Tom Shanklin Interview: Stopping Benetton at source, ‘world-class’ Morgan key for Ospreys, Dragons face tough French test
Despite all three Welsh regions being away from home, Shanklin believes one or two could reach the last eight.
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With a bumper weekend of Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup knockout matches approaching, there will be plenty of action during the Round of 16.
In Wales, three teams have progressed to the knockout stages of the Challenge Cup, with all of them facing away ties.
Talking Rugby Union caught up with former Wales centre Tom Shanklin to hear his thoughts on those three fixtures involving the Welsh regions.
Cardiff look to keep dangerous Onisi Ratave quiet
Cardiff head to Italy to face Benetton on Saturday afternoon, a side that has caused plenty of damage against Welsh teams so far in 2026.
A 15-15 draw against the Dragons in February was sandwiched between wins against the Men of Gwent [74-21] and the Ospreys [31-19] in the United Rugby Championship.
Shanklin believes a quarter-final for Cardiff would be considered a good result for the Blue and Blacks, despite being in the play-off hunt in the URC.
"I don’t think they’re going to win the Challenge Cup, but I certainly think they could compete in the latter stages," Shanklin told TRU.
"Benetton away isn’t impossible at all. They’ve done it before [most recently in 2021] and then it’s either Munster or Exeter in the next round, so they can certainly compete in both.
"I would say their focus is probably more on the URC and finishing in the top eight to make sure they qualify for the Champions Cup again and reach the knockout stages of the URC, but they will be taking it seriously.
"If they can get to a quarter-final, that would be deemed a success at the moment for any Welsh team."
Benetton and Fijian winger Onisi Ratave has been in fine form against Welsh clubs, scoring five tries in three matches during the calendar year.
Shanklin believes Cardiff will have to stop the Italian side 'at source' to prevent the ball going wide to the powerful wing.
"They’ve got to stop them up front because Ratave, I don’t know if you saw him against the Ospreys [Ratave scored twice in a 31-19 win], but he was unplayable, he was brilliant," added Shanklin.
"They were able to get outside the Ospreys pretty easily, and what you don’t want is to give Ratave the ball and any space whatsoever.
"So one way of doing that is stopping them at source, not allowing them to get any front-foot ball from the scrum or lineout. The set-piece has to be really solid. I think the forwards have to really front up to stop Benetton.
"Any pick-and-goes, any go-forward, any momentum Benetton get, the ball will be thrown wide to Ratave because that’s their strength.
"You can see what he does. He can just run over people.
"If he’s on the left wing, Mason Grady is likely going to be on the right wing, which does help because you wouldn’t want someone like Tom Bowen to have to manage and try to mark him. He could do it, but you’d rather put someone like Ratave up against someone more like-for-like.
"They’ve got to stop them at source, and they’ve got to bring a load of line speed and not allow Benetton to play in those wide channels like they did against the Ospreys."
Ospreys hope “world-class” Morgan can guide them to win in Ulster
After two disappointing URC results against the aforementioned Benetton and Connacht, the Ospreys will travel to Belfast on Saturday night looking for their first win away at Ulster since 2013.
With a quarter-final exit last season to Lyon, it will be a tricky test for Mark Jones’ side.
"It will be tough over in Belfast against a very decent Ulster team, and we’ve seen Ulster’s progression with how many players they’ve had in the Ireland team recently," said Shanklin, who will be part of the Premier Sports team on Saturday alongside Stephen Ferris and Mark Robson for Ulster v Ospreys at 7:50pm, live on Premier Sports 1 & Premier Sports Rugby.
"They were pretty disappointing against Benetton, not really like the Ospreys we’re used to. I think defensively they were quite poor.
“But I saw a lot of promise against Connacht [21-14 defeat], I really did. Even though conditions weren’t great, they never are over in Galway, they were in that game all the way through.
"Connacht managed to take their chances more so than the Ospreys, but the Ospreys had opportunities. They had plenty of opportunities to score."
In their loss to Benetton last month, Ospreys did welcome back Jac Morgan from a shoulder injury, and he’ll be hoping to end his tenure at the club on a high note before he moves to Gloucester.
"He was fantastic at the weekend," added Shanklin. "I mean, he got a yellow card and Connacht scored during that period, but the guy is world-class and you can see that.
"To have such a long break - he came off the bench the week before - he started against Connacht and didn’t look out of place at all.
"He looked fit, he looked strong, he was good over the ball and had a couple of nice turnovers. He was aggressive and good in his carries.
"And he’s a leader as well. I think at the moment Welsh rugby probably doesn’t have many natural leaders like him, and if you can get anyone like that on the field for as long as possible, then it’s got to be a plus."
Standing in Morgan’s way will be an Ulster side that includes Irish centre Stuart McCloskey, who was in fine form during the Guinness Six Nations.
"He’s full of confidence at the moment," Shanklin said of McCloskey.
"Maybe he’s just had more of a chance because of injuries, and Bundee Aki was obviously banned as well, so he’s had a proper chance in the Ireland shirt and seems to be playing full of confidence.
"He’s different to what we’re probably used to seeing in a 12 at the moment, your Bundee Aki’s or Tuipulotu’s, because he’s so tall and rangy.
"It is difficult, it’s really difficult, because he’s got that offload and that offload can destroy teams.
"The key is just trying to knock him down straight away, and that might mean a two-man tackle and being able to stop the offload, but that’s a job they’re going to have to do, especially when you’ve more than likely got Dan Edwards and Keiran Williams at 10 and 12.
"That is going to be a tough job because they’re not the same height as someone like McCloskey, so they will try to get him down early and stop those offloading channels so he can’t get the ball away.
"It’s difficult, but teams have managed it before. They’ve got to get him down early."
Dragons face “toughest” Welsh tie
Following an encouraging tour of South Africa over the last two weeks, the Dragons head to Paris on Sunday to face Stade Français.
The Parisian club - who sit third in the Top 14 - are in fine domestic form, scoring 40 points in their last two league matches, including a thumping 64-20 win over Clermont last Sunday. S
Shanklin admits it could be a tough test for Filo Tiatia’s squad.
"Stade Français will be tough, and I can’t see Dragons winning," admitted Shanklin.
"I hope they’re competitive and I hope they keep their momentum going until the end of the season.
"We’ve got to be wary of expectations for them. Of course, they’ll want to go there with a winning mentality, but I think if they put Stade under pressure, if they can score tries and stay in the game, then for me that’s a pretty decent result because it’s not like-for-like in terms of budgets and players.
"There’s got to be a realisation of where we are in terms of finances compared to the French league.
"If they’re competitive, if they can come away with positives. If they could score two or three tries and stay in the game for as long as possible, then I think the majority of people will be happy with that because that’s the toughest fixture out of all of the Welsh teams."
Shanklin’s game to watch and surprise result
With eight Champions Cup ties to watch this weekend, Shanklin looked towards an all-URC clash between Glasgow Warriors and the Bulls as his game to watch.
"There are a few, but I think Glasgow vs Bulls will be a big game," said Shanklin.
"I think Glasgow have been excellent this year, but I’m not sure they’re going to win Europe. However, they will be competitive, so I’m really looking forward to that. It will be interesting to see what Bulls team comes over as well.
“Bath vs Saracens will be good, and also Bordeaux against Leicester - that’s mostly the heavyweights. But the top one I’ll be watching will be Glasgow vs Bulls. I’m a big Glasgow fan!
"If I was going to go for a dark horse win, I’m going to say Stormers might beat Toulon!”
Knockout Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup rugby is live on Premier Sports this Easter weekend with quarter-final places at stake. Tom Shanklin is part of the Premier Sports team bringing every minute of the drama from the biggest international club rugby games live across the UK and Ireland. Visit premiersports.com to join in from just £11.99 a month @PremSports.tv
