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<\/p>\nThe latest rugby news from Wales and around the world<\/p>\n
Cracknell says Wales have turned a corner(Image: Chris Fairweather\/Huw Evans Agency)<\/p>\n
These are your evening rugby headlines on Wednesday, March 11.<\/p>\n
Cracknell: We’ve turned a corner<\/p>\n
Wales backrower Olly Cracknell believes Steve Tandy’s side have turned a corner and are ready to take the next step.<\/p>\n
Following a difficult start to the Six Nations<\/a>, Wales were vastly improved during narrow defeats to Scotland and Ireland with the physicality of the pack much better. Cracknell believes Wales are now ready to kick on and end the Six Nations with a victory over Italy.<\/p>\n “I think so,” said Cracknell when asked whether he thought a corner had been turned. “To be honest, I felt that in the France game. You look back on the result and just think ‘Oh, that’s a write-off’.<\/p>\n JOIN OUR WALES RUGBY FACEBOOK PAGE Latest news, analysis and much more<\/a><\/p>\n “But actually, one of these things, the feel of it, it’s hard to know. But I certainly felt actually if we just do what we’ve said we’re going to do and set out to play the way that we’re supposed to as a team, then we’re going to be alright and we’re going to be in games.<\/p>\n “So, yeah, I certainly feel like that. Intent was a bit of a theme for us, particularly last week. Obviously you have a new game and learning all new stuff, different plays and line-outs.<\/p>\n “You get that done by the back end of the week and then you have to let that go. Bring yourself back round and let your instinct kick in. As a team we did that really well.<\/p>\n “So I think that’s a base we need every week if we’re going to be competing in these games. It is a base, but there’s more that you need to win those games because they’re so competitive.”<\/p>\n Cracknell has been in and out of the side throughout the course of this Six Nations but made a huge impact with his carrying game as a replacement against Ireland in Dublin.<\/p>\n The form of the outstanding Aaron Wainwright has made it difficult to become a permanent member of the starting XV.<\/p>\n “It’s good as more competition is going to make me better,” he said. “Obviously, the Scotland game where I was left out, I found that disappointing. But you learn and Steve takes the time to explain decisions. I came away from speaking to him after that Scotland week, and I was clear on what he was going for and little bits that I could add to my game.<\/p>\n “At the end of the day it always comes back to yourself and just trying improve your own performance more. But it’s good to have competition.”<\/p>\n Wainwright will be a teammate of Cracknell’s at Leicester Tigers next season after the Dragons No 8 opted for a move away from Rodney Parade. It means the Tigers could field an all-Welsh backrow with Tommy Reffell also at the club.<\/p>\n “It will be good,” he said. “Before last season it was Jasper Wiese I was competing with. We had a lot of back rowers last year, so I think you need competitive squads.<\/p>\n “It’s going to make me better having Waino there, so I’m excited for him to join. I’ve been speaking to him about where he’s going to live. It’s quite a big move for him because he’s been at the Dragons quite a long time. I get on well with Waino and I’ll help him get settled.”<\/p>\n Welsh trio sign deals in England<\/p>\n Bath Rugby’s young Welsh trio Ioan Emanuel, Ieuan Davies and Thompson Cowan have signed new contracts with the English side.<\/p>\n The talented three are part of the club’s senior academy and, alongside six other players, have now extended their time in blue, black and white for another season.<\/p>\n Loosehead prop Emanuel, 21, is one of Wales’ most highly-rated young front row players, having proved himself as a powerful scrummager and explosive carrier during his time with the national U20s side.<\/p>\n The brother of Cardiff<\/a> centre Steffan Emanuel, he spent time on loan at Arms Park earlier this season, as did scrum-half Davies, also 21.<\/p>\n Cowan, meanwhile, rejoined Bath’s senior academy in 2021, with the back rower called up to the Wales squad for the U20s Six Nations the following year.<\/p>\n The trio have signed new deals at the club alongside English talents Alfie Griffin, Will Jeanes, Scott Kirk, Isaac Mears, Max Pearce and Claudius Wheeler.<\/p>\n On retaining services of nine young players, Bath’s head of rugby Johann van Graan said: \u201cWe\u2019re committed to providing our club with the best developing talent Bath has to offer and we remain consistent in our approach to this.<\/p>\n \u201cInstilling continuity across all aspects of our squad, including the Academy and our Pathway, is crucial to developing good players into great players.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve now competed in three NextGen U18 PREM finals in three years, our partnership with the University of Bath sees the Men\u2019s Rugby side sitting top of a very competitive log, and we\u2019ve reached PREM Rugby Cup knockouts two years running.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why it\u2019s great that we are supporting both our homegrown talents and our age-grade international talents. Retaining our young talent plays an important part in all of these achievements and I\u2019m happy these young men will be continuing their journey at the club.\u201d<\/p>\n Darge: We can rise to the pressure<\/p>\n By Anthony Brown, Press Association<\/p>\n Rory Darge believes Scotland are primed for the pressure of \u2018Super Saturday\u2019 after showing they can handle playing must-win rugby since losing their Guinness Six Nations opener in Italy.<\/p>\n Gregor Townsend\u2019s resurgent side go into their final match in Ireland knowing victory could secure them a first Six Nations title, if France slip up at home to England later in the day.<\/p>\n The Scots have kept their championship hopes alive with consecutive victories over England, Wales and France, and Darge is adamant those experiences will stand them in good stead for what promises to be a dramatic weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cOur backs were against the wall after Rome,\u201d said back-rower Darge, alluding to the 18-15 defeat by the Azzurri in round one. \u201cI think Sione had said in the press and to the group that you can\u2019t expect to lose two games and still be in the mix towards the end of the campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cSo for a while now, it\u2019s been win or you\u2019re not going to be in with a shout. Obviously to be in with any sort of chance this weekend, we\u2019ll have to win. It\u2019s massively exciting, no getting away from it. I\u2019ve never been in this position before.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve played in a few Six Nations now and to be going into the last weekend with what\u2019s at stake, it\u2019s really exciting. But ultimately we just have to focus on the performance against Ireland and then come what may.\u201d<\/p>\n While the Scots\u2019 title destiny is out of their hands, they know a victory in Dublin would at least guarantee them a first Triple Crown since 1990. Darge said such an achievement would be \u201chuge\u201d, given that Scotland have failed to defeat Ireland since 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve not beaten Ireland before, they\u2019re a tough team to beat and they\u2019ve been right up there as one of the best teams in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously we\u2019re fully aware of the challenge that lies ahead. Ireland are an outstanding team and our record against them hasn\u2019t been great so we know it\u2019s going to be difficult, but we\u2019ve got to back ourselves.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Ireland will pose a different threat to France. They\u2019re both top, top teams but they play a different style, defend differently. I think there will be things that we\u2019ll have to change, but there will also be a lot of our game that we\u2019ll stick to.\u201d<\/p>\n Flanker Darge ended up playing the closing stages of the 50-40 triumph over Les Bleus at centre after Huw Jones went off injured.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a bit of a weird one, it was a bit hectic towards the end,\u201d he said of his stint in the midfield. \u201cWe had bodies out of position but I thought we managed it well. I had to get some help from the guys around me, but they all kept me right.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here<\/a> and our WhatsApp channel here<\/a> for all the breaking news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest rugby news from Wales and around the world Cracknell says Wales have turned a corner(Image: Chris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[98245,5903,43326,101,7168,56,54,55,9015,7167],"class_list":["post-470631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-bath-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-six-nations","tag-sports","tag-todays-updates","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team","tag-wales-rugby-u20"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}