Each game week Paul Williams ‘Black & White’ column will take a look around the world of the Guinness PRO14. Known for his contributions to Rugby World, his obsession for the game and his notorious tennis elbow, Paul will bring his unique takes on rugby to pro14rugby.org. With no grey areas, entertainment and enlightenment are assured. For more make sure to follow him on Twitter @thepaulwilliams UFC Ireland a Surprise Success Now, bear with me here because there’s a punchline or two ahead. Ahem. That the UFC decided to host an event in Ireland over the Christmas period came as a shock to many, particularly given the lack of promotion. However, considering its low profile, the event was a huge success. The fight card comprised of Fineen Wycherley v Sexton, followed by Scott Fardy v Chris Cloete, Cian Healy v Conor Murray, James Lowe v Andrew Conway. In all seriousness, Munster v Leinster was a remarkable spectacle and a throwback to the amateur days, where taking the ball was often secondary to taking the man. As you would expect from such a game, precision passes and line-breaks were few and far between. There were just seven line-breaks between both teams and a clean break looked more likely to occur to someone’s body than to either defence. But whilst few want to see a return to 1980s rugby, and player safety remains paramount, occasionally it is fantastic to see two squads going nuclear for 80 minutes. For what it’s worth, Sexton was the best fighter on the night. Cardiff Blues Dominate the Final Quarter (at last) The early stages of Cardiff Blues’ season were littered with good performances in the opening 60 minutes, only to drop below the required level in the final 20 minutes. This was not the case against the Scarlets, where a monster defensive performance in the opening two thirds led to a walk in the Parc during the final quarter. In a test-level defensive effort, it is usual to see one or two players make 20 tackles or more; Cardiff Blues had four players at plus twenty tackles. Seb Davies made 23, Josh Turnbull 22, Josh Navidi 21 and Nick Williams 24. But don’t assume that those four alone dominated the Cardiff Blues defensive line. Willis Halaholo, Brad Thyer and George Earle chipped in with 17 each and Kristian Dacey and Dillion Lewis both made 10 plus. You’d think that after such graft the final twenty would have belonged to the Scarlets and particularly their centres, but it was the Cardiff pairing that carved up and delivered three tries in the final 20. Well played Cardiff Blues. Edinburgh Are So Much More Than a Set-Piece Team When other teams and their supporters criticise your playing style, you know that you’re playing winning rugby. No-one cares about the playing style of losing teams, other than their own staff and supporters of course. It is a situation in which Exeter Chiefs and Saracens have found themselves in recent seasons and one in which Edinburgh are becoming familiar. Edinburgh’s win against Glasgow Warriors was their second derby victory in a week and their fourth win in December – the other two both coming against Newcastle Falcons in the Champions’ Cup. Against Glasgow, their set-piece dominance was glaring, particularly at the scrum. Glasgow’s front row was put under the sort of pressure normally reserved for my cardiovascular system after two weeks on the Christmas cheese. But to suggest that a scrum is all Edinburgh have denigrates the quality of Viliame Mata; a ball carrier who would still go forward even if the earth instantaneously changed its rotational access. Add to that Hamish Watson, James Richie, Jaco Van de Walt and Blair Kinghorn, and you have a core group who can perform in any area of the field. Edinburgh are one of the form teams not just in the Guinness PRO14, but in Europe as a whole. Well played Edinburgh. Dragons Win When it Really Counts The word Dragons and the word win won’t appear on any predictive text software. But this isn’t to say that they don’t win games. They do. But most of their victories come against teams in the lower parts of the conferences. Or, when they do roll out the big guns, it’s often due to a squad rotation or player absences during the Test window. But, for them to beat the Ospreys mattered. This was the Ospreys’ first XV and for the Dragons to win their first Welsh derby fixture in four years was a huge fist-bump for a region who finally has a competitive squad and financial backing, even if they don’t have a permanent head coach. Ospreys’ supporters will undoubtedly feel that they lost the game in the final quarter and that their dominance of the key performance indicators should have delivered the win. But that notion would belie how well the Dragons played in so many key areas. Jarrad Rosser’s try may have relied on a bonkers bounce of the ball, but since when hasn’t the rugby ball been a deceitful little swine? The bounce is part of the game and Rosser’s finish was immaculate. Elliot Dee’s try in the 52nd minute was created by an exquisite back-ball-peel – a move rarely seen in a rugby landscape dominated by 5m middle-ball catch and drives. The Dragons’ players, coaches and supporters deserved that win. Well played Dragons. Precision TMO Use The use of the TMO in rugby is still in its infancy. When it should be used, by whom and for what are still issues that are up for debate. But that the TMO has improved the accuracy of try scoring decisions is beyond reproach. You need only look at Blaine Scully’s try for the Cardiff Blues against the Scarlets. To the human eye, and in real-time, it looked as through the player was in touch and by some margin. But having used a second angle, it was clear that Scully’s trailing leg was clearly above the touchline. Many will argue that it was a matter of centimetres above the line, a gap so small that you couldn’t even squeeze Donald Trump’s principles into that space. But there was a gap and gap is all it takes. The role of the TMO may still change, but it is here to stay and rightly so.
