Tiaan Loots of RGC races in to score try

RGC 1404 battled to a 15-11 victory over Pontypridd in the National Cup final to lift the trophy for the first time at the Principality Stadium.

Tiaan Loots and Ross Davies scored the North Walians' tries, with Jacob Botica kicking five points.

Lewis Williams crossed for Pontypridd while teenager Ben Jones landed two penalties in a tense final.

Earlier Penallta won the Plate final on a try-count and Shane Williams' Amman United took the Bowl.

The two sets of Cup final supporters created a noisy atmosphere with Pontypridd fans enjoying their 12th final while the North Wales newcomers were tasting the experience for the first time.

South African centre Loots' try from Botica's inside pass helped put RGC ten points up in the second quarter.

But Ponty pulled back to 10-8 at the interval as wing Lewis Williams made the most of an opportunist quick throw-in, with opposite number Rhys Williams in the sin-bin.

Jones nudged them ahead with his second penalty on 45 minutes, after veteran player-coach Phil John was harshly yellow-carded for a ruck offence.

But fellow prop Davies was awarded RGC's second try by the TMO eight minutes later, in a pile of bodies on the line.

That proved enough for the team coached by former Wales wing Mark Jones to hold on through a tense scoreless final quarter, and take their first top-flight club honours.

Proud All-Black dad

Botica, son of former New Zealand fly-half Frano, was named man of the match.

"To play in the National Stadium here, it's pretty special, also having my father here, it was a pretty proud moment" he told BBC Wales Sport.

"I'm just glad we got there in the end. we had to dig deep in the last ten minutes and grind it out for the full eighty against a tough Ponty side who've been here many times.

"(My father) just said to soak it up in the warm-up, walking around, then as soon as the boots go on it's game-time and just focus then, go out and give it my all.

"He was up in one of the boxes and he's very pleased, hopefully I made him proud."

Media playback is not supported on this device Shane Williams reflects on his Principality Stadium experience

Penallta, Amman United enjoy success

The second-tier Plate trophy went to Penallta on a 2-1 try-count after a 16-16 draw with battling Ystalyfera, who had flanker Jesse Patton sent off after 20 minutes.

Maxfield George's 79th-minute corner try for the Pitmen was decisive after Joe Scrivens' two early penalties and a Corey Tucker try.

Steffan Castle kicked 11 points for their Swansea Valley opponents, who were also awarded a penalty try.

Former Wales wing Shane Williams scored the opening try and had a hand in three others as Amman United beat Caerphilly 43-31 in the third-tier Bowl, with scrum-half Joel Foster kicking 23 points.</s>Pontypridd are bracing themselves for a northern whirlwind when they face RGC 1404 in an historic WRU National Cup Final at the Principality Stadium on Sunday.

It’s Ponty’s 12th appearance and they have lifted the trophy on six occasions but the Sardis Road outfit are expecting a humdinger of a match against first-time finalists RGC.

Pontypridd captain Chris Dicomidis, said: “I think it will be a good, open and expansive game because both teams like to play an attacking brand of rugby.

“RGC have got a quick team and they beat us convincingly at Colwyn Bay in the Premiership. They have got a good midfield and two wingers who are sharp and can score tries from anywhere.

“With everything that’s gone on on and off the field at Ponty, to be in a cup final and third in the league, we’d have bitten your hand off.

“We have got to be confident in our ability because we have been here before. Both teams will bring loads of fans and it should be a tremendous occasion.”

The north Wales region was formed by the WRU in 2008 and only entered the National League structure five years ago but have flown up the divisions and are in the top tier of the Premiership in their inaugural season at that level.

Utility back Carwyn Ap Myrddin, who walks five miles a day in his job as a warden on Wales’ highest mountain Snowdon, said: “One of our aims at the beginning of the season was to go for the Cup because we know, on our day we can play and compete with anyone.

“It’s a dream come true this week. There’s a few like me who have been here from the start in Division One East. We still talk about those days now and again and reminisce.

“It’s been great, the progress we have made. There’s been some tough days along the way as well but it’s worth it for a big day out in Cardiff.

“We have backed ourselves and we are confident, which is something we need to be. We have got faith in ourselves as a team.

“That’s the main thing, we are a team, not a bunch of individuals. We group together and play as a team. I’ve always loved following the Welsh Cup so, to be part of a big day like that, is quite special.

“I’m so happy we’re playing a big team like Pontypridd. They have got great supporters and lots of history.

“I was fortunate to play at the Principality Stadium in the Plate Final with Nantconwy. It was great to be part of it but it’s something you always look back but I’d like to have won.

“Having another chance with RGC is great and we’re definitely going there to win it.”

Pontypridd: G Walsh; L Williams, C Lewis, G Williams, D Stuckey; B Jones, W Evans; J Popple, L Belcher, M Auger, L Evans, C Dicomidis (capt), D Davies, H Barnes, R Shellard. Subs: D Blacker, C Hall, B Coombes, H Dowden, A Lawrence, S Moore, K Azziratti, W Davies-King.</s>Canadian men make rugby history, down U.S. Eagles to win Singapore Sevens

The win was Canada’s first on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series circuit</s>Canada made men’s rugby sevens history Sunday, winning a Cup final on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series for the first time.</s>IRVINE Welsh is planing to include Hibs’ Scottish Cup final victory in a future book.

The born author said his team’s Hampden victory over Rangers in May 2016 had made it a great year.

Hibernian broke their Hampden hoodoo after lifting the Scottish Cup trophy for the first time since 1902.

Welsh said the victory also capped a memorable weekend as he’d just filmed a cameo in Trainspotting sequel T2. And the very next day he signed contracts for a TV series on 80s house music culture.

He said: “It’s been a great year. Everybody else has been kind of ‘oh God, Trump, Brexit’, and I’m thinking ‘no, it’s been a great year, what are you talking about? Hibs won the Scottish Cup’.

“The great thing was that weekend I was filming T2 in Glasgow. I had done my scene on the Friday night and then Hibs won the Scottish Cup on the Saturday.

“Then I was off to Ibiza on the Sunday to get the contracts done for a TV series that we’re doing.

“It was like a kind of mad ‘Carlsberg weekend’, but wonderful.

“It was an incredible weekend to remember and I’m sure it will inform some kind of writing at a future date.”</s>As Britain finds itself living through an age of upheaval, Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh is predicting the end of the civilization as we know it.

We spoke to him about Welsh independence, Brexit and why he loves Snapchat .

In the 24 years since Trainspotting was first published a lot has changed.

The Scotland of Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie and Spud is - in large part - gone, or at least moved on.

Even the pubs and clubs which eventually served as backdrop for the book’s adaptation to film have changed, swapping carelessly warm lager for deliberately room temperature microbrews.

For its author Irvine Welsh, it would be fair to say a lot has changed.

The ex-Edinburgh city council worker now lives half a world away in Chicago, describing it as “New York, but without the pricks”.

Beyond Welsh’s fiction the world has changed too.

Brexit, Scottish independence and, Welsh says, a crisis in Western civilization mean society is about to be recast.

It’s from America that Welsh continues to write returning often to the flawed and fatalistic world and characters of his original cult classic.

I speak to Welsh in Cardiff as he arrives for a talk at Waterstones - promoting another book in the Trainspotting world.

Between Trainspotting, Skagboys and Porno, Welsh seems to be creating a kind of Marvel universe of violence, sexual depravity and drug use.

The Blade Artist, out in paperback, sees Trainspotting’s deranged and violent Begbie a changed man - sort of.

With a new life, family and a career as an artist in California, the haunting psychopath of Welsh’s first novel is living it up across the Atlantic.

That is until a murder sees him dragged back to the Edinburgh of his youth.

It’s seems to be a novel about a expat artist who has made a financial success of himself stateside and now finds himself consumed by a distant homeland.

I start our conversation venturing that maybe Blade Artist Begbie is - at least a bit - autobiographical.

“Not really, because I’ve never become as distant from Scotland as he is” says Welsh.

“I’m here every couple of months and I still have my friends here.”

He says he returns to Begbie because of what it kind of stories it lets him tell.

“I think most of what I write are cautionary tales and I think this story lets me explore Begbie.

“All of the changes are quite superficial, which is why it is perfect that he lives in California.

“He’s a character that’s torn apart between his new life and what he’s tried to become and the violence that part of him.”

“I keep coming back Trainspotting character because of the relationships I have with them. I kind of get to know them.”

Old readers won’t be surprised to find Welsh’s pessimism and dark humour continue in Blade Artist, forcing dark and guilty chuckles from you as you read.

But our conversation reveals him as a political optimist, with an almost utopian view of the future.

Even a quick glance at Welsh’s twitter feed reveals this tension.

Mixed between hopeful message in support of one of his many political causes are tweets pouring ire on those he disagrees with.

Even his views on social media are mixed.

“The problem is social media is just nonsense and people shouting and one another,” Welsh says.

“It’s just people talking shite and saying that my football team is better than your football team.

“But it’s also this great source of articles, if you can find and follow the right people.

Welsh also thinks that social media is helping to create new and exciting art forms.

“Look at Grime,” he says, “it’s the first indigenous form of youth culture since punk and it found its space online.”

Welsh’s bipolar enthusiasm for Twitter is matched by genuine fascination by some of social media’s latest offerings.

“I love Snapchat, I just think it’s a fascinating way for people to tell stories.

“I’m not a huge user myself, which might be because of my age but I think it’s quite exciting.

“But I you won’t find me on Facebook, it’s just a load of daft nonsense.

“It’s people pretending their lives are great and all speaking in the same voice of a bland game show host.

Of all of Welsh activism none has been more constant than his support of Scottish independence.

But have his views changed from those he put in the words of Renton in Trainspotting?

“We are colonised by wankers. We can’t even pick a decent, vibrant healthy society to be colonised by,” says Welsh’s protagonist.

“The problem for the UK is that it doesn’t work for the working class anywhere here.

“I can’t think of a time when the working class of Scotland were able to make things better for the working class in Wales or England.

“But separately I think we could do a lot of good for ourselves and each other.

“A kind of federalist arrangement between the Welsh, Irish, English and Scots, where each knows their own identity is something I would hope to see.

“England should England, Wales should be Wales, free of the shackles of Britishness.

“The problem is the English don’t know themselves, their identity has been wrapped up in Britain and imperialism, so that will take some time to change.”

Welsh is hopeful that a second independence will result in Scotland leaving the UK, and doesn’t think it’s impossible Wales could follow suit.

“I think you’ve seen Plaid make a couple of big moves, but they are yet to have the same break that the SNP have.

“They haven’t replaced Labour here in the same way that the SNP have in Scotland - - where they are just a shell of old people.

“But I don’t think it is impossible, I’ve been impressed with Leanne Wood and they’ve put themselves on the right side of a lot of issues.

But Welsh’s radicalism isn’t limited to the constitution of the United Kingdom, he thinks the writing’s on the wall for the world order itself.

“We’re living through an existential crisis in our society,” he tells me.

“It’s because the way we organise the world is changing, totally and utterly.

“For the last 200 years we’ve lived in a society organised by capitalism and it created a clear and well defined hierarchy - and that is breaking down.”

But this isn’t, despite first impressions, an undergraduate Marxism seminar.

Welsh believes that we’re moving away from a consumerist society to a ‘conceptualist’ one - where new ideas shape the ways we live our lives.

The convulsions of this change - Welsh argues - can be seen all around us, in the elections of Donald Trump and Brexit.

“Privileged people are seeing a decline in their power and influence like they have never experienced,” he says.

“They now find themselves closer to the working class people, the women that they’ve ruled over for all these years and they are scared.

“For the working classes and the marginalised the decline or work as we’ve come to know it means we can recast the world.

“So people won’t have to work to live anymore, we could do anything.

“We could sit around and take drugs in an anarchist utopia if we wanted,” he says wryly.

As he blurts out concepts like Paul Mason on speed it’s not exactly easy to keep pace with Welsh’s frantic thoughts.

“That hierarchy that defined who got heard and who got to tell stories is breaking down, so people tell their own stories and it will be less male, and less white and less imperialistic,” he says.

As a writer he started his career by humanising a group put on the margins of polite society - heroin addicts - but he doesn’t think the future will need writers like him to do it.

The Blade Artist is now available in paperback published by Random House.</s>Wembley, 1999. With just three minutes left in the last ever Five Nations match, and with England leading 31-25, Wales win a line-out.

Ball won, Scott Quinnell feeds it to Scott Gibbs 30 metres out.

Leaving a succession of floundering English players in his wake, Gibbs powers over for a converted try, handing Wales a famous victory and depriving England of the Grand Slam.

Voted the greatest try in Welsh rugby history, a sound-free video clip of the action was played to Snowdonia’s young farmers this week in a novel YFC competition.

They were asked to provide commentary, recalling players’ names, describing the sequence of events and adding in their own observational humour**.

With sport the theme of this year’s county rallies in Wales, the competition was devised as a counterpoint to traditional livestock and fencing events.

Eryri YFC organiser Eleri Evans sourced several sports videos from YouTube and played them to six two-man teams in a darkened room at Coleg Glynllifon, near Caernarfon.

“The commentary was all pretty good,” said Eleri.

“We organised the competition ahead of the rally so that we didn’t have to worry about finding electricity in an old farm shed.”

Under the watchful eye of judge Llion Hughes of Porthmadog, the Llanrwst YFC duo of Huw Arfon and Rhodri Sion emerged triumphant with their own distinctive brand of commentary.

A close second were Dewi Pierce and Bryn Roberts, of Caernarfon YFC, with Tudur Parry and Dafydd Williams, of Dyffryn Madog YFC, in third spot.

“I didn’t think we would have much luck really,” admitted Huw Arfon from the winning Llanrwst team.

“But it was a great competition to take part in and I enjoyed taking part with my teammate Rhodri.”

Points gained from the competition will be added to the scores at the county rally, which takes place at Goetre farm, Efailnewydd, on May 27. The winners will represent Eryri YFC in the all-Wales finals at the Royal Welsh Show in July.

** In case you were wondering, the lineout call was "Trifecta", the catcher was Chris Wyatt, and the ball was fed out to Scott Gibbs via Rob Howley and Scott Quinnell. It was the first time Wales had ever tried this particular move. But of course you knew all that already....
in rugby union, RGC 1404 win the Welsh SWALEC National Cup for the first time in their short history (BBC News)