Sir Ian McGeechan on Warren Gatland & The B&I Lions

Posted on Sep 4, 2012

 

Despite World Cups, European trophies and – in 4 years time – Olympic gold being on offer, for players in the British Isles, touring with a successful British & Irish Lions squad is still for many the biggest thing that can happen to them in their careers. That might be because they are not a team who win that often, with the odds usually being stacked against them. The next tour will be in Australia in 2013 and it had been announced that Wales coach Warren Gatland will be the man leading the charge.

But what goes into producing a successful tour? Who better to ask than former B&I coach and player Sir Ian McGeechan, a legend of the game whose name is synonymous with the Lions.

In this video he gives his opinion on the appointment of Warren Gatland and also his thought about what is needed to mould a winning team down under.

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Andries Pretorius appointed Cardiff Blues Captain

Posted on Aug 20, 2012

Cardiff’s number 8 Andries Pretorius has bee appointed Captain for the 2012/13 season.

The 25 year old was born and bred in South Africa, Andries Pretorius moved to the U.K. in 2006 to study business at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire, an establishment that has a proud rugby tradition. Having skippered Hartpury and represented England Students, Andries then linked up with Gloucester’s Academy, before deciding to make the move to Cardiff.

The powerful back rower from Durban made his debut for the Blues against Connacht in December 2009.

Speaking of the appointment, Pretorius said,

“It’s a big honour to be appointed captain especially where we are as a team.

“We’ve got a young team and we are building towards the future, it’s a privilege to be part of it.”

“Paul Tito and Xavier Rush were both players that I learnt from and both of them were phenomenal for the club.”

“We’ve got a good team and a good group of young players.”

“We haven’t just got one leader we’ve got some good guys in the team who are all leaders.”

“Someone like Josh Navidi talks a lot on the field, which is great, and that’s where we want to do our talking this year.”

“Everyone knows their jobs and knows their responsibilities, there’s an attitude growing in the team where we are working hard for each other and pushing ourselves both mentally and physically.”

“Having guys like Leigh, Gavin, Josh, Bradley and Daf just makes my job easier, knowing I have these guys behind me.”

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Wales U18 v South Africa Schools

Posted on Aug 13, 2012

Wales Under 18 will be looking to bounce back from a narrow 28-25 defeat to England when they take on South Africa Schools tomorrow in the latest match of their development tour.

Allen Lewis’s men travel to the Outeniqua Park Stadium, George, for the second game of their three-match tour. Kick-off is at 5.00pm.

A hat-trick from winger Dafydd Howells was unable to stop the young dragons from slipping to defeat last time out despite a brave second half fight back. And Lewis is hoping his team’s quick style of play will be enough to defeat their South African opponents on Tuesday.

“Last week despite the loss we played with great accuracy and with great power,” he said.

“To score three tries in the second half was a great reward though we’re obviously disappointed.”

With the development tour aiming to find the next generation of Welsh superstars, the team are echoing the senior side by playing a quick style of game.

“What we are trying to do is hopefully create players for the future,” added Lewis who has had detailed discussions with Welsh assistant coach Rob Howley on the team’s style of play.

“The players are trying to play ball in hand rugby, play a quick tempo game and recycle the ball quickly and hopefully this will promote Welsh players for the future.”

Saturday’s defeat to England saw Wales trail 16-8 at the interval before Howells’ hat-trick and a try from fellow wing Ryan Evans saw them come close to securing a shock win.

And after recovering from the defeat, the side are looking forward to the challenge of taking on the young Boks.

“The South Africans are big men and a huge challenge with the ball in hand,” said Lewis.

“It’s going to be a big physical confrontation that’s for sure.”

Wales U18s (vs South Africa Schools, Tuesday 14 August): 15 Hallam Amos 14 Ashley Evans 13 Steffan Hughes 12 Ben Roberts 11 Daffyd Howells 10 Jack Maynard 9 Conner Lloyd 8 Ben Roach (c) 7 Scott Matthews 6 Sion Bennett 5 Lance Randell 4 Josh Phelps 3 Nicky Thomas 2 Ethan Lewis 1 Callum Lewis
Replacements: Tom Ball, Jack Dunning, Alex Jeffries, James Sheeky, James Benjamin, Joel Raikes, Craig Woodall, Ryan Evans.

Allan Lewis finalises squad for South Africa

Posted on Aug 3, 2012

Wales Under 18 head coach Allan Lewis has finalised his 27-strong squad to travel to South Africa next month in a new initiative to further enhance rugby development in Wales.
The side will play South Africa, England and France over a nine-day period in a bid to better prepare the players for professional rugby.

Lewis said: “It’s a development tour which will provide a wonderful opportunity for boys to experience international rugby away from home. Most of these players will be in contention for a place in next season’s Wales under 20 squad so playing three matches in nine days against England, France and South Africa will give a fantastic insight into a tournament environment such as the Junior World Championship. Our philosophy is to develop a game where we put pressure on the opposition with the ball in hand and we will be further developing this in South Africa. The process will be more important than the results in these games, I  would like to see us come back having played some 15-man rugby.

“Most of the squad were involved in the FIRA-AER tournament at Easter in Madrid, although we have extended the age group to include all boys who have just completed Year 13 in order to give the boys born between September and January an equal level of international rugby to prepare them for Under 20 rugby.

“It is true to say the gap is getting closer between age grade rugby and senior, professional rugby and it is our responsibility as a Union to provide players for the Regions who are capable of putting their hands up for places in the RaboDirect Pro 12, Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup. Through providing experiences such as this tour, we aim to make the progression from one level to another as seamless as possible.”

The squad leaves for South Africa on Monday, 6 August and returns on Sunday, 19 August with games in Stellenbosch and George.

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Pugh: Wales now show no fear

Posted on Dec 12, 2011

Wales will go into the fourth round of the HSBC Sevens World Series, the NZ International Sevens in Wellington on 3-4 February 2012, knowing big hitting Fiji will be aiming for revenge.

Last weekend Richie Pugh led Wales to a momentous Plate final victory over the joint series leaders at the Nelson Mandela Bay South Africa Sevens, to send Fiji packing with their second heaviest defeat in the series’ history.

Wales overturned a Pool defeat on its head when the two sides met up again in the Plate final – there was only one team in it as Pugh led the current World Champions to a stunning 48-0 victory.

“We knew we could beat them,” admitted Pugh just after touching down in Heathrow. “We lost to them in Dubai in the second leg and lost to them in the Pool game in Port Elizabeth, but on both occasions we were leading at half-time.

“This time, we gave them absolutely no chance to show their flair. Owen Williams and Will Price dominated the kick offs and we took every chance that came our way. The victory was brilliant for the boys, particularly as we came through a couple of dark days along the way.

“But we now know Fiji will be gunning for us in Wellington where we have them in the same pool as Argentina and Tonga. But Saturday’s win has given the squad a lot of self belief and we will go into the tournament with no fear.

“To beat the side who were ranked number one in the series when we played them, has given us a lot of confidence. I definitely think there are some exciting times ahead for this team,” he added.

Following their first Cup win of the season in South Africa, the reigning series champions New Zealand lie joint-top in the standings with Gold Coast winners Fiji with 51 points. South Africa (48) and England (47) are closely behind while Wales are in seventh position on 36 points.

“There is a lot of congestion on the points table,” said Pugh. “England, France and Australia have all picked up points off the big boys so that has made things extremely tight. If you had said to us before the series had kicked off that after three rounds we would have won two Plates and made three quarter finals to pick up 36 points, we would have taken that,” he said.

Wales head coach Paul John, concluded: “We are really pleased the squad were able to finish the three weeks off in style by beating Fiji 48-0 in the Plate final which was an excellent win. It was a massive statement and fair play to the squad.

“They have been excellent during the time away and all the hard work that has been done over the preparation period with Proc [Wayne Proctor] had definitely paid dividends.”