Worcester Warriors

Yeah

... their season starts, uh, next weekend at Worcester.

More on that shortly.

Um, yes.

[laughs]

VX3?

VX3, who, uh, also supply Worcester.

Okay.

Yeah, probably winning Junior World Cup with the under-20s, yeah.

And then also, yeah, getting, when Worcester got promoted there to the premiership as well.

With

Lammy's kick, right? Yeah,

As I mentioned, there's Nottingham.

There's Richmond, Rotherham Titans, Worcester Warriors, that's a name a lot of people know, the Doncaster Knights, Coventry, the Cornish Pirates, Ealing Trailfinders as well, Chinna, and yeah, so if you calculate that, there's 14 teams, and let's say each of them want to have a quotient of two or three non-english qualified players in their match day 23 then that can lead to like up to 42 players um for canon 42 canadian players available to be selected for those match day squats so that is you know definitely a valuable opportunity and you know people have mentioned is that um Canadians were playing in MLR, but now that we're going down to five teams, there's fewer games that are available, fewer opportunities.

And with the league continuing as it is, you know, I think it was a 10-round league this year.

If it's not the same, it's probably going to be less in 2027.

Hello, and welcome back to the Cardiff Central Podcast.

Rugby is back as the blue and backs squeeze past Worcester in the first preseason friendly on Saturday.

We'll discuss what we learned and what concerned us, plus the rags get their Super Rugby Cymru season underway, and Cardiff may have released the greatest jersey ever.

[upbeat music] Joining me on the podcast this week, we've got Fraser Stroud.

[laughs] Uh, right.

Let's get on to Saturday's game then.

Cardiff traveled to Worcester in the first preseason friendly of this campaign, uh, with a 26-27 victory at Sixways.

The tries came from Jacob Beetham, Taine Basham, Ellis Bevan, Harry Millard, and Liam Belcher got one off the back of a maul.

I want to look at their squad and go... oh yeah they're they're they're all

right it yeah it's what worcester warriors should always be yes even when they were in the premiership is that's yeah that's what they should be is

oh my god he's there yeah like oh he was great in his four games for northampton you know like he could never get in the team above x but he was pretty good yeah

can I remember

Always got a soft spot for Cornish Pirates 'cause I had a season down there.

[lip smack] Um, and now Worcester.

It's good playing at Worcester.

They get a good crowd.

Yeah, they get a great crowd.

There's, there's the social pin on that one.

Yeah.

We, we talked about Ealing there, just about Ealing being the juggernaut, but last year, for the listeners, um, that don't know, there was a, a playoff, and Ealing, despite going undefeated in the regular season, ended up losing in the semifinal to Worcester Warriors, who then went on to beat Bedford in the, the final, the playoff final.

And then the senior academy guys are with the first team, so don't really want to play for the RFC.

Well, not that they don't want to play, but they're not up for selection for the RFC because they're probably going to be featured against Worcester, Exeter, or both over the next few weeks with the first team.

So...

Yeah, we'll see how that transpires there.

Into the main part of the pod then, pre-season preview.

Cardiff are back in action after a long old summer off.

We're facing Worcester at Six Ways on Saturday, 3 o'clock kick-off, and then after a weekend off we'll host Exeter at 3pm at the Arms Park on Saturday the 19th, which is also a doubleheader with the Rags who kick-off at 6 o'clock that evening.

It's, I think, going to be unrestricted seating for that one as well at Exeter.

perhaps played the whole game.

Interesting, the Pumas, very interesting recruitment they did because they got Thabo Demande, who was the star player for Worcester Warriors.

They were quite sad to see him leave.

He did play for Krikwas not too long ago before that.

So their big name signing was Will Butler, coming from Gloucester, who obviously played in the Prem.

And then also Tom Golder in the second row, who's come from Worcester.

So some big names on display.

And it was London Scottish who got off to the quickest start, getting two early tries.