{"id":785076,"date":"2026-09-28T08:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785076\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T08:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:08:09","slug":"united-rugby-championship-the-talking-points-from-the-welsh-clubs-on-opening-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785076\/","title":{"rendered":"United Rugby Championship: The talking points from the Welsh clubs on opening weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was not the start Scarlets wanted after finishing 14th in the URC last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They scored two excellent tries through Joe Roberts and Murray but paid the price for conceding three scores from driving line-outs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There was plenty of effort and endeavour, particularly in that first half where we looked like the team we trained to be,&#8221; said Scarlets director of rugby Nigel Davies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We need to see more of those moments. Some errors started to creep into our game, particularly in the second half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Cardiff took their tries well, but didn&#8217;t have to work hard for them. It was more about our mistakes, and we gave them three entries into the 22 where they scored.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Scarlets were missing injured key trio Sam Costelow, Taine Plumtree and Fletcher Anderson, with 20-year-old forwards Will Evans and Osian Williams making their first league starts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We had a team strong enough to go and win,&#8221; said Davies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve exposed young players and in the main they did well and will be better for this, we&#8217;ve got quality to come back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Positives include the defensive effort of captain Josh Macleod, who made 28 tackles, and Murray\u2019s running threat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Eddie James impressed as an inside centre, rather than the outside centre position where he has been played by Wales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Eddie&#8217;s a great rugby player and the debate will go on where he should play,&#8221; said Davies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He can do a particular job at 12 and can also play 13. He can run hard and get gain line, but he is also a ball-player.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was not the start Scarlets wanted after finishing 14th in the URC last season. They scored two&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-785076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785076","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=785076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}