By lestyn
December 21 2006

The first edition of Rugby Shorts just in time for Christmas, so if your sober reading this well done. Anybody else, yes that is fog.

Busy Festive Period
Playing three matches in ten days is tough enough, let alone potentially season changing Welsh derbies over the festive period. Squad rotation will no doubt be rife, which may possibly hand the poor Dragons a surprise victory or even two.

Excitedly Ospreys v Scarlets has been a sell-out for since the beginning of November, in what promises the most intense West Wales derby yet on Boxing Day.

London Calling
In one of those stories that seems to re-emerge from time-to-time, London Welsh want to re-invent themselves as Wales’s fifth region in the Celtic League. With a chorus of boos and hisses no doubt already circulating from Ponty to Bangor and back, any entity would certainly have to be privately funded, and unable to dilute the player pool in Wales. I don’t think BBC Wales or S4C would be too impressed either.

London Celtic though would be a far more interesting idea though in my mind. I know there are plenty of exiled Welshmen and women, but would Borders in Brentford be an attractive enough proposition. The SRU already have an academy through London Scottish and Kenny Logan is keen to set a pro-side up, why not tempt the Irish ex-pats with Munster and co visiting?

Bowring Backed
Wales’s first professional coach Kevin Bowring is being tipped as Wales’s first Elite Performance Director. Whilst Gareth Jenkins remains a strong candidate to move upstairs so to speak, Phil Davies is backing Bowring for the role;

"Kevin is an outstanding administrator," he said. "I think he would be a real strong candidate for this job. I've worked with him in England and he's world-class."

Of course this all very much in the World of the Western Mail, so I think we’ll see a few more quotes being pushed selectively to sell a few papers until Sean Holley gets it or something.

Looking Back
Christmas and New Year always proves to be a reflective time for me, it’s hard to believe that it is only ten months since Ruddock-Gate erupted and Scott Johnson left his future undecided for so long.

It feels like an utter age too me, no doubt prolonged by a failure to rise to the dizzy grand-slam heights of 2005. The Ospreys win over Australia is up their as highlight of my rugby year in Wales, along with The Scarlets it could be argued they are starting to become a credible force once again, onlya Heineken Cup quarter final places will cement that though.

Martyn Williams has stood head and shoulders above all Welsh players this year, for all his performances it is a shame we are in a state of flux at the moment. James Hook offers reason for optimism over the next year and hopefully a semi-final place in France at the World Cup.

Have a good one.