Welsh rugby down the pan?

la gran siete

not if the WRFU stops its ridiculous behaviour and allows the 4 regions to join English rugby.I would welcome that as it would add a great deal of spice and enrich an already decent league.Maybe the premiership could then be ring fenced and the players would be allowed to take more risks on the field of play

BT Bob

It's a complete shambles - the "power-struggle" between the WRU and Regional Rugby Wales.
From what I've read, it's hard not to side with RRW - how can they plan to retain players when they don't know what competitions they'll be playing in next year and thus how much income from TV and the Union they'll receive?
The Union's response - the suggestion that they'll look at creating 3 new "regions" and allow them to play in next year's competitions is considered as very confrontational - and I'd love to know where they'll play!
And now the WRU has (apparently) suggested they are looking at centrally contracting a number of "top players" and allowing them to play for English clubs.
Some of the supporters'  comments to WRU posts on Facebook and Twitter are pretty vitriolic - there's a real feeling amongst "grass-roots" supporters that the Union is really not interested in the fans' views or opinions.
The crowds that turned out for the 4 "derby" games over Christmas show there's a real appetite for club/regional rugby in Wales. If the "product" is right the supporters will turn up.
I'm old enough to remember the "rebel" season when Cardiff & Swansea played against English clubs for the year - it was terrific.
I watched Marland Yarde on the BTSport Rugby show last week and they asked him about playing against Welsh teams and he said he just wants to play against the best players week-in-week-out so he'd see that as a positive thing (although he had reservations about the number of games increasing, which is valid, IMO).

If there's one positive that's come out of this so far it's the unity of the 4 Regions under the "banner" of RRW.

la gran siete

there is no doubt in my mind that there is an appetite for such encounters and it would go a long way to revive the regions fortunes .There would most likely be a numbers of players crossing the Severn to pursue their careers in one country or the other , George North being but one. Hope it happens but just as  importantly I hope the shambles over Europe is sorted soon as well

tonyrees687

In Wales we dont have regional rugby. We have the 4 most wealthy club share holders that would not be tested on changing names or changing grounds at the expense of all the other clubs and didnt care for anyone else. I say we dont have regional rugby because we have Newport Dragons and Cardiff Blues about 12 miles away from each other and Scarletts and Ospreys even closer. All told its about 60 miles from the farthest clubs apart. Thats not regional thats commuting. If we reduced the clubs to 3 teams and put a team in NW /SW and West Wales  rather than 4 teams within 60 miles of each other ,that would bring bigger crowds to the games. The reason would be , 4 teams condensed into 3 would be more money to go around to keep players in the clubs , bigger crowds to watch the big players. I am shamed to say this because Im a Llanelli boy and supported them since I can remember but I am just supporting a name now. Scarlets /Blues /Dragons and the Ospreys are just companies. All rugby fans love the cross boarder games ,its not far to travel and a british league would make our rugby entertaining.

BT Bob

So, the National side wins its second 6 Nations on the bounce and not one of the 4 Regional sides that make up the bulk of the players in its squad (and the bulk of the series-winning Lions squad) qualify for the last 8 in either European competition.

Dreadful....

BT Bob

Another busy week in the mire that is Welsh Rugby....

Firstly Lee Halfpenny signs for Toulon on a 2-year (with option on a 3rd) deal for 1.5m Euros. He's now been officially renamed Lee Halfmillion.

Next, Alun Wyn Jones turns down offers from France & England to stay with the Ospreys.

Then today Sam Warburton signs the first Central Contract with the WRU and will be "loaned" to Cardiff Blues to play his regional rugby and then relaxed to Wales when required. I doubt he'll be the last...... Apparently, he's not guaranteed a place in the Welsh team - which begs the question what happens if he doesn't get picked!

And, some rugby got played.......

gibbsy

Bring back real rugby. Bring back the Warriors. That was the only 'regional' team that the valley boys really supported. Welcome back to the 'House of Pain'.

BT Bob

My memory is that the valley boys didn't go and support the Warriors because they (well, Leighton Samuels) chose to play at the Brewery Field - even when he put on free coaches from Pontypridd. Wasn't that one of the reasons LS threw his toys out of the pram and caused the Warriors to fold?
We can unite, at least, for the next 6-8 weeks, before reverting to the crazy politics in this game we love!!

gibbsy

eI know Leighton personally from before his expedition into the Warriors. He was a big supporter of Bridgend RFC and poured a fair amount of money into both Bridgend and eventually the Warriors. The Warriors were going to play at both the Brewery Field and Sardis Road, but the House of Pain needed a lot of money poured into the ground to bring it up to professional era quality and Leighton had already started that at the Brewery Field. He wasn't, indeed couldn't keep pouring in the money when the region was struggling to attract other sponsors or benefactors. The big money was always going to be with Llanelli, Cardiff and Swansea/Neath. The Dragons bucked the trend and survived although very few will remember the place that Ebbw Vale played in the Region, now it's simply Newport again.

Interesting Scrum V on last night. Martin Williams seemed to be really worried about Warburton's central contract. Sam has taken a lot of abuse on Twitter and such over his move, citing that he has betrayed the Blues, but I think he has done it for the benefit of Welsh rugby as a whole. Someone had to bite the bullet, for good or for bad, and air the subject once and for all.

As for the 6 Nations, the Irish are calling it Drisogate and want revenge on Gatland. The English are smarting over their drubbing at Cardiff. Going to be a fascinating contest yet again. Can't wait. Bring it on.

Funny enough we took out a BMW for a test drive week before last. Left my details and BMW sent me an email with a free prize draw entry. The one and only prize two VIP tickets to watch England v Wales at HQ. The winners will be chauffer driven to the game, then back home in the 'BMW Chariot, complete with English Rose emblazzened on the side. Now if I win I'm going to hire a dragon outfit for me and a daffodil one for the wife and stick Y Ddraig Goch in the back window.

BT Bob

Hah - that's a cracker!!! Good luck with that prize draw.

I followed the development of the Sam Warburton thing on Twitter over the weekend and, I have to say, I didn't see anything I thought was abusive to him personally. I did see a lot aimed at Roger Lewis for, effectively "bidding" against the Blues for Sam's contract. I understand those were the only 2 offers on the table after Toulon pulled out due to the number of games he wouldn't be available. Similarly, RL and the WRU could force (if that's not too strong a word) Sam to play for any of the regions, it won't necessarily be the Blues.

There's a question mark hanging over this in that RRW have, apparently, an agreement that none of the regions will field a centrally-contracted player without the agreement of the other 3. So, unless the Blues go against that (and Peter Thomas & Richard Holland have publicly been very supported of RRW & the Regions) he could, in theory, end up playing for a Premiership side!!

As ones of my old work-mates from Bristol used to say, "It's all a pile of poo"!!