Cardiff’s Rhys Shellard has been named Principality Player of the Month for February.

The openside flanker helped Cardiff reach third place in the Premiership with wins over Aberavon and Ebbw Vale last month.

The recipient for the Principality Premiership monthly award is chosen by Premiership coaches and WRU elite performance staff, and the winner receives £100 from Premiership title sponsors Principality Building Society.

Shellard puts his impressive performances of late down to Phil Davies’ recent influence at the capital club. He said, “Since Phil Davies arrived at the club, he has given us the confidence to go out and play rugby - and the open style of play he advocates also suits me down to the ground.

“Phil has brought a professional edge to the set-up and we are now meeting for training three times a week in addition to our individual work.

“The upturn in our results on the field means we now have real ambitions to win the league. We know that if we can keep winning, we have a side that can achieve that goal for the first time since the Premiership began.”

Shellard was in action for Wales at the Hong Kong Sevens this weekend and now travels to Adelaide for the next leg of the IRB Sevens World Series.

He said, “I’ve no doubt that my performances in the Principality Premiership got me noticed and included in the Wales Sevens squad. There have been a lot of changes in the squad since the World Cup win, but there is a still a really good buzz in the camp.

“I’ve been training with the squad all season and it’s great to get a chance on the circuit again. I’ve played for Wales Sevens at the Hong Kong tournament twice already and it’s a fantastic tournament. As a new squad, we were pleased with a lot of our rugby in Hong Kong and now we’re looking to build on that in Adelaide.”

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Risca are hoping the spirit of Ryan Jones will inspire them to follow in his footsteps and reach the Millennium Stadium on SWALEC Cup finals day on May 9.

The Division Four East outfit are one step away from realising their dream having beaten Cardiff University in last weekend’s quarter-finals of the SWALEC Plate.

That victory, 46-28, earned them a place in the semi-final draw, which took place at the Millennium Stadium today (MON). As a result, they will meet fellow Division Four East side Tredegar Ironsides at a neutral venue on the weekend of April 18.

“It will be the biggest day in their careers for our players, and also one of the biggest days in the club’s history, if we can reach the Millennium Stadium,” said Risca secretary John Hayes.

“We are very proud of the fact that current Wales skipper Ryan Jones started his rugby career at Risca, representing our youth side, and our players would love to follow in his footsteps by walking down the tunnel at the Millennium Stadium for a major game.

“But we know there is a lot of work to do before that dream can become a reality. We’ve already played Tredegar Ironsides twice this season and we need to make sure they don’t make it a hat-trick of wins.”

The other semi-final will see two Division Two sides battling it out for the right to play at the home of Welsh rugby - Ammanford representing west Wales and Rhydyfelin, east Wales.

“We are both struggling a little bit near the bottom of our respective divisions at the moment, but maybe a good cup run will kick start a good end to the season,” said Rhydyfelin secretary Chris Fowler.

“To reach the Millennium Stadium would be a very special thing for our club. The oldest player in our team when we beat Mountain Ash last weekend was 25 and all the players had come through our junior ranks.”

In the SWALEC Bowl competition, the draw matched Morriston, of Division Three South West, with Division Five South East’s Pontyclun, while Division Three West’s Lampeter will face Glyncorrwg, of Division Four South West.

The semi-finals in both competitions will be played at neutral venues over the weekend of April 18.

The incentive for Glyncorrwg is to march on the Welsh capital in May for a fourth major final in the club’s 127 year history.

“We’ve been to the old Cardiff Arms Park twice before as a Junior Union side in the Welsh Brewers and Worthington Cup Finals. We lost 18-9 to Llantrisant in 1982, beat Llanishen 16-12 three years later,” said Glyncorrwg president Brian Poulton.

“We also reached the final at the Millennium Stadium in 2003, where we went down 24-20 to Clwb Rygbi. It would be great to get back.”

“Our coaching team of Gareth Thomas, Glan Goodridge, Kirk Bogdun and Kevin Lewis all played for us in one or more of those finals and we’re very much a village club.”

“We’ve been drawn out of the hat away from home in every round of the Bowl, so maybe this is a good omen. We don’t know much about Lampeter, but I’m sure they’ll be as keen as we are to reach the final.”

SWALEC Plate Semi-Finals (Matches to be played on weekend of April 18)
Ammanford v Rhydyfelin
Risca v Tredegar Ironsides

SWALEC Bowl Semi-Finals (Matches to be played on weekend of April 18)
Lampeter v Glyncorrwg
Morriston v Pontyclun

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Three-times champions Swansea have been drawn to play current holders Neath in the semi-finals of the SWALEC Cup.

In the other semi-final Llanelli will tackle Aberavon - with both games to be played on the weekend of 18/19th April.

Neath progressed to the semi-finals by beating Cross Keys 32-31 in the quarter-finals while Llanelli had to fight hard to repel Glamorgan Wanderers 27-20 at Parc y Scarlets.

Swansea overpowered Caerphilly 62-3 but Aberavon had to work considerably harder to beat Newport 20-10.

Llanelli head of rugby Anthony Buchanan is expecting a tough challenge from Aberavon. He said:

“It’s going to be quite a challenge and we look forward to that,” he said immediately after the draw. “It should be an interesting contest because we feel at the moment we are very fortunate to be in the next round as we didn’t play well against Glamorgan Wanderers. But we’re in the hat.”

The draw for the SWALEC Plate and Bowl will be take place at 12:00 noon on Monday, 30 Match

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