Good Day

For Welsh, Celtic and Pro12 Rugby as his selection for the Newport Gwent Dragons this weekend seems to confirm that Talupe Faletau, one of the outstanding performers in Wales’ heroic World Cup bid, has shown the right attitude after being forced to stay with the Welsh province.

The Tongan born 24-year-old’s bid for a release from his contract after an approach was made by English Premiership club Bath has been something of a saga since Wales’ narrow quarter-final defeat at the hands of South Africa.

Both Faletau and the financially challenged Dragons, who stood to pick up a £150,000 transfer fee as well as saving on his substantial wages, had indicated their willingness for the deal to go ahead.

However the Welsh Rugby Union held its nerve in sticking to the principles that lie behind its new agreement with the provinces in seeking to maintain standards on the domestic front and have control over players’ schedules and refused him permission.

That could potentially have resulted in a petulant response from Faletua, but every indication is that he understood both the efforts made on his behalf by the Dragons and the reason behind the WRU policy, who have now bought themselves time to come up with an attractive enough package to keep him in Wales.

The news that Finn Russell, whose performances for Scotland this year will have seen his stock rise, has signed a new three year deal with Glasgow Warriors should be seen in similar vein in terms of the domestic scene.

Bad Day

For those of us hoping that the way in which the emerging nations have performed at this World Cup will make a difference in the years between this tournament and the next one in 2019 if the analysis of Jebb Sinclair, Canada’s back-row forward proves accurate.

One of many individual players whose sporting career has been transformed by representing a Tier Two side on the international stage, he is now playing for London Irish in the English Premiership.

However he believes that his national side and others at the same level continue to be ill-served by the sport as a whole.

Four years ago in New Zealand it was exactly the same argument but nothing has changed,” he told the BBC website.

“Everyone went on a campaign after the 2011 World Cup and were tweeting and writing articles about it, but once again it all faded away.”

His side having failed to register a win at this tournament he expressed the hope that there will be an improvement in their fixture list in the next few seasons.

“We played Scotland two summers ago and Ireland before that, but that was during a British Lions tour when they weren’t at full strength. If we get two or three of those games a year you would notice drastic improvements,” he reckoned.