Protests, pride and late celebrations in URC

Welsh rugby’s action on the field this weekend was always going to struggle to match the drama that preceded it.

The build-up to the return of the United Rugby Championship (URC) had been dominated by the possibility of one Welsh rival club, Ospreys, buying another in Cardiff.

Despite the off-the-field drama, it turned out to be a decent return for Wales’ four professional sides.

There were wins for Scarlets and Cardiff, a draw for Ospreys and an agonising late defeat for the Dragons.

The Wales squad players will now link up for the Six Nations, while there will be one more round of URC fixtures next weekend before the tournament takes another break.

Cardiff and Ospreys supporters have been united this weekend with their protests geared towards the Welsh Rugby Union and Y11 Sport and Media.

The WRU have announced the Ospreys owners are the preferred bidders to buy rivals Cardiff.

The Swansea-based region have only be given assurances they will play in the URC and European competitions until the end of next season.

Ospreys’ supporters launched a protest in the 11th minute at the Brewery Field during the 24-24 draw with Lions when they asked people to turn on the camera lights on their mobile phones.

“I did notice them across the opposite stand,” said Ospreys head coach Mark Jones.

“That’s the fans way of supporting the players and each other and showing solidarity. So good on them, they made their point.”

The scene was replicated at the Arms Park 24 hours later by the Cardiff faithful.

Wales fly-half Callum Sheedy says he has sympathy with the Ospreys’ plight.

“I have a few good friends in the Ospreys and thinking of them and hope everything gets resolved for them,” said Sheedy

“Our squad had a chat on Monday about how we want to go about it and we tried to focus on the rugby side this week.”

“One for the purists.”

That is what how Sheedy described Cardiff’s scrappy 17-8 home win against Benetton.

It was not pretty but Cardiff overcame their Italian opponents with a try from lock Josh McNally, while Sheedy and Ioan Lloyd kicked four penalties between them.

“We speak a lot about fight and enjoyment,” said Sheedy .

“It’s not always going to be pretty and come the end of the season, no one’s going to care what that game looked like.

“It’s four points, that’s the important thing.”

The win has helped Cardiff’s bid to finish in the top eight and qualify for the play-off places, after narrowly missing out last season.

“It’s important we don’t get too carried away with the table but we’re not stupid,” said Sheedy.

“We knew this was a big game but there’s a lot of rugby to be played.”

Ospreys coach Jones praised his squad after a difficult week where the region’s survival has been brought into question.

Ospreys players, staff and fans are worried about the long-term future and the lack of clarity and information being provided.

The week’s build-up to the Lions game was marred by a cancelled training session and a couple of players walking out of a meeting with chief executive Lance Bradley.

They put this to one side to draw with the South African side – Jones describing the character as “awesome”.

“Just think what those guys have been through over the last 72 hours to go out there and do that, it’s class,” said Jones.

Both sides had chances to win with Wales fly-half Dan Edwards missing a 79th-minute penalty and Lions wing Angelo Davids spurned a try-scoring chance.

Jones says he was frustrated with the final moments when he thought Ospreys might have been given another penalty.

“We get the opportunity to listen to the referee, while the game is going on,” said Jones.

“There were two calls in there, one from a touch judge and a TMO saying there’s an off-the-ball tackle that would need looking at, but it wasn’t. I will look back at the footage.”

Ospreys face a home Welsh derby next Saturday against Dragons, who are still chasing a first away league win since 2022 following a narrow 22-20 loss against Munster.

Tries from Brodie Coghlan and David Richards put Dragons ahead before the home side battled back in strong winds.

A late kick from home fly-half Tony Butler with five minutes to go broke visiting resistance and meant Dragons left with a losing bonus-point.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the boys and it was one that got away,” said co-captain Angus O’Brien.

“It was a massive performance from the boys. To come to Munster is never easy, so to narrowly miss out like that shows where we are as a group.

“We’ve got to take confidence we can come away from home to these places and compete.”

Dragons will look for that elusive win away from Rodney Parade next weekend.

“We need to take the positives to roll into a Welsh derby with Ospreys,” said O’Brien.

“Never in doubt”, joked Nigel Davies after seeing his side snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Scarlets had not beaten Ulster in a competitive match since November 2018 and right up until the 82nd minute the result looked to be heading the same way.

But cue a stunning sweeping Sam Costelow pass and Ellis Mee’s 50-metre burst to the line and Scarlets fans were finally given something to celebrate.

If there was any side that needed a win this weekend, it was Scarlets who had been rooted to the bottom of the URC table.

“It was fantastic,” said Davies, who took over as interim director of rugby earlier this month.

“We’ve asked these guys to be brave and relentless in their performance, that’s what they did.”

The former member of Wales coaching staff admitted the second half was particularly tough.

“We couldn’t get out of our 22 for 30 minutes but the boys were defensively heroic, that kept us in the game and gave us a chance at the end.

“We’ll be humble with that result, there’s a long way to go and a lot to do, but I was a little lost for words because the values we’ve spoken about, they exhibited so strongly.

“It makes us all proud.”

The only dent in Scarlets’ victory was an injury concern to full-back Blair Murray who hobbled off in the second half with Davies unsure of the nature of the injury.

“I don’t think it was too serious but he was struggling so we needed to make that change,” said Davies.

Murray is set to link up with Wales’ Six Nations squad on Monday and will be assessed.