2023-24 Squad

If Samson gets back anywhere near his best he will be our No 1 tight head for sure. It wasn't that many years ago when I saw him take a fully loaded Leinster front row apart at PYS. As I say anywhere near his best & Gatland will be all over him.

Oracle wrote:

I think Samson has the ability to regain his crown as best Welsh tight head

I really hope so but for now, a run to the end of the season will suffice for me.

Tony Clifton wrote:

I’m not sure anybody is saying to cut Samson. My

Belief is let’s see how he does, and hopefully he’s back 100% and a well needed player in the team. If that’s the case, I could see WGJ leaving. Jeffries too perhaps?

Jeffries, now there is a man on money for old rope.

Scarlets - Suppliers of fine rugby since 1872

Thought it was more likely to be Blacker out the door?

GPR - Rochester wrote:

Like many on here I have been pondering the make up of our squad with our enforced reductions. My gut feeling is that we are probably better off than most regions having two areas which other regions may be short of.

Firstly we have a number of squad members who are naturally coming up to their twilight years - this will not have come as a surprise to us so planning will/should have been in place. I include in this category - Halfpenny, Foxy, Ken, Phil Price & Sione.

Secondly we have some players who have had to retire/move due to injury/lack of action etc - Blade, Lezana, Rawlins, Helps, Jeffries, Baldwin.

I guess my point is that we have reductions to our squad which were probably going to happen anyway.

For sure some will leave that we want to keep - Javan for example but so far we are coming through this ahead of our rivals.

Finally we then have to look to the future & where we stand. Undoubtedly the financial constraints will mean that players from the academy are going to seeing more playing time than historically. Many of us have been calling for this for many years. Looking at the French example most, if not all, of their under 20's squad were full time members of either top 14 squads or Pro D. It is very usual to see 19-21 year olds breaking into the full French squad even with their depth.

We have young players who are about to be given their first team chances - Sam O'Connor, Lewis Morgan, Pritchard, Caleb Salmon, Griff Evans, Luca Giannini, Ben Williams, Harri Williams, Archie Hughes, Eddie James.

To sum up I guess it is certainly ground zero for regional rugby at the moment but am I as despondent as I thought I would be - unequivocally no. The off field management have to realise that quality coaching is going to be fundamental to our survival. Nobody is going to tell me that we do not have talented footballers who are able to compete but it is going to take very canny management & coaching to do it.

Assuming we will have a squad of 38/39 players (not including academy lads) I think we will be looking at a squad close to:

1. Wyn Jones

2. Kemsley Mathias

3. Steff Thomas

4. Sam OConnor

5. Ryan Elias

6. Ken Owen

7. Daf Hughes

8. Shaun Evans

9. Sam Wainwright

10. Hari OConnor

11. Samson Lee

10. WGJ

11. Sam Lousi

12. Vaea Fifita

13. Morgan Jones

14. Jac Price

15. Josh Macleod

16. Dan Davis

17. Carwyn Tuipolotu

18. Ben Williams

19. Iwan Shenton

20. Gareth Davies

21. Dane Blacker

22. Archie Hughes

23. Hari Williams

24. Sam Costelow

25. Dan Jones

26. Josh Phillips

27. Ryan Conbeer

28. Steff Evans

29. Tom Rogers

30. Johnny Mcnicholl

31. Foxy

32. Johnny Williams

33. Joe Roberts

34. Scott Williams

35. Ioan Nicholas

36. Eddie James

37.

38.

39.

Looking at above, pure guess work, with potentially 2 or 3 players coming in - back row and lock...and depending who stays/goes, potentially a tight head as well. Ben Frys name been thrown around on social media that he's heading our way. Decent signing if true.

What the above does show is that we will be better off than other 3 regions...also, i think this season has been a bit of a blessing. whether we knew this chaos was coming, but its as if we have planned for a worst case scenario more than other 3. We have brought through the likes of Kemsley, OConnor, Jac Price, Tuipolotu, Costelow, Joe Roberts etc, Shenton, Ben Williams and Ed James now having some game time as well...will hold us in good stead for next season IMO especiall as I dont see us losing much many to the World Cup.

Let's see how the vote goes Sunday first

Realwest wrote:

I’m not too up to date at the moment what’s the vote about and who’s voting

Do we want to lose multi-millions of sponsorship and stick with the current governance rules, or change them, allow more independents and set about completely changing the culture and thinning the gravy.

Have just started a topic on General Rugby called Sunday’s Governance Vote and posted an interesting article.

In a world where you can be anything – Be Kind.

EJPT wrote:

Nicholas will be a crucial player next season with his ability to cover every back position. Still a very thinned out squad. Fitness and injuries will determine how we do.

Muxh underrated player. Like other utility players the focus of fans can get a bit diffused as to his worth with no specific position locked in. But he never lets us down