The death of pro rugby in Wales?

Here's a discussion the Jacks are more than welcome to join in with.

With dwindling attendances and two premier league teams in Wales, club rugby has never been so weak here. I remember the days of Ponty playing Cardiff in the arms park to a massive crowd, the WRU killed that with greed and the regionalisation of our clubs have been a disaster in my opinion.

However will the impending demise of the Heineken cup be the final nail in the coffin? They are looking to lose a million pounds and when you consider the wage cap is £3.5m a year it's a significant amount of money. Not interested in people coming on here saying they hate rugby who gives a f**k, truth is I am not a big fan of it but have been known to go down the arms park in the past for a piss up.

What is the future of pro rugby in Wales?

Club rugby is really struggling, the WRU under Moffett completely discarded the clubs when regional rugby was introduced.
Initially there was a degree of interest in the regions, but now that's seriously on the wane.
Many of the town & village clubs thrived as a focal point of their communities, but many are now struggling to survive.
Two football sides in the Prem doesn't help & I bet our attendance yesterday was more than the Blue & Scarlets home games together with the whole of the Welsh Premiership.
Then you've got the issue of the diehards who do go not being afford to go to all the Wales games.......no problem there though for the WRU, there's always the corporate brigade and the people who can afford it but don't follow club rugby.
Yes it's troubled times

The regions idea was ill thought out, instead of having Swansea, Newport, Llanelli and Cardiff in the names they should have given them a truly regional name (West Wales, Gwent, Cardiff and the Valleys etc). They have forced Ponty fans, Neath fans, Caramarthen fans to all support clubs in a different place when they had a perfectly good club of their own.

Some of the smaller clubs in Cardiff are now really struggling as the record amounts of money made by the WRU isn't being trickled down to grassroots level.

Most of the people responsible for this are either on a fat WRU pension or dead.The clubs are also to blame as they all wanted to be pro even the ones that get about 100 to watch them.I remember in the late 90's the english offered us about 6 places in the english premiership but in our wisdom we turned it down.Its also a stark warning to all the brain dead city fans who think people are queuing up to buy the city if Tan ever decides to pull out.The rugby world will tell you there ain't any.

The problem with Wales in general is our parochial tribal mentality. Cardiff, Swansea, Llanelli were to big,rich and historic to be left out of the regional set up. I have friends in Neath who support the blues because he can't bring himself to "support" anything Swansea related, but the powers thought this would be a great mix.....

Sardis Road was a dump and would Treochy boys support Ponty ? How Bridgend and Pontypridd were linked is beyond me.

TV is another issue. My mate rang me last week to see if I wanted to go the Arms Park to watch the blues a few weeks ago, it was on a friday night, the game was on the box. My Mrs cooked a curry and we had a few cans- easy ...... Its too expensive to watch "squad" rugby and there is a 50% chance its on the box. They are not hooking the kids in.

Its dying and nobody from the WRU care because they are making record profits.

Being from Pontypool, I have family connections supporting Pontypool rugby and after they were kicked out of premiership all together after cutting the teams from 14 to 10, then to 12 teams I have had nothing but hatred towards the WRU and especially that Roger Lewis. Even clubs lower than Pontypool were fighting their battles.

The regions are going down the pan after the Europe scandal with only international rugby in this country left. Pontypool nearly went bust all together after fighting their battle in court and then had to pay back the court fees but the fact the WRU kept teams in the league with a lower ground criteria to Pontypool was complete filth. They don't care about small clubs, in fact they probably want them all gone.

I really hope regional rugby goes backwards further and international rugby in this country to follow it. Before people question why would I want to see international go, its not because I want to Wales lose, its because of the WRU.

The main reason from my point of view is that it is not as exciting anymore. Football is more exciting to watch. Rugby used to be exciting, but in the professional era with better defences there are not the line breaks and tries that used to be entertaining. The breakdown is a major factor. If flankers compete for the ball they are often pulled off their feet by the tackled player illegally holding onto the ball. Hence, no turnover, no line break and no try. Instead the flankers are going in and putting their palms on the ground to show the ref that they are able to compete for the ball, but that the tackled player is holding onto the ball illegally. This results in a penalty but no excitement. I'll stick to watching football. Anyway rugby has been dying in Wales for years. I remember when I used to compete at Athletics and we were petitioning for a tartan track instead of the old cinder track at Maindy Stadium ( with a hill - no kidding ). I looked into sporting facilities etc. and there were 17 football clubs in Wales for every rugby club, yet we were still regarded as a rugby nation.

Rugby could never go back to the amateur days,to much money has been spent,but a welsh side will never do well in the Heineken cup,all the top players have either left or are waiting for their current contracts to end,so they can leave

f**k modern rugby

Good kill it off, horrible sport played by wankers and bullies.

Game of irony

They don't like the Egg reference yet after poaching ideas from other areas they have now left the game scrambled ..



AGAINTS MODERN EGGS

Being from Pontypool, I have family connections supporting Pontypool rugby and after they were kicked out of premiership all together after cutting the teams from 14 to 10, then to 12 teams I have had nothing but hatred towards the WRU and especially that Roger Lewis. Even clubs lower than Pontypool were fighting their battles.

The regions are going down the pan after the Europe scandal with only international rugby in this country left. Pontypool nearly went bust all together after fighting their battle in court and then had to pay back the court fees but the fact the WRU kept teams in the league with a lower ground criteria to Pontypool was complete filth. They don't care about small clubs, in fact they probably want them all gone.

I really hope regional rugby goes backwards further and international rugby in this country to follow it. Before people question why would I want to see international go, its not because I want to Wales lose, its because of the WRU.

I'm a Pooler fan mate. The way we were treated by the WRU has been nothing short of a disgrace. Its basically it's Fk you we'll do what we want from the WRU. Whatever makes us more money.

The regional system is a Joke. I'm a Pooler fan I cant support NEWPORT Gwent Dragons. I hate Newport!! How can I support a team where unless the words NEWPORT were in huge letters in the name they wouldn't allow the region to play at Rodney parade. The WRU knew without Newport the region wouldn't survive and would go the same way as Celtic warriors. WRU are so greedy. Having moved to Scotland I was astounded by how cheap the SRU make the tickets to get the stadiums full. Before I moved up here I paid £320 for 2 Wales V Scotland and 2 Wales V France tickets. Then When I moved Up here I paid 70 quid for 2 Tickets for Scotland NZ and Scotland South Africa. £17.50 a game, including a fantastic rugby village with sensibly priced beers etc. A really good value day out. I am now an avid supporter of Scottish rugby and try to go to all Scotland home games.

Being from Pontypool, I have family connections supporting Pontypool rugby and after they were kicked out of premiership all together after cutting the teams from 14 to 10, then to 12 teams I have had nothing but hatred towards the WRU and especially that Roger Lewis. Even clubs lower than Pontypool were fighting their battles.

The regions are going down the pan after the Europe scandal with only international rugby in this country left. Pontypool nearly went bust all together after fighting their battle in court and then had to pay back the court fees but the fact the WRU kept teams in the league with a lower ground criteria to Pontypool was complete filth. They don't care about small clubs, in fact they probably want them all gone.

I really hope regional rugby goes backwards further and international rugby in this country to follow it. Before people question why would I want to see international go, its not because I want to Wales lose, its because of the WRU.

I'm a Pooler fan mate. The way we were treated by the WRU has been nothing short of a disgrace. Its basically it's Fk you we'll do what we want from the WRU. Whatever makes us more money.

The regional system is a Joke. I'm a Pooler fan I cant support NEWPORT Gwent Dragons. I hate Newport!! How can I support a team where unless the words NEWPORT were in huge letters in the name they wouldn't allow the region to play at Rodney parade. The WRU knew without Newport the region wouldn't survive and would go the same way as Celtic warriors. WRU are so greedy. Having moved to Scotland I was astounded by how cheap the SRU make the tickets to get the stadiums full. Before I moved up here I paid £320 for 2 Wales V Scotland and 2 Wales V France tickets. Then When I moved Up here I paid 70 quid for 2 Tickets for Scotland NZ and Scotland South Africa. £17.50 a game, including a fantastic rugby village with sensibly priced beers etc. A really good value day out. I am now an avid supporter of Scottish rugby and try to go to all Scotland home games.

I understand what you are saying - I go to many Wales games home and some away; sadly, though, as long they sell enough tickets and the national side is strong, things won't change.

Scotland has never had the same level of support or club structure that Wales has - bizarrely the professional game has meant that Scotland now has 2 competitive teams, whereas previously no Scottish club side would have got a weekend game at the Arms Park, let alone boss the game and win it comfortably (yesterday apart!)

Joining with the English system was a good idea, shame it didn't happen - for me the regional system does focus resources, but for supporters I would prefer the old club system. I can never get excited about Cardiff Blues, and I am Cardiff man through and through.

Rugby in Wales is a shambles. Greed is not good.

Very soon the WRU are going to mirror the FAW. Basically there won't be any players of note playing their rugby in the Welsh leagues with all the talent playing in England or elsewhere.

Welsh rugby has been on a long downward spiral for a while now and it continues to drop further. They won't do anything about it though. Their heads are so far up their own arses that they still think they are doing great. When they finally fall off the map they'll just blame anyone and everyone rather than take any responsibility themselves.

Fact is this - If Welsh football - Cardiff/Swansea disappeared off the face of the earth then it would not make any difference whatsoever to Welsh rugby. For those idiots at the WRU to blame football for their own ills really is ridiculous and just their way of dodging responsibility.

I know for a fact that Cardiff Blues were a nightmare to deal with at CCS. They would never agree to anything that the football wanted to do. They'd disagree for the sake of disagreeing.

Excellent post, Berwyn.