The battle for the inaugural Super Rygbi Cymru title is coming down to the wire with this weekend’s quarter finals promising a feast of top-quality action.
Table topping Cardiff welcome Bridgend, thrilling Wild Card winners over Swansea, to the Arms Park, while second place Ebbw Vale host the other wild card victors, Carmarthen Quins.
Third place Newport entertain Aberavon at Newport Stadium, while last year’s Indigo Premiership champions Llandovery, who finished fourth, will be hoping to stay on track to win more silverware by overcoming Pontypool at Church Bank.
“It has been a great pilot season and the clubs have all bought into the reasons we wanted to reduce the numbers and try to increase the intensity and standard of the tournament,” said John Alder, head of player development at the WRU.
“Almost every game has been highly competitive, and there has been something on every fixture. Now we have reached the quarter-finals there is real jeopardy from here to the end of the season.
“We’ve dramatically reduced the average age of the teams, increased the ball in play time and ensured there has been greater intensity in the matches. It really has been a great venture, the SRC Trophy and Cup, in helping our younger players to develop.
“The players in our Wales U20 squad have had 70% more starts and played 74% more match minutes this season than last and their head coach Richard Whiffin readily admits that the wins over Ireland, England and Italy emanated from the players getting greater playing exposure during the season.
“We’ve seen a lot of those youngsters stepping up to play in regional teams in either the URC or Europe and we are convinced the tournaments will be even better next year.”
Carmarthen Quins upset the odds last weekend by travelling up to Colwyn Bay to beat RGC on their home patch to pick up a quarter-final spot and coach Tom Phillips believes there is more to come from the west Walians.
“It wasn’t a pretty game against RGC, but the team dug deep and showed great character. Now we get the chance to upset the odds again at Ebbw Vale,” said Phillips.
“We had a game plan and tried to stick to it. It was a massive win for our season and did a huge amount for our morale.
“We now have a shot to nothing against Ebbw Vale. We know we will go in as the underdogs, but we are prepared to throw everything we have at them.
“All the pressure is on them at home and we know what they are good at. We’ve felt the full force of their driving mauls three times already this season, but we’re strong at forward as well.
“We’ve beaten top teams like Cardiff and Pontypool at home this season. That shows what we are capable of, but now we’ve got to go and do it away from home.”
Ebbw Vale haven’t been beaten at Eugene Cross Park for 16 months and have successful defended the SARC Challenger Shield since bagging it at Llandovery in October.
They had to negotiate three games in seven days to end their campaign, losing at Newport and Aberavon before getting back to winning ways at home against Swansea, and according to head coach Jason Strange are in a good place both on and off the field.
“The players had a week off to recover from those three games in a week and everyone is raring to go. The local area is behind us and we are expecting a big crowd to turn out to roar on our young team,” said Strange.
“If you had offered us a place in the top two and a home draw in the quarter final at the start of the season we would have bitten your hand off. We’ve turned Eugene Cross Park into a bit of a fortress and we know that on our day we are capable of beating anyone.”
Wales U20 wing Harry Rees-Weldon won’t be available for selection because he is heading to South Africa with the Dragons squad but Strange has seen a number of previously injured players report back for duty at this vital time of the season.
Cardiff will have their full complement of Wales U20 stars available to them for their home clash with Bridgend. That should provide for a great back line battle between the two teams.
Bridgend will arrive with former Cardiff players Edd Howley, Ryan Wilkins and Ben Burnell behind their scrum. They will be relishing the chance to put one over on their former club.
“The aim is to go and storm the capital and win at the Arms Park. We like to play a high tempo game and the fast pitch and the expected good weather should suit us,” said Bridgend head coach Scott Baldwin.
“We know Cardiff are so clinical when they get things right, as befits a side that has so many players used to training every day with each other, and we need to keep our energy high and penalty count low.
“There has been real improvement in our side this season. We just need to find a way to be more consistent.
“Two weeks ago, we beat Llandovery in the last play by scoring a try and in the Wild Card game against Swansea last week we had to hold out in the last play to hang on to victory. That showed me what we are capable of.”
Cardiff may have finished top of the table, but they lost their last two matches. They were beaten 48-43 at home by Llandovery and then went down to Pontypool at Pontypool Park 47-27.
The week before that they won 29-14 at Bridgend, but were beaten at the Brewery Field by the Ravens in an SRC Cup tie.
“We’re coming into the play-offs on the back of a couple of scruffy performances. Fortunately, we still finished top so we still had a home draw,” said Cardiff academy manager Gruff Rees.
“If we can maintain our standards then we can go into the play-offs with some confidence and we will have all out Wales U20 players available to us.
“It will be a great learning curve for them, but they have to turn up and handle the extra pressure. To do that they have to prepare well because there is real jeopardy in the rugby they will be playing over this weekend and any others.”
Llandovery know what it takes to win silverware having completed the Premiership double last season and beaten Ebbw Vale to the SRC Cup earlier in this campaign. They face a Pontypool coached by one of their own back room staff from last season, Tom Hancock, and won’t want him to leave Church Bank with a win.
“I’ll be delighted to play against Pontypool on our artificial surface with the sun shining rather than on a wet and cold night. It has got all the makings of a great game,” said Drovers head coach Euros Evans.
“We started our season really badly but have recovered since and went on a 10 match unbeaten run to finish in the top four. Getting a home draw was crucial for our chances, as we found out last season.
“Now we are into proper, on the day cup rugby and anything could happen. Tom has made some subtle changes to the way Pontypool play, and they have been pretty consistent.”
Pontypool’s big home win over Cardiff in their final game in the regular season showed their true potential and Llandovery are the only team they haven’t beaten in the competition this season.
“My first game in charge at Pontypool was against my old side Llandovery and now we are going back to Church Bank for our first play-off match. I’d love to put one over on them,” admitted Hancock.
“We’ve been very good at home all season, but the change for the side now is to take that form on the road and start winning when it matters most. There has been growth in our game this season and we’ve worked out what kind of rugby suits us best.
“It’s going to be great to be playing knock-out rugby and this game is really going to show us where we are as a team. We’re playing against one of the most consistent and successful sides over the past decade and we know we’ll have to be at our very best to win.”
Aberavon had a tough run in to the end of the season, but were able to pick up a good home win over Pontypool. Now they will have to find an extra gear to cope with Newport on home soil.
The good news for Wizards head coach Jason Hyatt is he has a fully fit squad and he is hoping they can punch well above the weight that saw them finish in sixth place.
“It’s cup rugby now and it’s all about getting it right on the day. It is high stakes and high rewards,” said Hyatt.
“I was pleased with our sixth place finish because we made 20 new signings to our squad last summer and dropped the average age of the side right down. We suffered a horrendous injury list, which saw 14 players unavailable at one stage, but we are now almost back to full strength.
“We led against Newport until late in the game the last time we played them. That was a theme in a number of matches during the season, but now there is no margin for error.”
Newport, celebrating their 150th anniversary season, are hoping to go one better than last year when they went to Llandovery and lost in the Premiership final. They have been there, or thereabouts over the past few years and head coach Ty Morris is hoping to crown the club’s celebrations with a title.
“It would be fantastic to win the title in our 150th season, and also to dedicate to the late great Brian Jones,” said Morris.
“We won’t have Matt O’Brien for the run in because of a season ending groin injury, but we’ve been very happy with the growth and form shown by Jac Lloyd at outside half. We’ve also lost Johnny Morris, but have got Dai Richards back to take his place at centre.
“We’ve got George Young and Logan Franklin available to us from the Dragons and we’re confident we can continue to post high scores like we have done in our past four victories. That will certainly be the goal.”