Welsh rugby down the pan?

BT Bob

I see Gatland's announced the team for the Italy match......
Now, Rhys Priestland??????? He gets some real flak on Twitter & FB (wholly unacceptable, IMO).

BT Bob

The RaboDirect Pro 12 have "out-WRU"'d the WRU in press-release nonsense.....

WRU "statement" - Newsroom | Welsh Rugby Union | Official Website : WRU Statement

Rabo "statement" - RaboDirectPRO12 : News : Celtic Rugby Statement on the future of Italian teams in the PRO12

BT Bob

Big day coming up Sunday - Judgement Day II at the Millennium Stadium.

Cardiff Blues v Scarlets at 2.00, followed by The Dragons v Ospreys. There's a lot riding on these games for all 4 sides, so they should be up for it.

Let's hope the fact that it's Easter Sunday doesn't keep the fans away - if they don't shift at least 40,000 tickets I think it'll be a bit of a failure on the WRU's part.

All the Blues & Dragons season ticket holders get in free as it's their "home" games, so it'll interesting to see how it pans out.

la gran siete

judgement day here is tomorrow when Quins meet Tigers in a must win game .Much as admire the Tigers I would simply hate them to win the premiership again

la gran siete

Cardiff Blues v Scarlets and two players sent off .Obviously not much love lost between those two sides

BT Bob

It was a great match (if you're a Blues supporter).

It was good to see some dog in the players - if you can't get up for a derby match you might as well give up.

Liam Williams was yellow-carded in the first-half for taking out Alex Cuthbert in the air, then later in the game Robin Copeland decided (for reasons best know to himself) to "ruck" Williams' head in a  ruck - the ref called advantage, then Williams got up and retaliated by punching Copeland. Straight red for Copeland and a yellow for Williams, "upgraded" to red as it was the second yellow.

Crowd was 30,000-ish. I can't help feeling it would have been higher had it been yesterday.

la gran siete

with the current mess that is Welsh rugby , it may not be and idea for up and coming youngsters hoping to make a breakthrough in the principality, to instead follow Owen Williams example and cross the Severn bridge where there are 12 clubs who could well be interested in signing them and pay them more than they receive at the moment. Leicester Tigers' Richard Cockerill on search for next Owen Williams | Rugby Union | Sport | Daily Express

BT Bob

Squads announced for Probables v Possibles match at the end of the month. Owen Williams is included as is Gav-lar Henson!!

I believe a nu,her of Welsh players will not be released by their Clubs in England & France if they are needed. The agreement that "encourages" Clubs to release players for International duty doesn't cover trial matches, apparently.

BT Bob

So - here's a sorry tale...
BBC Wales own the TV rights to broadcast "grass-roots" rugby in Wales. For some sad reason, they choose not to make use of these and almost never give any airtime to the grass-roots matches or clubs.

So, a small team of genuine rugby fans set up Inside Welsh Rugby TV (@IWRTV) and have made a few shows available on Youtube. These have included a report on a local club match, interviews with people involved in the game at all levels and some intelligent discussions about rugby in Wales, where it is, how it got there and where it's going...

The BBC & WRU have told them they are no longer allowed to broadcast footage from any matches, unless they pay for the rights to do so - in the region of £200,000!

IWRTV - YouTube

Shame - they are very promising.

la gran siete

out of oder IMO .International duty should always come first whether trail matches or not