Reigning Champions Munster are at home to the Cell C Sharks who have never won at Thomond Park in the history of playing in the league. The Red Army last faced the Sharks at the back end of last season and it finished a 22-22 draw in Durban. However, the Sharks will be without star Captain Siya Kolisi as he moved to French side Racing 92.
Courtesy of URC website
Fellow Irish team Connacht host Tony Booth’s Ospreys at the Galway Greyhound Stadium. When these two met last season The Westerners just edged a 22-19 victory back in October at the Swansea.com Stadium.
For Dai Flanagans Dragons side it is a mirrored opening game of the season as they face Sean Everitt’s Edinburgh side at Rodney Parade. The last time these two met was at the start of the 2022-23 season where the Gunners won comfortably with a bonus point 44-6. Dai Flanagan has signed a lot of talented players like Cai Evans, Dane Blacker, and Dan Lydiate. Everitt has signed experienced Irish man Ben Healy from Munster and Scottish International Javan Sebastian from the Scarlets after playing for the club for eight years.
Italian side Zebre open up the 2023-24 campaign as they host Ulster in Parma. Dan McFarland side are looking to make a strong start to their Campaign. Ulster have made some decent signings over the long pre-season period with Springbok international Steven Kitshoff signing for the Ulstermen from the 2021-22 Champions Stormers.
Benetton travel to South Wales to face Cardiff Rugby. Benetton have made some huge signings over the summer with Tongan international and former All Black Malakai Fonokalafi Fekitoa from Munster and Andy Muren from Bristol Bears. Cardiff on the other hand have brought through a-lot of exciting young talent from the academy with the likes of Theo Cabango, Mackenzie Martin and Evan Lloyd being promoted to the first team. The last time these two met was in the quarter finals of the Challenge Cup where Benetton won 27-23.
Scarlets start their campaign with back to back games away to South African opposition, this weekend they face the Bulls in Pretoria. The last time these two met was back in January in West Wales where The Turks won with a bonus point. 2021-22 champions Stormers travel to Ellis Park in Johannesburg to face the Lions.
To finish off the opening weekend Glasgow Warriors entertain runners up of the European Champions Cup Leinster at the Scotstoun Stadium.
Willis Halaholo, will make his debut for the Blue and Blacks as he makes a long-awaited return after sitting on the sidelines for weeks. The New Zealand-born has been at Cardiff Rugby for almost 7 years, after making his debut for the club back in 2016. Halahalo later went on to achieve 10 Caps for Wales and almost 100 club appearances for the regional side.
Along with Halaholo, Head Coach Steve Law has made five other changes to the starting XV that faced Llandovery last time out with Captain Morgan Allen making his 100th appearance for the club.
Alun Rees and Adam Williams come into the front row, and Sean Moore after playing at eight at Church Bank drops into the second row alongside Ethan Phillips.
Joining Tom Habberfield in the halfbacks is debutant Hari Wilde who replaces Harrison James at 10.
Law has made two other changes within the backline Jason Harries comes in on the wing after a spell out of the squad due to injury.
The last time Cardiff met the Welsh All Blacks was back in the 2018-19 season when Cardiff recorded 2 bonus point wins 59-17 away and 74-7 at home,that season the Blue and Blacks finished second and Neath were relegated.
The Visitors, have yet to pick up a win this season after just narrowly missing out on a win against Pontypridd and sit just above RGC 1404 on 1 point.
Head coach Patrick Horgan has yet to release his side to face the Blue and Blacks at the time of writing.
Remember Saturday’s match will kick off at 13:30 local time due to Wales playing Argentina later on in the afternoon in the World Cup Quarter Finals.
After playing Newport just 5 days ago in the cup, Cardiff were tasked to take on the Champions in Carmarthenshire on a very wet Thursday night.
The weather played a massive factor in the result as when ever both teams made an attacking threat, they couldn’t keep ball to hand metres out from the try line. However as the weather started to improve with ten minutes left on the clock Llandovery managed to take advantage and secured victory in sensational fashion, beating the Blue and Blacks 31-12.
With the weather definitely not being in favour for both teams it was becoming apparent when either side received a penalty they were going to take advantage from the kicking tee. Cardiff’s Harrison James kept the scoreboard ticking and again carried on kicking from a very impressive distance.
It was the same story for Llandovery, but former Cardiff player Jack Maynard was keeping the home team level as the first half finished try less.
HT: Llandovery 6-6 Cardiff
As the second half got underway the weather started to change and both teams attacking threat became more frequent and more dangerous. Around the hour mark former Dragons player Adam Warren got the home team up and running by scoring and ending the drought of no try’s at Church Bank.
The Blue and Blacks weren’t making this lead for the Drovers very easy to defend as they came back up the field and were within touching distance of the line. After ill discipline from the home team, referee Jason Bessant awarded Cardiff numerous penalties within 5 metres of the line. The solid defence of Llandovery forced Cardiff to take the three and with this the Blue and Blacks were within seven so were on track for a losing point.
However, this didn’t happen as the home team stretched their lead with two late tries coming in the last ten from replacements Nathan Hart and Gabe McDonald to ensure the victory in Carmarthenshire for the Drovers.
It wasn’t to be for the Blue and Blacks this time around, but if the condition’s were more favourable for Cardiff. The Blue and Blacks could easily have taken that attacking threat that they had against Newport at the weekend and pushed the Champions all the way.
The Blue and Blacks travel to Church Bank to face Champions and top of the league Llandovery in the fourth-round of the Indigo Premiership tomorrow evening.
Image Courtesy of Llandovery RFC
This will be The Blue and Blacks second away game of the season and they will aim to avenge their Cup Final lose at the back end of last season with a win against the Drovers.
The Blue and Blacks are hoping to carry on the momentum from Saturday’s win in the WRU Cup against Newport. Llandovery on the other hand will be well rested as they received a bye into the next round of the Indigo Premiership Cup.
The draw for that second round is expected anytime this week.
Team News
Llandovery RFC: Head Coach Euros Evans makes five changes to his side following a 24-12 win over Pontypridd last time out.
Jack Jones returns to lock for his first game of the season and will captain the Drovers.
Both Dino Dallavalle and Berian Watkins are named at loose-head and tight-head.
Jack Maynard replaces Harris Doel at fullback as the 23-year-old Doel switches to the wing.
Whilst Aaron Warren is named on the other wing as he replaces young Jac Davies.
Cardiff RFC: After knocking rivals Newport RFC out of the WRU Cup five days ago head coach Steve Law makes a number of changes to his starting XV.
Both Ethan Phillips and Shaun O’Rourke replaces Craig Hudd and Sean Moore in the second row.
Craig Hudd replaces 19-year-old Mackenzie Martin at blindside.
Sean Moore remains in the starting XV and replaces captain Morgan Allen at number eight.
Joey Tomlinson will captain the side at hooker for the first time this season whilst 18-year-old Harri Wilde is named on the bench.
Head coach chat
Cardiff RFC head coach Steve Law said: “It’s a very important game in the context of this season, it’s important in the manner of how we got beat last time out against them.
“Llandovery was a different class on that day.
“It is forgotten about in one way but it is still in the back of our minds and hopefully the boys can put in a better performance if we play to our standards that we set ourselves,” he insisted.
Writer’s points
The 24-8 lose back in May for The Blue and Blacks at the Cardiff Arms Park will live long in the memory for players, coaches and supporters
Skip forward four months, even with the Drovers being favourites this vastly improved Cardiff RFC side are completely different.
No one is expecting this one to be as one sided like the last time these two faced each other, as both are coming into this fourth round clash with the winning feeling.
However, with a few injury concerns and with four second row players and two hookers being named in the starting XV it is certainly not ideal for the visitors tomorrow evening.
Putting on top of this, Church Bank has not been a happy hunting ground for recent years for The Blue and Blacks as they have only won here twice in nearly a decade.
Both teams are evenly matched and have got some experienced players within, Tom Habberfield who starts at scrum-half for the visitors had made 131 regional appearances for the Ospreys.
Whilst for the Drovers, loos-head prop Dino Dallavalle has played for Italy U20’s on numerous occasions.
With the weather not looking favourable for running rugby, it should come down to who plays the conditions the better.
Head-to-head
The last time these two sides met was back in May at the Cardiff Arms Park.
This saw Llandovery win 24-8 which then crowned themselves for the very first time Champions of the Welsh Premier Division.
Cardiff and Llandovery both met four times last season with Cardiff only winning one of the occasions back in October in a tightly contested battle ending 29-26.
The last time The Blue and Blacks had won at Church Bank was back in November 2019, where they recorded a 25-20 win that was the first time they had won there since 2014.
Current form
Compared to Cardiffs’s rollercoaster of a start to the season, where they have drawn 19-19 with Pontypridd, beaten RGC 1404 with a bonus point and lost to Ebbw Vale 36-20.
The hosts for Thursday evening, have started the better winning all three games against Carmarthen Quins, Merthyr, and Pontypridd.
With these wins the Drovers sit rather comfortably at the top of the table with a maximum 15 points after three bonus point wins.
Llandovery have scored 116 points in their opening three games whereas Cardiff have only scored 74 points in their opening three games of the league and sit in eighth place on seven points.
Starting line-ups:
Llandovery Starting XV: 15. Jack Maynard, 14. Harri Doel, 13. Adam Warren, 12 Rhodri Jones, 11. Arron Pinches, 10. Ioan Hughes, 9. Lee Rees; 1. Dino Dallavalle, 2. Harry Thomas, 3. Berien Watkins, 4. Jack Jones(c), 5. Joe Powell, 6. Osian Davies, 7. Stuart Worrall, 8. Luca Giannini.
Replacements: 16. Llew Phillips-Taylor, 17. Jamie Hughes, 18. Guto Jones, 19. Chris Long, 20. Jordan Evans, 21. Gabe McDonald, 22. Rhodri Wall, 23. Ben Thomas.
Cardiff RFC starting XV: 15. Jacob Lloyd, 14. James Beal, 13. Luke Pollock, 12. Arron Pinches, 11. Dewi Cross, 10. Harrison James, 9. Tom Habberfield; 1. Ollie Evans, 2. Joey Tomlinson(c), 3. Freddie Barnes, 4. Ethan Phillips, 5. Shaun O’Rourke, 6. Craig Hudd, 7. Nathan Hudd, 8. Sean Moore.
Replacements: 16. Alun Ress, 17. Cam TylerGrocott, 18. Adam Williams, 19. Will Gregory, 20. Mason Hughes, 21. Joe Williams, 22. Harri Wilde, 23. Joe Goodchild.
Gatland’s Wales destroys the Wallabies to become the first team into the quarter finals in France.
It has been a nervous wait for both teams as they come into the final game of week 3 with one simple mission just win at all costs.
This is exactly what Gatland’s team did as they started strongly with Gareth Davies scoring in the third minute. After an unbelievable run from Jac Morgan, who yet again showed his class offloading to the Welsh scrum half Davies and this got Wales off to the best possible start in Lyon.
However, just after 12 minutes into the game a massive injury concern became apparent as Wales fly half Dan Bigger went off injured and on came what some people in Wales are calling the “The new Prince of Wales” Gareth Anscombe. Anscombe hasn’t been playing a lot rugby lately and didn’t take part in any of the three Wales warm up games, he came on and was just simply incredible earning himself the Player of the Match award. The 32 year old came on and converted 6 penalties and a drop goal.
Nick Tompkins and Jac Morgan both also crossed the line as Wales recorded there biggest ever win against the Wallabies.
Australia never seemed to get going and never threatened the Welsh defence in anything they did. Eddie Jones side now need to rely on either Georgia or Portugal beating Fiji, but the ball is in the Fijians court as they only need 5 points to qualify for the quarter finals.
If this was to happen it would mean for the first time in the history of World Cups Australia will not get out of the group stages. Something drastic needs to change for the Aussies as they’ve got a Lions tour in 2025 to worry about and also they are the hosts of the next World Cup in 2027.
Wales 40-6 Australia.
Portugal was so close to securing their first ever win at a Rugby World Cup against Georgia in Toulouse on Saturday afternoon. Both teams had opportunites in the closing minutes to secure victory.
Both teams were feeling the pressure as Georgia’s replacement flyhalf missed a penalty after Tengizi Zamtaradze had brought the Georgian’s level with just minutes left on the clock to go into the lead.
With the clock in red Portugal had one last opportunity to create World Cup history, up stepped Fullback Nuno Sousa Guedes who had a rather tricky kick to convert. Sadly for Os Labos it was a bitter end to the afternoon for the Portugeese as Sousa Guedes shot went wide.
A cruel end to what was an unbelievable afternoon of rugby in Toulouse as two tier two nations went toe to toe with both showing what they can do.
Georgia 18-18 Portugal
After a rather not so convincing win last time out against Japan in Nice, after a slow start England finally got into gear and ran in 11 tries as they are now on the brink of qualification to the knock out stages. Club Racing 92 player Henry Arundell ran riot in Lille as he crossed the Chilean line 5 times.
Chile should still be taking postives though from these defeats as four years ago they were losing to Brazil, Canada and USA on a regular basis and were not even in the discussion of qualifying for a World Cup.
England 71-0 Chile
It was the Emiliano Boffelli show in Saint-Etienne as he scored 16 points of the 19-10 win over Manu Samoa in tightly contested battle. The Argentinians were pushed right to the end by Samoa in a very wet Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, but as the saying goes puddles are for playing in.
However, it isn’t all done and dusted in Group D for Samoa. With Argentina not winning with a bonus point they both have must win games next in round four against Japan and Chile.
Argentina 19-10 Samoa
Concerns were through the roof as the captain of France Antoine Dupont went off in last Thursday’s night encounter against Namibia with a potential “fractured cheekbone” that some reporters in France were stating. However later that evening the French scrum half under went surgery and is now able to return to the French squad much sooner than expected. After just six minutes into the second half Dupont and Namibia captain Johan Deysel clashed heads.
As Deysel made direct head contact with the head of the Frenchman he was yellow carded and it went off to the bunker for an off field review. This resulted in the yellow card being upgraded to a red.
Namibia came up an against a fully strength as the French team who struggled in the last round of fixtures against Uruguay. It wasn’t just the French head coach who had made changes to his starting XV, Allister Coetzee made changes to his Namibian side and will be looking at that Uruguay game as their own World Cup final to finally stop the drought of losses at a World Cup.
Take away the injury concerns of Dupont which probably put a dampener on the historic occasion, as France nearly reached the century mark. Also a stand out performance coming from the young 20 year-old Bordeaux player Louis Bielle-Biarrey scoring twice.
France 96-0 Nambia
Even though this game feels like it happened years ago, Italy’s dreams of qualifying are still somewhat still alive as they sit rather comfortable in second place of Group A.
With this bonus point win over Los Teros it would mean that if they could pull off what would be a Rugby World Cup upset against either New Zealand or France they are in for a chance of knockout rugby.
Got to give credit to the Uruguayans as they led at the break 17-7, and also what a way to end a half of rugby with flyhalf Felipe Ethcheverry kicking what was an unbelievable drop goal that had to get reviewed to see if it went over.
However, after a strong first half Los Teros never really seemed to get going with skipper Andres Vilaseca making direct head contact with the Italian winger Lorenzo Pani early in the half meant that it was pointless scoring half of rugby for Uruguay.
Italy 38-17 Uruguay
Possibly, one of the most highly anticipated matches of the weekend saw South Africa vs Ireland get off to what can only be described as a fierce start.
South Africa got the early advantage as some early nerves were apparent within the Ireland team as their lineouts were not functioning. When Ireland were gaining penalties within kicking rage for Johnny Sexton to easily rack up points, they opted to gamble and go to the corners.
Both Mack Hansen and Bundee Aki scored in the first half to end what was can only be described as a chess game as each mistake from either team was countered by the opposition.
South Africa got off to the better start in the second half as the Suntory Sungoliath winger Cheslin Kolbe crossed the line to keep the Springboks interested in Paris. Sadly for the Springboks 9 points went begging and aslo a conversion, so maybe this 7 forwards and 1 back replacements split on the bench isn’t actually the way forward for South African Rugby.
Ireland sealed victory in what was a thriller which had everybody on the edge of their seats in the Stade De France.
Ireland 13-8 South Africa
Scotland on the other hand, kept their hopes of qualifying well and truly alive as they encountered Tonga in Nice on Sunday afternoon.
It saw the Scot’s claim a bonus point win and this builds pressure on the world’s number one Ireland and reiging champions South Africa. If Scotland can do what both Ireland and South Africa did against Romania and get a bonus point it would be game on and will set up a blockbuster ending to what has been an unbelievable competitive group.
For Tonga, it was the lack of discipline that let themselves down with Afusipa Taumoepau and Vaea Fifita both shown yellow cards, with Fifita’s yellow card being upgraded to a red after the final whistle blew.
Despite an early try from outside centre Luke Pollock opening up proceedings for the home team. The visitors came straight back up the pitch with a great run from inside centre Matt O’Brien who got through the Cardiff defence and offloaded the ball to 20 year old Oli Andrew who crossed line to get the visitors up and starting.
It was end to end rugby for the first 20 minutes, Cardiff looked the better team going forward and from this they earned themselves the first penalty of the day. Harrison James stepped up and added the three points.
However it went from bad to worse for the visitors as scrum half Dafydd Buckland was given a yellow card for deliberately knocking the ball on.
With Buckland off for ten minutes the home team took full advantage with winger Dewi Cross powering himself over the line scoring the second try of the afternoon. However, that was last time we saw Dewi Cross in the first half as referee Adam Jones yellow carded the 23 year old.
This didn’t stop the Blues and Blacks as Newport born captain Morgan Allen drove his way over the Black and Ambers line to end what was a very entertaining half of cup rugby.
HT: Cardiff 25-10 Newport
After ending the first half on the front foot, Cardiff started the second half exactly the same with young Harrison James kicking from way over 50 metres to keep the Blues and Blacks scoreboard ticking over.
However, Newport got a try back just minutes later, with winger Oli Andrew crossing the line for the second time this afternoon to keep Newport within touching distance.
Frustratingly for the visitors, replacement prop Dan Suter got the Black and Ambers penalised for an infringement in the scrum, and up stepped yet again Harrison James who kicked the penalty from a very impressive distance.
It wasn’t meant to be for the visitors as Cardiff’s replacement hooker Alun Rees crossed the line to finish off what has been a very impressive performance from the home team and now advance to the second round of the Indigo Premiership Cup.
Up next for the Blues and Blacks is a trip west to Llandovery on Thursday night.
The last time these two met was in May. They met at the Principality Stadium in the last game of the 2022/23 season. This saw the Blue and Blacks run out a 13-10 win.
However it is clear that the Black and Ambers have made the better start to the new season and head coach Tyron Morris has made several changes to the starting XV that played in North Wales last weekend against RGC.
28 year old Henry Palmer gets the nod at hooker, with Jon Verrier coming into second row and open side flanker Josh Reid comes into the forwards. Morris has made two changes within the backline with Dafydd Buckland starting at scrum half and Lloyd Lewis starting on the wing.
Well that’s how the visitors look, Cardiff on the other hand sit 8th in the Indigo Premiership table only winning one game this season so far. Head coach Steve Law will be looking to change there wrong doings from last weeks performance against Ebbw Vale going down 20-36 at home by performing well in the Cup.
With a big crowd expected head coach Steve Law makes several changes which sees a whole new front row start and several changes in the backline to boost hopes of getting to the next round in the Indigo Premiership Cup.
Highly experienced referee Adam Jones will referee tomorrows game and will be assisted by Elgan Williams and Neil Perkins at the Cardiff Arms Park.
HTSPORTSNEWS 