{"id":36068,"date":"2026-10-11T07:11:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T07:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/united-rugby-championship-contest-for-wales-selection-heats-up-as-ospreys-and-scarlets-win\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T07:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T07:11:25","slug":"united-rugby-championship-contest-for-wales-selection-heats-up-as-ospreys-and-scarlets-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/united-rugby-championship-contest-for-wales-selection-heats-up-as-ospreys-and-scarlets-win\/","title":{"rendered":"United Rugby Championship: Contest for Wales selection heats up as Ospreys and Scarlets win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Scarlets were staring down the barrel when trailing 21-7 at half-time against Benetton, and it was the Italians that started the second half stronger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The match was ultimately won by Sam Costelow&#8217;s late penalty but it was swung by the home side&#8217;s back three, perhaps showing why Rogers opted for a change of scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Full-back Blair Murray won the player of the match award after being a constant menace with ball in hand and coming up with a crucial interception.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That try was followed by a stunning finish by Ellis Mee after a break by fellow wing Macs Page, who continued his strong start to the season with a grubber, gather and perfect pass to the right.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mee scored his second with fast footwork and, after starting against Argentina and South Africa in July, has the nuts and bolts to remain in Steve Tandy&#8217;s line-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We want to create an environment where we get these guys on the ball,&#8221; said Scarlets director of rugby Nigel Davies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Because of the errors in our game, we couldn&#8217;t do that in the first half, but in the second half we did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Our highlight reel is quite spectacular after three games, but we need to be more consistent in how we deliver that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With Bristol&#8217;s Louis Rees-Zammit having returned to being a wing and Josh Adams nearing a return from injury for Cardiff, wide slots are being taken up for the Wales squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But if Tandy wants a little bit of stardust then uncapped Page, an unused member of the touring party to Japan in 2025, is providing him with a wildcard option.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He has a low centre of gravity, is very quick and has a great rugby brain,&#8221; said Davies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He is similar to someone like Shane Williams &#8211; he is all X-factor and is probably one of the first names on our team sheet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c69vzm2pxznxo?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scarlets were staring down the barrel when trailing 21-7 at half-time against Benetton, and it was the Italians that started the second half stronger. The match was ultimately won by Sam Costelow&#8217;s late penalty but it was swung by the home side&#8217;s back three, perhaps showing why Rogers opted for a change of scene. Full-back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36070,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36068\/revisions\/36070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}