

In the Aviva Premiership semi finals Saracens beat Leicester and Wasps were defeated by Exeter in draughty Devon to set up a thrilling  showdown at Twickenham on Saturday.

In the season that never ends the rugby just keeps on coming.

We have all marvelled at the sight of the international rugby player, in his natural habitat, roaming the hybrid playing fields of the world.

But there is genuine worry that this species is being hounded into premature extinction due to an intolerable work load.

Beasts of burden they appear to be, but today I launch an International appeal, in order that these magnificent creatures may be preserved for future generations to enjoy.

SOS…. Save Our Stars !

This season started with intense Rugby World Cup training camps, followed by domestic  league games, European tournaments, a Six Nations tournament and now come the summer tours.

The players are being used mercilessly, how else can you describe the utterly futile England v Wales international, taking place on Sunday 29 May, as nothing other than a money-making exercise.

I have spoken to several international players in recent weeks, and they are on their knees.

I cannot name names, but these players will barely get a break, before plunging headlong into next seasons circus, that culminates with a Lions tour to New Zealand.

The intensity and physicality, of rugby these days, is equivalent to a car crash, some players can barely get out of bed without regularly taking anti inflammatory tablets.

The time has come to stop summer tours, and enforce a proper summer break.

Allowing players to recover fully from a seaons worth of niggles, and undertake a proper pre season programme,  will prolong their careers.

Surely it is quality, rather than quantity,that we all want to witness as rugby fans, and player welfare must now take priority.

It took the great Gareth Edwards eleven years to reach fifty caps for his country, between 1967 and 1978, and they were all achieved without missing a single match to injury.

Compare that to Australia’s Michael Hooper, who made his Wallaby debut in 2013, and reached his 50th in 2015, a staggering period of 3 years and 4 months.

The only way a top player can get a decent break these days is through a lay off with injury, this cannot be right.

Do we really need four Autumn internationals ?,  particularly  now that a June international of one sort or another seems common practice.

Let’s drop it to two, cut the Pro 12 to ten teams,  ciao Italia

It’s a painful blow to Italian rugby, and  I shall suffer repercussions for my views on a local level,when my Italian coffee shop owner reads this, but I am prepared to suffer a contaminated latte or two, in order to preserve the rugby life span of these magnificent beasts.

I’m not a huge Tesco fan, but they are quite right when they say every little helps, even a reduction of two internationals and four club games a year is a start.

There are opinions in some quarters that, rather than increase the six nations, why not reduce it back to the old Five nations , assisting players welfare further, and maybe even making it possible to include a short winter break.

Sadly the common suffering denominator in all this is Italian rugby, I don’t have the answer to that conundrum, but I’m sure there is a solution out there.

As I write this article Bill Beamont has been installed as the new chairman of World Rugby, and he is already talking about moving the 6 Nations back a month,in order to accommodate a global season from 2019.

Other proposals include moving June tours to the Autumn, and creating a two month window for for home internationals in October and November.

Whatever the discussions, and whatever the outcomes, player welfare must be the priority.

When all is said and done the game has always been about the players and it always will be, so we really need to take care of them.
 
The European finals have been written about in great depth elsewhere,  so I would just like to offer my congratulations to both winners.

Honours were divided equally between South Africa and England,  with Montpellier and Saracens taking the titles.

One man who will not be having a quiet week this week is the Racing 92 physio, who saw most of his thoroughbreds pull up lame in Lyon.  

I was at the Paris Sevens at the weekend so I will leave you with a few “snaps” 

Don’t miss next Monday’s Roar for a complete guide to all the summer international fixtures.

Many of us, of a certain age, hark back to what we think we remember to be the halcyon days of rugby, but were they actually as wonderful as we remember ?

The mind is an amazing machine, we convince ourselves that the sun shone every day throughout the summer, that it snowed at Christmas, and Mars bars were much bigger than they are today, also we convince ourselves that our sport was a wonderful free-flowing game, where the spirit of rugby shone through like a beacon of hope, for society to grasp as a template for life.

Now I admit that I was first in the queue when the waxing lyrical genes were handed out, but after sharing a flat white, and a chat,  with my literary hero, Stephen Jones, it got me thinking in more realistic terms about the past.

I will never lose the childhood memory and the thrill of watching David Duckham, his long blonde hair, blowing in the wind as he swerved his way around spread eagled defenders, or Gerald Davies side stepping and weaving past despairing defenders, and I could go on and on, maximising my waxing lyrical gene, with the likes of Serge Blanco, Denis Charvet, Barry John, JPR et al.

But to be perfectly honest the experience of attending international matches as a spectator in those days left an awful lot to be desired.

The matchday experience today is incredible, the comfort is incomparable to the torture  we were subjected to in the sixties and seventies.

I’ve stood at Twickenham in the old South stand, in freezing cold and pouring rain ,two hours before kick off, to get a view of England v Wales that consisted of a quarter of the pitch, the people standing behind you, would deposit warm water, which would splash against the backs of your legs, (If you get my drift), and sadly you were actually glad of the experience because it actually warmed you up for a split second.

One of the other  myths the nostalgic mind produces is that the game was more free-flowing, and that every match was played in the spirit of the Barbarians v All Blacks classic of 1973.

Well I can put you right on that one, England v Wales in 1978, at my trouser soaked Twickenham, consisted of five penalties, and a 9-6 victory for Wales, the highlight of which was 50 yard (metres hadn’t been invented then) kick to touch by Gareth Edwards.

A match between Scotland and Wales at Murrayfield in 1963 included 111 line outs, nearly all of which were created by kicks to touch from Wales scrum half  Clive Rowlands.

The story goes that in Clive’s house, ever since that game, they never say “Can you pass the salt” , it’s always “Can you kick the salt”.

I watched a re run of Llanelli’s epic 1972 win over New Zealand recently, I could not believe my eyes, there was every form of physical assault possible taking place, at regular intervals throughout the match, there were more attacks on view than you would find in an entire episode of Crimewatch !

The playing surfaces of today are a joy to behold, the new hybrid grass systems make the top-level level matches immune from the hippo like swamps, that were familiar to older readers, apart from the permanent divot that is the Stade de France, of course.

In fact I have decided that I’m going to lock away my waxing lyrical nostalgia gene for good, as I think of the magnificent stadia that exist today, my goodness the Principality stadium even has a roof !

In comparison, the Cardiff Arms Park pitch that hosted Wales v England, in 1969, had eight blades of grass on it, and looked more like an NCP car park than a sporting arena.

So let us revel in the brilliance of the game as it is today, sure there are lots of things on and off the field that are far from perfect, but when I lock up my waxing lyrical nostalgia gene, I thrill at visiting The Principality stadium, crammed into the centre of Cardiff  like a Giant beetle clinging to the flats and offices of the city, I delight in days at Twickenham, Murrayfield, Dublin and Paris, not only for the rugby but also in the joy of knowing that I, for the most part, will be returning home with dry trousers.

 
The issue of player safety, in rugby, has never been more rigorously scrutinised than at present.

There are calls for the sport to be made safer at scrum time, in the contact area, and for the increasingly violent collisions to be neutralised

But this column would like to make a stand against the silent injury threat, the issue that no one talks about.

Yes the time has now come  for World Rugby to take action against the blight of our game the “wedgie”

The full definition of this horrific act, underlines how imperative it is for the sport’s governing body to act, and act now.

A wedgie occurs when a person’s nether underwear or other garments are wedged between the buttocks. While a wedgie can be created naturally, the term is usually associated with a prank or as a form of bullying. When a person is on the receiving end of a wedgie, his or her underwear or other garment is forcibly pulled up by a second person.

Judgement Day IV

A record crowd, sun filled clear blue skies, and fourteen tries, the Judgement on Judgement day was that it was a rip-roaring success.

West proved to be best, as Scarlets and Ospreys gave Cardiff the Blues, and extinguished the fire of the Newport Gwent Dragons.

£6.60 to get into Wales ! Scandalous ! But actually the cost of the Severn Bridge toll was worth every penny to witness Judgement Day IV (or 4 if you don’t happen to be an ancient Roman)

It was made even more worthwhile by the bright sunshine that greeted me on my arrival, I wore sunglasses, in Wales, for the first time since 1978.

To clarify, you only normally wear darkened glasses in Wales if you have an accompanying Labrador.

The Principality Stadium With its roof  wide open, hosted a record crowd for a Pro 12 match.

68,262 were treated to a day of rugby with European and play off places at stake, as well as derby day bragging rights that would echo across the width of South Wales.
But Far from being a parochial affair, tickets were sold to buyers in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Monaco, the Netherlands and Spain

The record crowd topped the previous highest Pro 12 attendances by a considerable margin

After dismal attendances at Pro 12 matches in Wales this season , it just shows what decent marketing, and competitive ticket pricing can achieve.

Coupled with the spirit of glasnost, that currently exists between the WRU and the Regions, and the fact that all the regions star international players were on view, the build  up to this event has been nothing but positive, and will no doubt inspire further such initiatives.

Ospreys saw off Cardiff Blues European champions cup hopes, with a six try bonus point win.

After a breathless fifty-one point filled second half, where the lead see sawed back and forth, with tries raining down , Blues defensive sloppiness cost them dearly, as Rhys Webb pulled the strings, and scored two tries himself, to keep the Ospreys hopes of a champions cup place alive going into the final Saturday.

In the second match, the Scarlets guaranteed their place at Europe’s top table, with a bonus point win against the injury hit Men of Gwent, who refused to give in, and battled until the very end.

Scott Williams was a revelation for the Scarlets, his first game since suffering a serious knee injury, against England in the rugby World Cup, he inspired the Scarlets with his delicious angles of running and sleight of hand, scoring the opening try after only nine minutes, he looked like he had never been away.

His creative spark has been sorely missed by Wales and the Scarlets this season.

Victory was never really in doubt for the West Wales outfit, even when Pete “The Meat” Edwards was yellow carded for a no arms tackle, the Scarlets try threat was always visible.
Welsh management will be concerned that Sam Warburton and Samson Lee suffererd shoulder and head injuries respectively.

This was probably one of the finest days for regional rugby in Wales,the success of which must be built upon.

Perhaps a season opening double-header, as adopted by the Aviva Premiership, would be a good place to start ?

As the Principality stadium emptied yesterday, we were shading our eyes, quite aptly, from the glorious golden sun, setting in the west.

Maybe a bright new dawn is on the horizon, in the long-range forecast for regional rugby in Wales.