It was not a weekend for too many in Welsh rugby to take to the streets and turn cartwheels.
Defeats for Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets worsened the lot of the regions in the United Rugby Championship and there was a heavy loss to England for Wales Women.
There were moments to be encouraged by in those games, but such instances were few and far between as opponents ran in tries and amassed significant points hauls.
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We take a look at the weekend's winners and losers:
WINNERS
Vaea Fifita
Barely a couple of weeks ago, Vaea Fifita had his work signed off by one of the great forwards in world rugby.
“He may be a lock but one of the freakiest/smartest athletes I’ve played with and trained alongside,” wrote Ardie Savea on social media after Fifita scored a remarkable solo try for the Scarlets against Brive.
The pair were team-mates at the Hurricanes, but, really, the score deserved to be acclaimed, anyway, such was its quality, with Fifita picking up the ball from a ruck on halfway and rocketing clear, leaving a trail of defenders in his wake before skipping out of a tackle near the line and completing the score.
If any Brive defender had put his hands on his hips at that point and mouthed WTF — as in What The Flip — his incredulity would have been wholly understandable.
The Tongan who once played for the All Blacks was at it again at Scotstoun on Friday evening, albeit his effort didn’t result in a score this time, with the referee making an offside call. But if there was an award for the best try that never was in 2022-23, then Fifita’s latest special would be there or thereabouts for the gong.
Perhaps only those who have spent the weekend mini-breaking on distant planets will not have yet seen the extraordinary sight of the 6ft 5in, 17st 7lb lock stealthily claim possession at a ruck a couple of metres inside his own 22 before taking off with one or two of Glasgow’s defenders in the immediate vicinity initially throwing up their arms in mild protest. Maybe the odd one didn’t exactly fancy what was potentially ahead. There were 72 minutes on the clock, after all, in a match played out in appalling conditions. It would have been completely understandable if the prospect of a vain chase upfield in pursuit of possibly the fastest second row in world rugby didn’t hold great appeal just then.
Some did try to reel him in. But they were unsuccessful.
It was some sight, with Fifita racing clear of opponents, one or two of whom looking to be wading through treacle as the Scarlet positively galloped upfield. A dozen or so seconds after he had picked up the ball, one of Welsh rugby’s players of the season was touching down, apparently having added another memorable solo score to his collection.
His joy was to prove short-lived, with the TMO ruling the rangy forward had swooped for the ball from an offside position. The television official in question, Brian MacNeice, had not exactly endeared himself to Scarlets supporters on a previous occasion when an intervention saw a potential red card for Ulster’s Kieran Treadwell for a shoulder into the head of Javan Sebastian turn into a yellow amid howls of outrage from far and wide. It was no surprise, then, that MacNeice didn’t earn too many likes on social media for his latest offering, even if a number of pundits felt he had actually made the right call this time.
Still, Fifita’s athleticism had been something to savour. He is a player who can turn a game in the blink of an eye, who can do things on a rugby field that others on the same pitch can only marvel at.
Glasgow will rock up in Llanelli a week on Saturday for a EPCR Challenge Cup semi-final. They’d be advised to stay wide awake whenever there’s a ruck with Fifita in close proximity.
Alex Callender
No-one embodied Welsh spirit more than openside flanker Alex Callender in Saturday’s defeat by England at a sold-out Cardiff Arms Park.
While the team display waned in the face of opposition excellence in the second half, Al-Cal — as she is known to one and all in the Wales camp — maintained her standards to the very end, tackling, carrying and turning ball over. When they finished counting, she had made 80 metres from her 15 runs, put in 11 tackles and pulled off two possession steals.
There were countless outstanding performances on the English side as they banked their impressive 59-3 success, but Callender was one in red to have been especially proud of too.
Taibach RFC
How does it feel to concede 100 points on a rugby field? “Like a wave that just kept washing over us,” this writer was once told.
Taibach RFC’s players will doubtless have felt the same way after losing 104-0 in a Division 3 West Central match against Aberavon Green Stars recently. The Stars scored in the first minute and one of Taibach’s players was injured while attempting to stop the try, meaning they had to play the rest of the game with depleted numbers as they didn’t have anyone on the bench.
Club secretary John Daniel later reflected: “We had only 14 players and they were cutting through us like a knife. I don’t know how many tries they scored. I lost count in the end."
He told how Taibach had seen numbers fall off throughout the season, from the high of 45 before the campaign started. But there was also determination to keep putting teams on the field.
“I turned around and said to them after the game with the Stars: ‘Boys, we’re up in Cwmllynfell next Saturday. Let’s all get on the bus together, I’ll take some money up and we’ll have a few beers afterwards, perhaps stop off or whatever,'" said Daniel.
“The good news is we have 16 players confirmed for Saturday with five more ready to be confirmed. Fingers crossed, we’ll have a team and we’ll be able to go up to Cwmllynfell and produce a good performance.”
Days later, a text dropped into this reporter’s phone while he was on a week off, saying: “Cwmllynfell 14 Taibach 26. Thought you might like to know. A very happy secretary of Taibach RFC. Cheers, John.”
Last weekend, Taibach won again, beating Cwmgors 36-35 at home.
No street parties have been arranged to celebrate. Of course they haven't. The two sides the Port Talbot club have just beaten are below them in the table, after all.
But a lot of character has been shown after a result which must have been demoralising. All concerned deserve a significant pat on the back.
LOSERS
URC officiating
Where do you start? Perhaps by saying that being a rugby referee isn’t an easy gig.
Some of the laws are complex with a number subject to interpretation, but the certainty is the man or woman in the middle will never please all the people with their decisions. Possibly, they might not even please some of the people. Possibly, even the pet poodle might be seriously put out by some of the calls.
A tough job it is, then, to run the show in the days of almost every major game being shown live on TV with instant replays available and armies of people out there keen to offer their tuppence worth.
But, still, right now there seems a lot to take issue with when it comes to officiating in the United Rugby Championship. Not every game is blighted by debatable calls, but plenty are.
Cut to the Glasgow Warriors v Scarlets match at Scotstoun on Friday evening. Not too many Welsh supporters were impressed that Sam Johnson didn’t receive a yellow card after a high tackle on Kieran Hardy, while a lineout throw that led to a home try didn’t quite find its way directly into the arms of the Glasgow scrum-half but was suspiciously not straight, all the same.
Then there was the shot that looked high on Taulupe Faletau in Cardiff’s loss to Connacht, a hit that wasn’t followed by a yellow card. Dai Young also took issue with the refereeing of the breakdown in that game.
No-one is perfect and having a go at the ref has been part of the scene ever since William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it during a football match back in the day.
But every week seems to throw up questionable incidents in the URC. An ongoing effort to improve wouldn’t hurt one bit.
Cardiff lineout
Welsh teams having lineout problems seems to have been the norm for so long such issues may have been mentioned in the Domesday Book. There again, perhaps not.
But Cardiff need to sort out their difficulties before they take on the Ospreys in the Judgement Day clash between the pair at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
They didn’t help themselves against Connacht in Galway by messing up a number of key lineouts in the opposition 22. A side that does that is always going to struggle to win, especially on the road, when chances may not come along often. It is an area the Arms Park team simply have to get right.
Ospreys fail to do what it says on the tin
The Ospreys team looked good on paper. But they were trounced by Edinburgh at the DAM Health Stadium.
Possession wasn’t a problem, but the Welsh side made mistakes and failed to use the ball they won effectively. They were also second best at the breakdown and aside from Dewi Lake and Morgan Morris lacked ball-carriers up front.
It was a disappointing effort from a team who had pushed Saracens in their previous outing. They should be better than that. Much better.
Dragons and opposition hookers
What is it about the Dragons and opposition hookers?
Glasgow’s Johnny Matthews scored five tries against them at the start of the month in a match which also saw the Warriors’ replacement No. 2 George Turner come off the bench and cross.
On Friday evening, Ulster No. 2 Tom Stewart claimed a hat-trick of touchdowns against the men from Rodney Parade.
Not all of those tries came from driving mauls, but plenty did. We’ll call it a work-on for the forwards this week.
Wales Women's Triple Crown hopes
There was so much to admire about Wales Women in the early stages of their Six Nations clash with England in Cardiff. They played with spirit and no little skill during an opening which suggested they might even mount a significant challenge to the visitors.
But they failed to convert pressure into tries and then started falling off tackles. By the close they had missed 36 hits.
England also made three times more dominant defensive interventions, made 11 linebreaks to Wales’ one, boasted superior ruck speed and handled with pace and skill. None of which was completely unexpected, with England having a far wider player pool and having started dishing out professional contracts in the women’s game before anyone else.
From a Welsh perspective, a 59-3 defeat will be sobering. But the way the day was handled was a success and the enthusiasm of the crowd augured well. The players also had their moments in those early stages, with Wales taking the early lead thanks to a penalty kick from Keira Bevan while a first Welsh try was unfortunately held up after much hard work to get over the line.
The challenge is to push on and bang in high-quality 80-minute displays. It won’t happen overnight.
In the meantime, let's say the scoreline didn’t tell the complete story at the Arms Park.
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