6 reasons why Welsh rugby is broken

Absolutely outstanding article tackling the deep problems in Welsh rugby. Many of these were discussed at my recent end of season Welsh rugby district dinner evening. Ardderchog!

How do you fix it then? There are no solutions provided by the author in this article. Also it's really long and quite boring and I had to laugh at the idea of the M4 being some kind of untraversable barrier.

Is the elephant in the room, rugby is no longer the sport of choice either to watch or play? On a small but annoying area which keeps me away is the " necessity " of playing "music" at every break in play. Scarlets are you listening!!?

Why not answer some of the questions about your article posted on; http://nugwlad.freeforums.net/thread/4441/more-powell Would be interesting... if of course you can answer them and debate.

Good article, everything about rugby in Wales just feels stale ATM. I would love to see them go the FAW route and do some interesting marketing and make better use of the Welsh language. At the risk of sounding churlish, I would also love to see them ditch the three feathers and replace them with a more modern, positive Welsh symbol. New kit in the autumn, perfect chance, I won't hold my breathe.

Just remember when the M4 Relief road is built there will be a region north of it

We'll probably never know whether the moffet plan for regional rugby was the right way for the domestic game in wales to go - tho the architect himself had some interesting things to say on it last year http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/david-moffetts-stunning-admission-regional-11709056. But i guess we are where we are and there's no way of going back to the old club structure which welsh rugby was based upon. But certainly it's been sad to see previously great historic clubs like swansea, neath, bridgend and pontypridd reduced to their current status scrambling around in the in front of a few hundred people in the welsh premier league. But the chief problem of regional rugby in wales has been that we er.....dont actually have 'regional' rugby. We had the forced marriage of neath and swansea, which to the great credit of all parties involved has led to the emergence in the shape of the ospreys of a meaningful and identifiable region. But then we've had 3 regions which have been little more than extensions of newport, llanelli and cardiff rfc respectively. I do chuckle every time the likes of gareth edwards or phil bennett or Emyr Lewis are interviewed at half time during televised blues or scarlets games in the pro 12. Wonderful players tho they were messrs edwards, bennett and lewis have nothing to do with the pro 12 teams the blues or the scarlets - these are entirely new entities created long after they hung up their boots. But of course we all really know that they arent 'new entities - and the people who support those pro 12 teams are people who supported cardif, newport and llanelli before the advent of regional rugby in wales. This in effect means large swathes of the rugby following population in wales dont have a professional team they feel they can support or go to watch. Throw in the ongoing scandal of the the WRU's neglect of professional rugby in north wales and its not hard to see why the domestic game in wales is drifting and crowds and interest are declining. Yes it can probably sustain itself with tv money but how sustainable is professional rugby in wales in the long term when so few people across wales are watching it? And how many young people will want to pursue a rugby career when the domestic game is so unattractive? And if young players stop coming thru the future for our national team will be bleak indeed. One response of the geniuses at the WRU has been to try and punish professional sports people from exercising their right to earn a living outside wales and threaten them with exclusion from the wales national team - the so named gatland's law. The irony of a 'law' named after someone who has spent his entire coaching career earming a living outside his own native country seems to have been lost on the idiots behind this move. Furthermore a country like wales with such a small player pool can ill afford to exclude international quality players. Okay a lot of gripes admittedly - sustainable solutions? Well how about the creation of a professional region in the north? This would probably mean losing a region in the south - so how about merging the dragons and the blues to create a glamorgan super region? And how about the regions playing competitive games throughout the geographical areas of wales they are meant to represent and to be developing? The ospreys playing games in neath and aberavon? the dragons playing at pontypool park and ebbw vale? and the blues playing at sardis road and bridgend?

1 - The complaint is that the northern half of the country is disenfranchised from professional rugby. This ignores the fact that before professional rugby there wasn't a significant North Wales based rugby team. This isn't a problem created by pro rugby, it is a reflection of the location of consumers, interest, etc. So by extension the assumption that we are missing out on a financial bonanza from the North is a completely baseless claim that ignores facts and history. 2 - This takes the writers own prejudices and extends them, without any critical thinking, to all rugby fans. Cardiff are supported by people from outside Cardiff, as the geographical spread of season ticket holders and the public transport use on match days will attest to. This entire point has no factual basis, it is simply the author assuming that everyone thinks like him. I am from the valleys. I support Cardiff. I am not alienated or disenfranchised. I choose my pro team. Conversely there is no evidence that some sort of unbadged team will suddenly double it's fanbase due to the previously "alienated" now dying to get involved. The Ospreys crowds are not what they were now they are not so successful, conversely the Scarlets season ticket sales are up after winning the Pro 12. Winning brings fans and interest, it really is that simple. Even the author's beloved Pontypridd have/had tiny crowds during their fallow periods. 3 - This point doesn't make any sense and again, ignores facts. First, Kiwi (and Aus, and SA) "stars" do make their way to the north when they decide that the increased money outweighs their chance of representative honours. I see no reason Welsh stars wouldn't do the same. The Union cannot set the value on a player, the market will do that. While we continue to have a lack of funds in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, compared to the super powered clubs in Eng and Fra, players will move for the higher wages. No central ownership model will resolve this unless the plan is to push the union into massive debt instead of the clubs (see Ireland) or present some sort of plan that would significantly increase union revenues. Or perhaps the Kiwi model of being 1000s of miles away from the money to at least slow down the tide, can we move Wales away from England? 4 - There are not actually any facts in this section to even argue with. Baseless accusations of trust, or lack of (depending on which model he is talking about). It's just nonsense. 5 - This is clearly why England are also struggling on the world rugby ... oh .... This is just a nonsense reason now, run out of gas at point 3, clearly. 6 - "obvious non-alignment". Obvious is often used as a screen by those who actually have no evidence or facts, just a prejudice. This pseudo-management-speak has nothing to contribute. It means nothing and has no tangible impact. As for the summary - so the great hope of Welsh rugby is to find more tenants in financial dire straits so they can be turfed out of their valuable city centre properties, promises can be made and instantly broken (local suppliers) and second rate cast offs can be signed to "transform" the playing side. Brilliant. I can't wait.

NZ rugby will be sustained by the recent Lions tour for a while longer, but is, itself, out of necessity, moving away from the model espoused here. The loss of SA TV money to SuperRugby and the financial pulling power of French and English clubs will destabilise NZ rugby in the years ahead, so greater private investment is being sought to keep the All Blacks afloat (sound familiar?). Advocating the NZ model for Wales (or, indeed, anywhere but New Zealand) is like prescribing 'a course of leeches' for any and every malady. Whatever issues Welsh rugby has - and a number are down to irreversible, largely unavoidable historical factors - they will not be solved by vandalising what platform we have for the sake of the perennially professionally disenfranchised and bitter complainants. Notably, no solutions are offered here (ignoring the irrelevant references to New Zealand), but none can be as effective as further success on the pitch. And this can be brought about without great deconstruction using a holistic approach, Union partnered with independently-minded, competitive professional teams - lest we forget, this has brought about a relatively high degree of success in domestic and international Test competitions in recent years, and the potential is clearly there to perform even better when the divisive elements are ignored. In fact, it's already beginning to happen, with the best constructive relationship between WRU and pro teams for many a decade. We should build positively on what we have - success, belief, engagement and the resources for further steps will surely result.

A very good summary of a number of the very difficult problems that 'the powers that be' cannot seem to resolve. I cannot help feeling that things will get worse before they get better. But Welsh rugby cannot go on like this at the regions/'super' clubs.

Having moved to New Zealand in 1993, it has been very sad to see how Welsh rugby has failed to adapt to professional rugby. If it was decided that 4 teams were the affordable number of Welsh teams, I guess it was predictable that Newport, Swansea, Llanelli and especially Cardiff would try and take over the system and impose themselves on the rest of Welsh rugby. Screw everybody else was always their attitude, apart from perhaps Swansea. The arrogance runs deep. And entirely predictable that the result would be a dog's dinner of a system. I hope Welsh rugby finally gets its act together, for the natural talent that emerges rather than the undeserving suits and blazers and the fools that got Welsh rugby into this mess. Neath! Neath! Neath!