Decision Day Down South

 Super Saturday cum Decision Day has come and gone and another marathon on the couch. Rugby overload combined with golf and cycling – Duw it’s hard!

At the end of it all, Ireland and England grabbed series wins against New Zealand and Australia respectively so well done to them. Sadly Wales and Scotland came off second best In South Africa and Argentina respectively.

Even though I have a new slimline plaster on my broken wrist, it is still hard work to type so I will revert to my doggerel.

Decision Day

The Irish started in irresistible form

Then they weathered the All Blacks’ storm

Irish power has been much too much

The All Blacks sadly out of touch

 

Eddie’s men hung in there in tough

Aussie flair was just not enough

There’s now no point in turning up

England already won the next World Cup

 

Well done Wales, you did your best

But it’s Springbok power that won the test

Too many penalties, not enough ball

The Boks on top in scrum and maul

Any win for Wales seemed pie in the sky

So they come back home with heads held high

 

Scotland built a substantial lead

But the Pumas are a feisty breed

Their attitude is, “never say die”

And they took the spoils with a last ditch try

 

Wales made South Africa work really hard with the 30-14 win perhaps a little flattering to the Boks. The late withdrawal of Faletau and Anscombe were big blows it’s true but the forward power of the Boks was the deciding factor. The Welsh backs looked threatening when they had the ball but possession and territory were in short supply. Wales looked tired after three tests in a row while most of the South Africa team had been rested the previous week.

No one gave Wales a ghost of a chance in South Africa so to win one test is a positive outcome. The team selection seems to be settling down and Tommy Reffell looks to have cemented his place.

Well done Wales you are not as bad as the doubters thought you were.

Northern Delights

I am still afflicted by that pesky broken wrist so another shortish blog. The broken wrist is a decent excuse for spending quality time on the couch however. This means I watched all four rugby matches from the Southern Hemisphere. In stark contrast to last Saturday, our boys done good. It was a clean sweep of victories for North over South. Most notable were first ever victories for Ireland in New Zealand and, yes, Wales in South Africa.

As last week, to cut the blog short I am turning to doggerel with some indulgence for Wales. So here we go:

Northern Delights

All Black discipline is not the best,

A rampant Ireland storm the test.

 

England start well, like a runaway train,

Back come Oz but there’s penalty pain.

 

The Boks and Wales are firing blanks,

The viewers are thinking “Rugby no thanks”

With kicks the Boks gain a slender lead.

Minutes left, “Go Wales” the faithful plead.

At last Wales awakens, it’s not all done,

A try and conversion, by jingo they’ve won.

 

A scrappy first half under Argentine skies,

Then Scotland pull clear with some excellent tries.

 

Well Wales pulled off a last ditch 12-13 victory with a try by Adams converted from the touchline by Anscombe. It was a low quality, scrappy test match but who cares Wales have at last won in South Africa. A great defensive performance against what was a bit of a makeshift Springboks outfit with the back row outstanding.

That has levelled up the series but Wales can expect a really tough match next weekend when the World Champions will surely be at full strength. We’ve done it once so why not repeat it.

Come on Wales

A Bard Day for the North

I have rather unfortunately broken my left wrist so typing is very laborious. I sat through four games of international rugby yesterday as the pride of the Northern Hemisphere took on the strength of the Southern Hemisphere. As you will all know by now, it was four defeats out of four for the home nations.

As it is difficult to type I will make this short using (bad) rhyme.

 

Summer Internationals Week 1

 

Ireland start well and think they’re in clover,

But all too soon the All Blacks take over.

 

It should be England’s as the Aussies see red,

But it’s still the home side that leaves them for dead.

 

Yellow card fever and a kick that fails,

The Boks sneak home but well played Wales.

 

Argentinian beef is exceedingly tough,

Scotland try hard but it isn’t enough.

 

For the record Wales, lost 32-29 to South Africa with a last-minute penalty from the Springboks costing a draw. Wales exceeded all expectations and confounded the critics but in the end it was their discipline that tipped the scales against them. A whole lot of positives though after the Italian disaster. I hope Thomas Francis recovers quickly as he took a nasty looking bump.

Hard luck Wales but well done. Let’s go one better next weekend.

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.

The Great Entertainers

A visit to the Cyncoed Campus of Cardiff Met University on a sunny spring day usually means that we can anticipate a high scoring and close game of rugby when the home team host Pontypool. A goodly crowd looked forward to the afternoon’s entertainment.

Things started badly for Pontypool with full back Davies sin binned in the first couple of minutes for a deliberate knock on. Despite being shorthanded Pontypool got the better of the early exchanges and in the eighth minute opened the scoring with a try from Price after sustained pressure in the Cardiff Met twenty two. Jarvis converted and Pooler had opened up a 0-7 lead.

It was now the home team’s turn to attack as they dominated territory and possession. The Pooler defence was made of stern stuff and managed to keep the students at bay despite several close calls. On the half hour Pooler finally managed to break the stranglehold and kicked for the left corner when they were awarded a penalty. A powerful lineout drive saw Hughes touch down for a try that was converted by Jarvis (0-14).

Just before halftime, some good interplay between forwards and backs saw Sweet power through a gap to score near the posts. Jarvis converted and Pooler had a rather flattering 0-21 half time lead against the lively students.

21-0 may seem a substantial lead but, against the students, past experience has shown that they can score quickly if they get some momentum. The game was far from over.

This was borne out when straight from the kick off the students grabbed the ball in their own half and with a couple of passes put McVeigh in for a try. A touchline conversion from Roderick-Evans and Cardiff Met were back in the game (7-21).

Pontypool’s response was immediate with flanker Herbert who was having a great game storming over from thirty metres when he appeared in the three quarters. The conversion from Jarvis restored Pooler’s twenty one point advantage at (7-28) with the bonus point in the bag.

Cardiff Met began to get on top and with their dangerous runners proving a real handful for Pontypool. Herbert was Pooler’s saviour on a number of occasions as he forced turnovers at the breakdown. After about quarter of an hour of the second half the Pooler defence was left spreadeagled by a dazzling fifty metre run by Met left wing Zheng. The try was converted from the touchline and the gap had closed to 14-28.

The Pontypool fans were starting to feel a little nervous as the home side continued to press. Cardiff Met used their bench to inject more energy while Pooler were content to stick with their starting fifteen. As we approached the end of the third quarter, Jarvis penalty put Pontypool more that two scores ahead at 14-31 and gave Pooler some breathing space.

This lead was cut a few minutes later when Met No8 Locke picked up and scored from a five metre scrum. The conversion was successful and it was now 21—31 with a quarter of the game left.  Cue more nail biting as the students continued to look dangerous every time they had the ball.

With around ten minutes to go Pooler hooker Hughes suffered a serious ankle injury and was carried off the field. My best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Finally Pontypool used their bench but a yellow card for Matthews certainly did not help their cause. Time was running out for the students when they attacked down the right wing and approached the Pooler line. Davies made a very timely interception and sprinted down the touchline to beat the chasing Met players and score in the corner. The conversion missed narrowly but this was the final play of an all action game and left the final score at 21-39.

As always this was an entertaining spectacle in ideal conditions. Cardiff Met never know when they are beaten and gave Pooler a scare as they pressed in the second half. Well done to both teams for a great game.

It looks like this will be Pooler’s last game of a strange season. It has been very much stop-start with the effects of Covid affecting it badly. Quite a few teams will not complete their fixtures including Pontypool so the league table is not a true reflection of the strength of the teams. I do think that Bargoed have shown themselves to be the best team with only one loss over the course of the season and a convincing win over Pontypool.

I won’t bring down the shutters on the season just yet as a rearranged fixture might yet be possible although time is running out.

Well done Pooler. We go again!

Player Welfare Must Come First

I have a heavy cold and decided not to make the trip to Ystalyfera to watch Pooler’s latest game. As it turned out, due to extremely unfortunate circumstances, the match was abandoned just before half time with Pooler leading just 0-7. An Ystalyfera player, Arwel Thomas, was badly injured and could not be moved from the pitch until an ambulance arrived. The anticipated wait for the ambulance was several hours so the only sensible course of action was to abandon the match. Players’ welfare should always come first in these circumstances. I wish Arwel all the very best and hope he has a speedy recovery.

There has been much speculation about the make-up of the Premiership from 2023 onwards. It seems that there is a proposal in the offing to reduce the size of the Premiership to just eight or nine clubs – two clubs per region plus one from North Wales. If this is the case, I find the chopping and changing and tinkering with the league structure quite staggering. I have lost count of the number of changes that have been made and sadly Pontypool always seems to come out of them badly.  I always thought that reorganisation should be from the top down or from the bottom up rather than starting in the middle but then what do I know.  I will not comment further until I actually see the proposal apart from to say that a league of eight/nine clubs does not seem to be big enough in a season that lasts eight or nine months.

Next week Pooler are due to visit Cardiff Met University for what is normally a close and high scoring encounter. Hopefully I will have recovered by then.

Come on Pooler.