Rugby Blues

The rugby season just seems to go on and on although for us Pooler fans it has been over for some time. It was very stop start but I did enjoy the paltry amount of rugby played. Once again congratulations to Bargoed for winning the Championship and we look forward to locking horns next season. From an overall a Welsh perspective though, things seem to go from bad to worse.

At international level Wales had a very poor 6 Nations which ended in the ignominy of a home defeat by Italy. They now face the daunting prospect of a summer tour to South Africa. I hear that Wayne Pivac & co have “lost the dressing room”. It is just as well that he has used up enough players to fill three dressing rooms then. The Welsh public certainly seem completely baffled by his selection policy where one minute a player is deemed world class only for a few days later to be discarded. A tour to the home of the current world champions does seem rather foolhardy at the moment. Only on Saturday evening I saw the potential Wales starting front five shunted back in the scrum while playing for the Ospreys against the Bulls. I can only hope that the Wales management team know what they are doing as it is not very obvious to this observer. There was little encouragement at under 20 level either where the team performed equally poorly.

At regional level it has been a very barren season for all the Welsh regions. They just don’t seem to be competitive any more despite the WRU “encouraging” most of the Welsh test players to play in Wales. On Friday there was a home defeat for the Ospreys by the Bulls coupled with a really embarrassing bollocking for Cardiff in Treviso. This was followed up by home defeats for the Scarlets and Dragons by South African opposition on Saturday. This means that none of the regions have finished in the top half of the URC table something that would be unheard of only a few years ago. “Not enough cash,” comes the bleat but this no excuse for poor attitude on the field.

So what are we going to do? Reducing the number of regions to three has of course come back on the agenda. As I have said in a previous post, in my experience (best part of 40 years in the steel industry) cutbacks only lead to more cutbacks and never to future growth. Without question it will reduce the number of players and spectators. Bringing back Welsh players playing outside Wales to Wales is hardly going to help as they turn out for their region infrequently while commanding a hefty wage.  There surely has to be a way of organising and marketing the game so that it better includes the whole swathes of Wales north of the M4 – how do the Irish manage it, how do they do it in New Zealand? I like to believe that the Welsh nation is still passionately interested in rugby but I fear that the love affair is waning fast. It is far easier to half watch the games on telly while playing with the i pad than to head off for an inconvenient journey for a late kick off to watch a disappointing outcome. The current cost of living pressures are hardly going to help the situation. Somehow we must make four regions/clubs work financially otherwise the game at pro level will shrivel on the vine.

The game at community level is also in disarray with the constant tinkering with the league structure. The season has been disrupted by Covid it is true but the number of unfulfilled fixtures for other reasons has become a worrying trend. I may be biased but I find that rugby at Premiership and Championship level has been competitive and most enjoyable to watch. While the skill levels are not the highest, there are no enormous egos and the players give their all and they do kick off at 2.30 on a Saturday afternoon for the most part. There is also the jeopardy of promotion and relegation (sometimes!) which adds interest. Again, there is talk of reducing the size of the Premiership to improve the standard – yet more negativity.

Can we please put the future of Welsh rugby in the hands of someone with a positive outlook who is likely to stay until things get better before it is too late. Wales is synonymous with rugby to the rest of the world yet we cannot seem to capitalise on the strength of our brand. 

The Season Limps to a Close

 

The Championship season has limped to a conclusion amidst a flurry of cancelled fixtures. The WRU has decided that no points will be awarded if fixtures are not fulfilled as is normal practice. This means that Bargoed are crowned champions and congratulations to them. What should have been a closely fought battle at the end of the season has turned into a damp squib. I think that the defeat that Pontypool suffered at the hands of Bargoed makes them deserved champions. It is just a real shame that we could not have rounded off the season with the matches against Ystalyfera (original match abandoned due to a serious injury) and Beddau ( not prepared to play).

 

 

Bargoed                                  13        12        0          1          56

Neath                                      13        11        0          2          53

Pontypool                                11        9          0          2          46

Bedwas                                   12        9          0          3          41

Narberth                                  12        7          0          5          35

Cardiff Met                               13        7          0          6          34

Cross Keys                              11        5          0          6          26

Maesteg Quins                        12        5          0          7          25

Ystrad Rhondda                      10        4          0          6          19

Glamorgan Wanderers            12        4          0          8          18

Trebanos                                 10        3          0          7          13

Tata Steel                                12        1          0          11        8

Ystalyfera                                 8          1          0          7          7

Beddau                                     9          1          0          8          5  

 

There is much turmoil in Welsh rugby with the suggestion that the number of regions should be reduced from four to three. Having worked in the steel industry and watched the decline of it in Wales, it seems to me that if we are not careful rugby will follow in its footsteps. I know rugby is not exactly an industry but we seem to be treating it as such. Rugby is much more about emotion as it is actually a game. Professionalism has done it few favours.

.I wrote this piece almost exactly ten years ago. I reread it to check what I had written and what had changed since. Sadly it seems not a lot has changed!

 

So the WRU are worried about falling attendances at Rugby matches. It should come as no surprise to them because no thought has been given to the person who braves the elements and actually wants to watch a game in the flesh.

At the international level, admission prices have soared and the average rugby fan does not think it is a bargain to have to travel on overcrowded trains or pay exorbitant car parking fees to mix with the drunken hordes that gather in Cardiff. As a debenture holder, I still attend every home match but, rugby apart, the enjoyment is waning. It is evident to me that the people who actually watch rugby at club level and have attempted to understand the ever more complicated laws of the game are in the minority. This is evidenced by the shouting and bawling of absurd comments often using foul language. On top of this a large proportion of the match is taken up either letting people pass with trays of drink or inevitably making a trip to empty overflowing bladders. The WRU would argue that they still manage to fill the ground for most matches so why worry.

            At the regional level, attendances are generally lower than English Premiership and in Irish Provinces and the majority of games take place in cavernous stadia with little atmosphere. It is a wonder that the TV companies do not feel the need to dub on canned crowd noise. We have ended up with four regional franchises that are divided into two pairs with stadia that are only separated by about ten miles. The games are played on an ever-changing mixture of days and kick off times to suit the TV and of course virtually all are televised live. Most fans I talk to would prefer to plan their lives around attending a rugby match on a Saturday afternoon. The concentrated nature of the locations of the regional teams and their reluctance to travel to play in other parts of their region means that the regional teams are restricting their fan-base. With games televised, high admission prices, rising fuel costs and limited parking it is no wonder that fans are quite content to watch at home or in the local pub. If this was not bad enough, two of the regions are based in soccer dominated cities where they will always come a poor second in terms of attendances. One of the joys of attending rugby matches was the chance to mingle with opposition fans but away attendance has also dwindled with the RaboDirect Pro League.