The latest headlines from Wales and around the world
Wales smashed Italy and scored 10 tries in the process (Image: WRU)
These are your morning rugby headlines on Monday, April 14.
Club falls silent for Welsh legend
Newport RFC captain Ben Roach has dedicated his side’s win over Ebbw Vale to club legend Brian ‘BJ’ Jones after his death last week.
The Rodney Parade side scored six tries as they triumphed 40-14 in Sunday’s Super Rygbi Cymru clash, with Roach leading from the front and scoring a hat-trick.
Before kick-off, a minute’s silence was held for Jones with applause soon rippling through the stands. Known as ‘Mr Newport’, Jones made his debut for the club in 1953 and went on to make 330 appearances, while he served them in a variety of roles over seven decades, including coach, chairman and club president.
He also won two caps for Wales, making his international debut in 1960, while he also represented the Barbarians. He passed away last week at the age of 89, with the club saying he will leave his “footprint etched into the fabric of Newport RFC”.
Following Sunday’s win, Roach said: “It’s been an emotional week with BJ passing. He was such a big part of Newport and the boys really wanted to do it for him, really come out here and get that performance. I think that’s what we’ve done.
“We started really well, finished really well. Ebbw are a top side and it’s a rivalry, so there’s going to be that little niggle and that to and fro. But I’m really proud of the boys to come back off an emotional week and really do their job.”
Wales teens run riot against Italy
Wales U19s ran in 10 tries as they thumped Italy 60-7 in Merthyr Tydfil.
In the second of two friendly matches, the team led by Wales U20 head coach Richard Whiffin ran riot against their opponents, with a dominant first-half performance seeing them cross six times and head in at the break with a commanding 38-7 lead.
They would go on to score a further four tries and 22 uninterrupted points to claim a resounding victory.
The win comes a week after the U19 side suffered a 46-24 defeat at the hands of Ireland in Aberavon, with the two fixtures designed to give game time to more young Welsh talents ahead of this summer’s World Rugby U20 Championship in Italy.
Caio James led the way with a hat-trick, with Jac Pritchard, Dylan Scott, Osian Darwin-Lewis and Ryan Jones all scoring in the first half. Evan Morris and James, along with Scott and replacement hooker James Talami, sealed the deal with second-half tries with Math Jones and Steff Jac Jones adding points from the tee.
“We challenged the boys to go up a gear individually and as a group after last week’s defeat to Ireland,” said Whiffin.
“I think we certainly saw that. We challenged them around their training standards and how they prepare for international matches. We put a team to the sword today with lots of good individual performances but the pleasing thing from a team perspective was we saw what we had been working hard on in training, being put out on the field.
“Our lineouts and scrums gave us a good set-piece to work off and from that the backs exploited that space.”
Welsh scrum-half wins first title
Former Dragons scrum-half Luc Jones has won his first league title after Richmond were crowned National League 1 champions.
The 30-year-old, who made 54 appearances at Rodney Parade between 2013 and 2016, joined Richmond the year after his exit from the region, following a spell with Harlequins.
He has now helped them secure a return to the RFU Championship, having only lost three times this season ahead of the final match of the campaign.
“It’s the first tournament I’ve ever won in my career apart from a few sevens competitions, so it’s really special,” Jones told The Rugby Paper. “The boys have done amazingly well, considering we finished sixth last season.”
“I think if you looked at our results the season before, we had quite a lot of injuries, and then we lost several games by a margin of fewer than seven points. We must have finished with the most losing bonus points in the league last year. We have turned those small-margin defeats into victories.
“What’s helped is Rob Powell has done a really good job with the recruitment process. We’ve got some really good people in, which is sometimes more important than how good a player people are,” he added.
“We’ve got the right characters in the room, the right people, a good blend of youth and experience, and it’s allowed for us to have a very successful season.”
Jones: We paid the price for errors
By Andrew Baldock, PA Rugby Union Correspondent
Ospreys head coach Mark Jones was left to reflect on a disappointing EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-final exit after his team suffered a painful 20-18 loss against Lyon.
The Welsh side went toe-to-toe with their French Top 14 opponents, yet ultimately missed out on a possible chance of extra-time when Dan Edwards’ conversion attempt of George McGuigan’s 71st-minute try hit a post.
“It’s disappointing because the effort was there, as you would expect, but we definitely dropped below a level of accuracy that we’ve shown over the last few months,” Jones said. “Some of that was down to Lyon, in fairness, and the pressure they put on us around the contact area, but also a lot of skill-set stuff there that we are a little bit disappointed with.
“We couldn’t build any back-to-back pressure. They are such a physical team and once you get into that front-door game against them, it becomes quite difficult to out-power them. The little errors add up at the end and that’s disappointing because a lot of it was in our control.”
Lyon prevailed through tries from wing Vincent Rattez and replacement lock Mickael Guillard, while fly-half Leo Berdeu kicked two penalties and two conversions.
McGuigan and captain Jac Morgan touched down for Ospreys, with Edwards adding two penalties and a conversion, but they ultimately came up short. But their quest for a first Challenge Cup semi-final appearance ultimately eluded them as Lyon had just enough in the tank.
Jones added: “We wanted the ball, we wanted to dictate the speed of the game, we wanted to move their big guys around. We did move them around, but we just didn’t move them around well enough and accurately enough.
“It is a good lesson for us that the closer you get to the finish line the more accurate you have got to be, and all we can do is learn from it and hopefully we get into future knockout games. We want to build on this one and take the next step forward.”
Italy win as Wales left bottom of Six Nations
By PA Sport Staff
Scotland slumped to a 25-17 defeat by Italy in their Women’s Six Nations clash in Edinburgh.
Chloe Rollie’s try had put Scotland – well beaten by France in their last outing – ahead in the 13th minute, the full-back barging over following a lineout maul, with Helen Nelson converting the extras.
Italy, though, responded strongly with tries from Francesca Sgorbini and Aura Muzzo to take a 10-7 lead into half-time.
Scotland reduced the gap soon after the restart when Evie Gallagher went over, but tries from Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi and then Alyssa D’Inca – when the hosts were a player down after Lisa Thomson had been sent to the sin bin for a high tackle – took the game away.
Francesca McGhie touched down with seven minutes left to give Scotland – who next take on title hopefuls England – a glimmer of hope, but Muzzo’s second try of the match put the seal on Italy’s first victory of the campaign.