Lions squad verdict: the backs

Leigh Halfpenny

The best full back in the northern hemisphere, the outstanding player of the Six Nations, safer than houses under the high ball and a deadly accurate goalkicker

Stuart Hogg

A superb talent – he is only 20 – with pace to burn, as his Six Nations try against Italy proved. Will be an exciting part of the Lions midweek team

Rob Kearney

Once the best Six Nations full back, he has watched Halfpenny consolidate his own claim to that crown. But Kearney is still too much of a safe pair of hands to leave behind

Tommy Bowe

Newport County and Wrexham to contest Conference play-off final

English football has been dominated by Welsh teams this season (sort of), with Swansea lifting the League Cup, Cardiff City the Championship and Wrexham the FA Trophy.

And now another side from Wales will win silverware at the home of English football, with Wrexham and Newport County both making the Blue Square Bet Premier (Conference) play-off final as they battle for a place in League Two next year.

Congratulations 2 Wrexham and Newport County on reaching Wembley for Blue Square Play-Off Final. What a season for Welsh club football!

— CCFCSupportersTrust (@CCST1927) April 28, 2013

Wrexham beat Kidderminster 3-1 away thanks to strikes from Brett Ormerod, Joe Clarke and a Neil Ashton penalty to triumph 5-2 on aggregate, while a first-half Christian Jolley goal Newport beat Grimsby 1-0, to win 2-0 over two legs.

So at 3pm next Sunday, the two sides will meet at Wembley Stadium to determine which will move up to the Football League.

It will also mean that the first three trophies of the season will all have been taken back to Wales.

And next year we’ll have two Welsh sides in the Premier League and Swansea City plying their trade in the Europa League.

Cardiff City promoted: looking forward to El Llasico next season

Thought I’d better get my pun on record early before anyone else tries to claim it.

Stuff Barcelona-Real Madrid, Cardiff’s visit to the Liberty Stadium, and Swansea’s to Cardiff City Stadium, will be the epics to look forward to.

El Llasico.

Cardiff City are promoted to the Premier League

Finally we get to see a Welsh Premier League derby. Congratulations to Cardiff City.

This tweet has been years in the making – CARDIFF CITY ARE A PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL CLUB

— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) April 16, 2013

Cardiff City promoted “@robphillipshere: Party has started at CCS twitter.com/robphillipsher…”

— BBC Wales (@BBCWales) April 16, 2013

Congratulations @cardiffcityfcWales now punching well above its weight with two teams in the Premier League! #CardiffCity #CCFC

— Carwyn Jones (@fmwales) April 16, 2013

RT @steffan_rhys #Cardiff City Stadium pitch after City are promoted to Premiership tonight… bit.ly/13i19mW

— Pat English (@Squirrelbasket) April 16, 2013

London Welsh finally relegated from Premiership

It’s been on the cards for a while, but London Welsh’s relegation from the Premiership was confirmed following their 31-14 defeat to the Northampton Saints at the Kassam Stadium yesterday.

(They could survive if the Championship winner is not deemed to be fit to take their place in the Premiership – it would be hugely ironic if Welsh were to stay up that way following last season’s off-the-field battles – but Newcastle are the clear favourites to make an instant return.)

The Exiles have done well – performed bravely, the ultimate unwanted sports compliment – this season, considering they had to wait until the summer before their promotion was finally confirmed, considering the unequal financial playing field in the Premiership, considering they were docked five points for an official’s indiscretion.

Indeed, a positive start to the season, in which they racked up 19 points from their first 10 games – more than enough to avoid the drop – gave their fans hope they would follow the example of the Exeter Chiefs and stay up against all expectations.

But Welsh haven’t won since December, picking up only four losing bonus points since. Two of those – away at Gloucester, and the only match I was able to get to, at home to Sale – should really have been wins, but a lack of experience of top-flight rugby told in the end.

London Welsh have used the Kassam Stadium in Oxford this season

In the last few days, London Welsh’s CEO Tony Copsey has both stepped aside and key financial backer Kelvin Bryon has announced he won’t continue to fund the club, hitting out at the RFU and Premier Rugby for not providing equal funding for promoted teams. It has become unviable for them to continue to play at the Kassam Stadium, and the club will decide whether to play their games in Oxford or move back to Old Deer Park in Richmond next season.

It’s been quite a ball for London Welsh this season, and they have defied expectations to be as competitive as they have. But, surely, the RFU has to be prepared to support smaller clubs rather than give them much less generous handouts if the game is ever to be truly evolve.

Jonny Wilkinson for the Lions number 10 jersey

The Heineken Cup rolled back into town last weekend, bringing all the thrills and spills of the Six Nations with it.

I’m being cynical, but after a Six Nations marked by a dearth of tries, Sunday’s Heineken Cup quarter finals comprised a whopping 21 penalty goals, one drop goal and no tries.

The Stoop before kick off

I was at Harlequins’ 18-12 defeat to Munster at the Stoop, and although all the points came from the boots of Nick Evans and Ronan O’Gara, it was an entertaining, nervous game. The Irish province deserved their win after blitzing the hosts at the start of the second half, and Quins were far too predictable and one-dimensional ever to threaten the Munster tryline.

Sitting among the massed ranks of boisterous, delirious, flag-waving Munster fans was annoying for an adopted Quins supporter, although I did at least manage to have some fun winding them up when O’Gara missed a couple of straightforward goal kicks in the first half.

I can’t claim ever to have been O’Gara’s biggest fan, and not just because of his antics in the deciding Lions test in South Africa four years ago. After an impressive Irish career, his time is all but up, his abysmal decision-making in the Six Nations against Scotland proof enough of that.

The same cannot be said for Jonny Wilkinson, who demonstrated in the final quarter-final of the weekend his class – in all definitions of the word – remains very much integral to his play on the field and personality off it. He kicked all of Toulon’s points in their 21-15 win over the Leicester Tigers, including a late, wrong-footed drop goal, and his all-round play was equally good.

In typically modest style, he then said youngsters like Owen Farrell should be selected to tour Australia by Warren Gatland.

But why? Wilkinson simply has to be on the trip Down Under, and – though Jonny Sexton partisans may argue – Wilkinson deserves the chance to repeat his 2003 success.