Your rugby headlines for the night of Sunday April 17.
Welsh boss set for shock swap – stories
Wales ladies may very well be on the point of dropping their coach in a shock job swap, declare stories.
In line with the Mail, Wales boss Ioan Cunningham is ready to depart his present position after this yr’s World Cup and take cost of the Wales under-20s aspect as a substitute. The paper report that under-20s boss Byron Hayward, a former beginner boxer, plans to return to that sport as a substitute as a coach.
READ MORE: WRU break silence on Six Nations flop below Pivac and his future
The Mail say the information means “Wales ladies’s development since they handed 12 gamers skilled contracts in the beginning of the yr is ready to be hit by the departure of Cunningham.”
It stays to be seen precisely how this pans out, however sources on the Welsh Rugby Union on Sunday had been definitely mystified by the stories. They had been distancing themselves from the hypothesis when ideas Cunningham and Hayward may very well be leaving their posts was put to them.
The Ladies’s World Cup takes place in New Zealand in October and November and newly professionalised Wales are on an upward curve, having crushed Eire and Scotland of their Six Nations opener earlier than dropping closely to England.
As with Wayne Pivac’s senior workforce, Hayward’s Welsh under-20s aspect had a massively disappointing Six Nations marketing campaign of their very own. They managed only a solitary victory over Scotland and completed second from backside.
Younger Wales shipped 53 factors in opposition to Eire of their opening match, had been closely defeated 43-14 by England, misplaced 46-15 at residence to France and had been then additionally crushed by Italy of their finale.
Their outcomes, coupled with the Six Nations end result for Dan Biggar and his workforce plus the failings of the Welsh areas, led to requires change amid speak of a completely blown disaster within the Welsh recreation.
Davies hoping for Wales return
Sam Davies continues to be hoping for a Wales name below Wayne Pivac after changing into solely the fourth man to attain 1,000 United Rugby Championship factors.
The 28-year-old Dragons No.10 kicked 13 factors to take his complete to 1,005 within the competitors below its varied guises because the Gwent aspect beat the Scarlets 38-27 in Llanelli.
Solely Dan Biggar, Dan Parks and Ian Keatley had reached the 1,000-point marker earlier than Davies achieved the feat. Davies performed alongside Biggar on the Ospreys for a number of years and the actual fact he has hit the milestone is probably much more spectacular when you think about the standard of his competitors for kicking duties within the early a part of his profession.
However he believes the “aggressive edge” between the pair was mutually useful, with Biggar racking up a file 1,585 URC factors earlier than he departed for Northampton in 2018.
READ MORE: Biggar despatched off and going through rugby ban
“Plenty of the time they’d accommodate me and Dan by enjoying Dan at 10 and me at 15, which meant I wasn’t kicking, so he was getting to attain the factors!” Davies advised the PA information company.
“However he was an excellent kicker and he stays world class to this present day, if not even higher than he was again then. It positively drove me on. I feel it drove every of us on, if I am trustworthy.
“It is good to have that aggressive edge in coaching, particularly as a teenager, and I would prefer to suppose it pushed each of our video games on.”
Biggar, in fact, is the occupant of the Welsh 10 jersey and chalked up his a centesimal cap for his nation throughout this yr’s Six Nations. Davies, against this, has been restricted to simply eight Take a look at caps regardless of being a reliable performer at regional stage, with Gareth Anscombe, Rhys Priestland and Callum Sheedy amongst these forward of him within the pecking order.
“In case you learn into it an excessive amount of, I feel you may get annoyed,” stated Davies, who gained his eight caps in an eight-month interval from November 2016 to June 2017 when he was seen as a vibrant younger hope for Welsh rugby.
“I believed I performed nicely in the beginning of the season and perhaps there was a door in there with a whole lot of the 10s being out injured, but it surely wasn’t to be.
“When it is to not be, there’s nothing you are able to do about it apart from exit and try to play as finest as you possibly can. Issues can change shortly, so I’ll all the time play at my finest stage and if something comes off the again of that then sensible and I can add to the eight caps that I’ve obtained.
“If not, then it is nearly making an attempt to offer the very best for the workforce that I am in, and that is the Dragons.
“There’s a whole lot of outside-halves in competition with Wales in the mean time, so until your workforce’s going nicely as an outside-half I suppose it is going to be robust to push your means into choice talks.”
Younger annoyed as Cardiff bow out of Europe
Cardiff boss David Younger expressed his frustrations as a lot improved Cardiff fell 40-33 to Saracens in Sunday’s European Problem Cup last-16 tie on the StoneX Stadium.
The defeat means Wales’ European problem for the season ends with none of the areas profitable a single recreation on the sector.
However a minimum of Cardiff went down combating after current embarrassments by the hands of Welsh rivals Scarlets. They had been forward in third quarter, trying sharp in assault and tackling arduous in defence.
Tomos Williams had a very robust recreation that noticed him rating a solo strive after which set a landing up for Owen Lane. Rhys Carre additionally crossed for the guests.
However Saracens had sufficient about them to face up to Cardiff’s problem, with Sean Maitland scoring twice and Dominic Morris, Aled Davies and man-of-the-match Max Malins additionally touching down.
Younger stated afterwards: “It was a one-score recreation for many of the recreation and it was a recreation we may have gained I really feel. We left some factors on the market.
“I’m happy with at this time but it surely leaves slightly little bit of frustration over the place that is been the final two weeks actually. Mark McCall stated to me that is a recreation he thought we may have gained.”
Welsh boss questions head accidents
Dragons boss Dean Ryan has outlined his issues over the way in which head accidents in rugby are being dealt with after Jonathan Davies averted a crimson card through the Gwent workforce’s win over the Scarlets.
Wales veteran and Scarlets skipper Davies escaped with only a yellow after catching Josh Lewis with a excessive deal with because the full-back cleared his strains early within the recreation. Referee Ben Whitehouse and his fellow officers deemed there was sufficient mitigation for Davies to keep away from being despatched off.
Requested whether or not Davies has obtained off evenly, Dragons director of rugby Ryan determined to flip the query round to these answerable for the sport.
He stated: “If we ask that that query typically sufficient then perhaps they may change a few of the solutions. Josh was off from that incident and it’s not for me to take a seat right here post-game and remark. We requested questions final week about two incidents that had been missed by a TMO, a workforce of 4 officers and a citing officer.”
Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel believed a yellow “was the best resolution. There was shoulder to shoulder contact.”
