You can’t win anything with kids, the former football pundit Alan Hansen once said.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
You can win a development match for starters.
The Ospreys A team did exactly that last Friday when they posted an impressive 33-10 win over a Scarlets Development side in Llanelli.
It followed the Ospreys’ youngsters 45-0 success over Ealing Trailfinders A at The Gnoll.
There were pluses for both the Scarlets and the Ospreys in the game at Parc y Scarlets, with the game not so much being about the result, though that’s never unimportant in a Loughor Bridge derby, as the performances.
Ospreys head coach Toby Booth said: “The result is nice to have, but what’s important is the chance to benchmark our players and young players getting the chance to pull on an Ospreys jersey.
“It’s good to see where they are at and who’s moved forward.”
Scarlets team boss Dwayne Peel, too, saw grounds for some encouragement.
The young Ospreys performed impressively as a team, but maybe the efforts of a few players are worth flagging up.
Harri Morgan
The scrum-half from Maesteg has had a dreadful time with injuries, spending 12 months on the sidelines before his comeback.
Some would have come close to forgetting his name, let alone how much promise he has.
Rewind to the 2019 Junior World Championship and Wales’ clash with tournament hosts Argentina, when Morgan scored a memorable try which saw the former Cardiff City schoolboy footballer break from a retreating scrum before manufacturing a perfectly judged short kick and staying in support to accept Rio Dyer’s pass for the touchdown.
It was a score out of nothing, with Morgan thinking a split-second quicker than anyone else on the field and not so much spotting a gap as creating it.
That’s what talent does, and it's no surprise he has previously been marked out as a potentially special player by those in the know.
All game he buzzed around to good effect.
The youngster has found it hard since because of a brutal run of injuries, so the Ospreys were pleased to see the ex-pupil of Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg in Llangynwyd fit again. “It was great to see Harri out there,” said Booth of his effort in Llanelli. “He’s had a horrific time with injuries.”
Morgan himself tweeted the morning after the night before: “What a feeling to be out there last night wearing the jersey after 12 months sidelined with injury.”
Hopefully, his ill-luck is a thing of the past.
Harri Deaves
Maybe he was the player of the game at Parc y Scarlets, with his ability to cover every blade of grass and get over the ball.
The openside flanker also scored a try.
He had looked a bright spark during the U20 Six Nations until suffering a bump or two that checked his progress. His ability in contact is exceptional and he is also brave — sometimes too brave, with Deaves’ disregard for his own safety heightening his risk of picking up injuries.
His Wales U20s team-mate Dafydd Jenkins said of him during the tournament: “He’s a really good boy — humble as well.
“All he wants to do is play rugby and be the best he can.
“He’s great to play alongside because he works so hard and is happy to do the dirty work that needs to be done, the stuff a lot of people don’t see.
“He just gets on with it.”
In a pen-pic online he styles himself as “the only man to catch a salmon in Pontyclun river”.
He certainly looks a good catch for the Ospreys, with Booth classing him as one of their standout performers out west.
Will Hickey
When the ex-St Michael’s College captain came over to Wales from Dublin earlier this year, having failed to make the cut at Leinster, there were words of regret from several online posters to Irish websites. "This lad not making the academy is a farce,” said one.
"One of the best prospects to come out of STMC in years.
"Pro ready player with an unbelievable mindset.
"Leinster making a mistake here."
Hickey has been settling since, but he is rated within the Ospreys system, with Booth speaking highly of him after his effort against the Scarlets Development side. Hickey is good at the breakdown and has a big workrate. He’s also a leader. Such things augur well.
Morgan Strong
This guy was told at the age of 14 he wasn’t good enough.
But the No. 8 used the words from a youth coach in Tondu to make himself a more rounded player.
To his credit, he has since remarked that he’d always be grateful for what the coach in question, Mark Thomas, said. “Mark was brutally honest. That’s the moment when my life changed and I started taking things more seriously,” he told The Rugby Paper.
Like Hickey, Strong is a leader and he packed a breakdown presence against the Scarlets, winning turnovers and slowing the hosts’ ball. He also carried well.
“Morgan Strong captained the side, carried the ball well and played tough” said Booth, addressing a question about Strong and Harri Deaves.
“That’s the thing.
“They both played really tough, along with Will Hickey.
“From a back-row point of view, we had some standout performances in both games.”
Others Booth referred to included Joe Grabham, Matthew Aubrey, Josh Thomas, Ben Warren and Huw Sutton.
In the red corner, Peel also had cause for some satisfaction, notwithstanding the loss last weekend. There were four players again who caught the eye.
Carwyn Tuipulotu
He’s a big unit and he showed up as a carrier for Wales in the U20 Six Nations.
His problem has been a lack of rugby since he came off the production line at Sedbergh School, with Covid starving many youngsters of vital minutes on the field.
But he is making progress.
Against the Ospreys, there was much good work done in the trenches, with Tuipulotu offering himself to make the hard yards, frequently scattering opponents as he did so.
“I thought Carwyn carried really well,” said Peel.
“With Covid last year, he’s not played hardly any senior rugby. He’s come straight from school, so he’s going to have to work hard and he is working hard.
“It’ll take time with him, but we’re pleased with the progress he’s making.
“He has the bit between his teeth.”
Joe Roberts
A serious knee Injury in the summer of 2019 halted the progression of Roberts, ruling him out for a season.
The Burry Port and Coleg Sir Gar product spent time on loan at Ampthill before playing three games in the end-of-season Rainbow Cup.
A centre with skill who’s seen as mature beyond his years, he also has that touch of class about his game.
“Joe was good in the centre,” said Peel.
“He looked sharp in both our games (against Dragons A and Ospreys A).”
Luke Davies
The Scarlets are spoiled for choice at scrum-half, with Luke Davies, Archie Hughes and Harri Williams among the likely lads who are emerging, while they also have internationals Gareth Davies and Kieran Hardy on their first-team roster, as well as Dane Blacker.
What’s impressive about Luke Davies is he enjoys calling the shots.
A scrum-half touches the ball more than any player on the pitch and so needs to be vocal and authoritative; Davies is.
The cousin of Kieran Hardy contributed some nice touches for Peel’s team with the coach saying: “I thought our two nines, Archie Hughes and Luke Davies, were good value over the two games.”
Archie Hughes
The lad from Tenby startled in the summer with an eye-catching cameo off the bench in the pre-season friendly with Nottingham.
There were back-door passes, top-drawer support lines and genuine pace as he scored two tries. He even showed himself to be quite the selfless sort as he passed up the opportunity of a hat-trick by handing Ryan Conbeer a score when the odds were on the teenager crossing himself.
Follow that?
A tough ask.
Nottingham are a Championship side in England and had started to tire when Hughes came on.
But he performed well enough for the Scarlets in their two autumn outings.
The omens are bright.
Peel also mentioned some of the Scarlets’ young front rowers.
There it is then.
Whoever came up with the old line about the kids being all right — whoever came up with that line knew what he was talking about.
