Story behind Ospreys v Cardiff tunnel bust-up at Principality Stadium …

24/04/2023

Phil Bennett used to tell a tale of how as a 19-year-old skippering Llanelli, he knocked on the door of Neath’s dressing room at The Gnoll for the coin toss.

Out came the formidable and monstrous figure of Brian Thomas, Cambridge-educated but with a ruthless on-pitch streak and a man not averse to the occasional spot of intimidation. That day, Thomas looked as if he had just learned a lorry had reversed over his new car.

Informed that the visitors had come about the coin toss, the big man is said to have growled back: “We’ll kick off and play with the wind in the first half, and if you don’t f*** off we’ll do the same in the second half as well.”

It isn’t clear if anyone argued the point.

There are early psychological points to be won at any coin toss.

Cut to the Principality Stadium on Saturday afternoon and a pre-match tiff between the Ospreys and Cardiff.^[2]

As the teams were waiting to take the field, TV pictures showed skippers Nicky Smith ^[3] and Josh Turnbull talking animatedly. What was being discussed we could not be quite sure, but it didn’t look as if the pair were saying: “Best of luck for the game. We’ll meet for a wine gum or two in the Old Arcade later.”

After the exchanges, Smith walked back to join his team prior to referee Frank Murphy appearing to check with him that he was happy with what had unfolded.

He didn’t look altogether delighted, but what exactly did unfold? It was a disagreement that had its roots in a request from the Ospreys that the time of the coin toss be shifted back 15 minutes to fit in with their warm-up plans, with Cardiff housed at the Arms Park and the unique Judgement Day arrangements meaning their rivals would otherwise have had to make two trips with their captain.

There was apparent agreement on the matter from the United Rugby Championship. The Ospreys felt as the ‘home’ team on the day they should have had priority on the matter.

It was then that the two sides had something of a fall-out.

It isn’t clear if Cardiff had received or replied to the news of the rescheduled toss and they made clear that they were unimpressed with the new arrangements, only for Irish official Murphy to insist the flick of the coin went ahead, with the Ospreys calling correctly.

Still Cardiff continued their protests, arguing that the Ospreys hadn’t been there at the right time, with the Ospreys later learning the URC had awarded the toss to the opposition.

The dispute continued worryingly close to kick off, with Murphy at one point apparently insisting to the two captains they had to sort out the matter there and then.

Cardiff then won a re-toss in the tunnel area. It was a point on the board for them, then, before the action started.

In a tweet, S4C pondered the idea of “a bit of heat in the tunnel”.

It was not on a par with Roy Keane v Patrick Viera’s famous pre-match Premier League spat back in the day.

And the feeling is Brian Thomas would have tried to resolve it by bringing his own brand of diplomacy to the table.

But it made for something different and it underlined how much one percents can mean to teams on derby day, even on the matter of flicking a coin.

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