The Welsh Way - an alternative to the regions?

Another interesting article on the future of Welsh rugby, time for rugby in Wales to believe in its capability again!

Seems another rose-tinted article gets coverage on NC. This is 2025. The game has moved on. Every other country has moved on. This article suggests we go back to a parochial setup, that may well satisfy the bloodlust of the die-hard club fan, but will do very little for the national side. Pro sides need to pay pro salaries. We'd end up with cut-price semi-pros, with our best tempted further afield - possibly to find an English or Irish grandparent they never knew about.

I could not agree more with this article. Sadly, as a Pontypridd fan, I only started watching rugby just as the club system was being torn apart and the "regions" were being formed. The last professional club game I went to see was Ponty beating Llanelli in the Swalec Cup final. I then watched semi pro rugby for years before moving away. As much as I still loved it, it just isn't the same. 20+ years on, I long for the professional club system to return. No matter how the WRU mold the existing or new "regions", as the article states, it is not going to capture the interest of the Welsh public. I don't see any system working long-term, other than a return to clubs. A well managed domestic league could bring in huge benefits to our communities, many of which are on their knees. I remember as a child in school on a Monday morning we'd of course be talking about the premier league football results, but we'd also be talking about the Welsh rugby club results. Amongst us Pontypridd fans, there were also Cardiff, Neath and Llanelli fans. I can't comment on what sports school kids in Wales would be talking about now, but I just cannot imagine that anywhere near as many would be talking about regional rugby results. I would love to see a 10 (or possibly 12) team league (including relegation) with the likes of Cardiff, Pontypridd, Neath, Swansea, Llanelli, Bridgend, Pontypool, Ebbw Vale, Aberafan as well as the likes of RGC1404, Merthyr, Carmarthen etc who have performed very well in the semi pro era. I would rather watch any of these matches (either in person or on telly), than anything the URC has to offer. Look at how strong the French league is. Strong local clubs which generate strong local support and investment. That's the model we should be trying to emulate. Yes ther e is more money and a larger population in France than in Wales, but that shouldn't mean we can't do it on a smaller scale. I can never understand why rugby nations tend to insist on cutting the number of teams rather than expanding. It just alienates more fans. And as a Welsh public, I don't know the reason, but we seem to almost look down on ourselves rather than identify the amazing potential that we have. It's time this changed, but sadly I can see us having to continue with franchise rugby for the foreseeable future, by which time we will have even fewer participants playing and fewer people watching.

You seem to be forgetting that Cardiff made it to the inaugural European final (albeit without English clubs participating), Llanelli (the club) made it to two European semi finals and Ponty made it to the second tier European final (the Parker Pen Shield). Also, all of the players in the early years of regional rugby would have come through the club system. So we had the players, but the management would have been more the issue. Whether Cardiff, Llanelli and Newport insisted on being standalone or not, I imagine regional rugby would have struggled regardless. The URC is not an attractive league. There are very few away fans at games and regular matches against foreign teams doesn't generate the same level of interest as local derbies.

An interesting article, but the problem Rugby faces is the world has completely moved on. Also things were never what they used to be in our memories. Before professionalism, Welsh rugby didn't exist in isolation. The proximity of Bath, Bristol and Gloucester meant a lot of cross-border matches before formal leagues were formed; an Anglo-Welsh competition was backed by a number of Welsh clubs, not just the ones near the border, including Llanelli. Also the Barbarians Easter Tour was a great money spinner for the four clubs who enjoyed that regular visit, especially Penarth. As a pure pragmatist, I believe that the evolution of Welsh football, which enabled our biggest teams to compete in the League of our great rivals, actually worked out to the benefit of Welsh football. Without it Welsh football could have ended up like Northern Ireland, or possibly worse, like Scotland with effectively now just one big team dominating. The irony of it is the Welsh rugby's unspoken truth is that it has come to need England like an addiction; the regular income and interest from the 6 Nations (of which playing, and ideally beating, England is the highlight) is vital to the survival of Welsh Rugby as we know it. If the Welsh football team never played England again it would survive just fine.

I lived for 20 years in the South East of England and for 12 years of that I took my husband to play rugby on Saturdays - rain, shine, hail or snow. I froze at the sidelines alongside whatever other friends, family and rugby fans came along to spend their Saturday at a rugby club somewhere in East Sussex - and we drove miles to play against the different teams who were in the same league, all battling for the right to go up one level.......but mostly battling for pride. They would have had to go up two levels from where they were at for the team to get any money. When I left they were getting close and I hope they get there but, without a penny going in their pockets, they were completely dedicated, passionate, committed to the game. The club was in the grounds of a local comprehensive school and ran youth teams including tag rugby going all the way down to 5/6 year olds (who loved it even though they mostly seemed to be just running around!!) They developed commitment to the club, a bond with teammates, a respect for order and discipline, and a sense of belonging and total support. Lots of kids aged out and found other interests or discovered that perhaps they just weren't good enough for the grown-up game but they usually stayed on as loyal fans. The good ones aged up into the grown-up teams.........and if you moved areas and played against your old team? Well they'd definitely get a dig into you on the pitch for joining "The enemy" but they'd also buy you a drink in the clubhouse after the game to show there's no hard feelings. The whole county had a living, thriving rugby culture that received support (not much, but some nevertheless) from England rugby. The school I taught at used to have a visiting rugby coach come into the school once a year for several years, paid for by English rugby. His whole job was to go to different schools and encourage children to learn good rugby skills. If the WRU carries out its planned amputations then it will be the death of Welsh rugby. Everyone knows it. This isn't a today problem. This is the problem that's been festering for years. Every time they get a set of good players all at the same time they tell themselves "We've got a team" as if all of those people are the same age, will age at the same rate, will get injured at the same rate, will have the same set of family circumstances and health issues. When every day they should have been planning one, two, four, six years into the future for every single person's replacement - even if only to have someone on the bench for if they are out with injuries . Instead they hung on to good players for too long and now they are shoving lots of youngsters in all at once. Those young'uns should have been brought in much more gradually for short periods, always surrounded by experience and broken in slowly. No, we wait until half the team is on its way out and throw all the youngsters in at the deep end leaving the experienced players on the pitch just trying to stem the bleeding! This article might sound like rose-tinted glasses but it actually covers the fundamental truth. We really should be supporting young people into rugby because THAT is how you grow great players. Do you seriously think that a kid living in Aberystwyth is going to take his school rugby seriously if he knows that the nearest "training camp school" he could go to is in Newport or Cardiff? Or that the closest team he could play for once he's old enough is there? He could be the next JPR and he just wouldn't bother. And if he is willing to go to that training school that does currently exist, where is it? England. So he'll go off and play for an English team once he's trained up. The WRU are trying to pretend that this is about cutting overheads and supporting the women's team - they've made a huge deal about supporting the women's team because they want men to blame the women for using up the money. It's "divide and conquer" and I bet the female players have been told to keep their mouths shut about the changes to the men's game if they want to get that money too. They are just being used so that the WRU doesn't have to stand up and say "We are incompetent now and we've been incompetent for decades. Sorry.