Xanthippe wrote:JB1973 wrote: However they will miss Niko Matawalu big time
I hope to God they miss him more than the Ospreys missed Kahn Fotuali'i at the weekend. I really expected the Os to struggle at scrumhalf after he left but I was a little surprised and a lot impressed with Tito Tebaldi's performance. Had the Os won I'd have had him as MOTM.
Tebalidi looks a very decent 9, he doesn't have the x factor Khan has but he looks a tidy scrum half and seems fully committed to the cause, a good addition.
This is a big game for both sides, if Glasgow win they have beaten the top sides from last year and will really fancy their chances for a tilt at the title.
If Leinster win they will have beaten two of the play off teams (and drawn with the 5th team) while not even having their lions or their 2 big NIQ summer signings playing.
This would really send a message to the other pro 12 sides that you mean to retain the title.
I don't see the rush to get Healy back after 1 week contact training, your front row is going really well as it is, next week you have the blues at home a much easier fixture and It would make more sense to me to ease him into that game (possibly off the bench) and then let him loose on Munster the week later.
Just on the welsh players playing time., because our players are not centrally contracted the WRU do not have the same amount of influence in dictating how much game time the players have.
There are clauses regarding player release prior to international games and for training camps as far as I know they are as follows
" In future the Wales team will be able to play up to 13 international matches plus two more non-international games on an agreed tour every year with the appropriate training release times built in.
Before each competition players will be released from the Regions 13 days before the first international for squad training to begin."
Some welsh players tend to play lots of games for their region (at the ospreys the likes of Ryan,Alun Wyn Jones and Tupric will play pretty much every game they can) others tend play very little regional rugby (biggest culprits here are warburton 46 games in 5 years and Jamie Roberts 70 games in 7 years ) big salaries for guys who play on average 10 games a year