Again The Question Needs To Be Asked. Is The Welsh Rugby Union Mad? Today's example: The Ospreys

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

There is a part of me that wonders whether we are witnessing a sort of unique Welsh mathematics rule being that the more success the national side has there is an equal and opposite reaction of incompetence on the Welsh club rugby scene.

So after Wales beat England in the six nations you expect something to happen in the club structure and there is no change here. You may remember a post I did where I discussed the proposal to change the Welsh regional club structure (called Project Reset by the way - says everything you need to know about the success of the Welsh rugby structure). The original proposal was of the current Welsh Pro14 teams (The Cardiff Blues, The Dragons, The Ospreys and the Scarlets) two should become the main teams whilst the other two "feeder" clubs.

This mad proposal was rejected. And a good thing too. End of story.

Well apparently not. For the latest proposal is to disband the Ospreys team and create one in North Wales instead.

As I've said before my view is that the Welsh teams should leave the Pro14 and go back to the previous local club structure which included promotion and relegation. I'm not going to back down on that point of view.

Four questions need to be asked.

What is the research that states that a North Walian regional team in the Pro14 is going to be successful? After all as we've previously discussed when you look at matches for the supposed heartlands of South and West Wales then the current regional teams do not play to full houses as opposed to those that play the round ball. So where is the proof that things will be different for a North Walian franchise?

Secondly why have the Ospreys been picked for this Sporting suicide? Why not the "financially troubled have to be bailed out by the WRU" Dragons? Since this regional rugby concept began they have been the most successful team yet for no apparent reason they're the ones venerable for the chop? What is the logic here?

Thirdly does the WRU seriously expect disenfranchised Ospreys fans (a team mainly playing in Swansea) to move their allegiances to the Cardiff Blues (yes really!) or the Scarlets? This is the same mad logic that for example assumed rugby fans from the South Wales Valleys would flock in their droves to watch the Cardiff Blues play. It did not work then. It will not work now.

And finally the most important question of all. Explain how in terms of anyone can truly argue that the regional rugby structure has been a success for the Welsh club game? Is it not a case that the WRU created a mess of it's own making and have made it even worse through the years?

So going back to the first point I raised in regard to the Welsh rugby mathematical formula. With this increased mayhem I predict that Wales will win the rugby world cup later this year. With regard to the club game however predictions are impossible.

Until the next time.

Pro 14 Rugby. Out Of Sight Out Of Mind?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Tomorrow wife and daughter are off to watch a Pro14 rugby game between the Ospreys and the Scarlets with a friend and her grandson (I can't come because I'm working). It's made me think that though the season is roughly half way through I've not single game even on the TV this season.

Now the main reasons are a combination of work and coming back home to discover the result on Twitter beforehand. But the other big reason is the lack of free to air TV coverage in the new season. BBC Wales having lost the contract leaving just S4C to show one game a week.

And what is the result now? Well what I'm going to say is word of mouth, or rather lack of word of mouth. Because if my personal experience is anything to go by there appears to be just near silence by people I know on the subject. Why? Well they appear to be not that bothered.

Why? Well I would argue that it basically stems from the relative lack of support for the Welsh regional clubs for all of the areas they cover. The Valleys with regard to the Cardiff Blues (no longer called the Cardiff Blues it appears now) or Bridgend concerning the Ospreys. People were happy to watch the Friday night game on the BBC because it was there. But they do not have any loyalty to a club strong enough to subscribe to Premier Sports (the company that holds the rights).

(Of course I'm chatting generally here. The obvious exception are the Scarlets. Still chatting on a general level the point holds)

As I said at the time the focus was on BBC Wales losing the contract. But so did Sky Sports. They knew the product was not worth putting more money into it.

Actually there is another free to air channel showing PRO 14 rugby. Freesports. Owned by Premier Sports and they show one match a week. Trouble is the match appears to be the least attractive of that week's fixture. That is a mistake. It might not be the biggest game of the week but it should be one that people would be prepared to watch. That might make them be interesting in a Premier Sports subscription.

And this is serious. Less children being interested in watching rugby means less adults being prepared to watch the game which would probably damage the national team.

Better minds than mine can chat about how to deal with the future of Welsh club rugby. But those minds need to deal with the situation quickly.

So how is it that wife, daughter, wife's friend and her grandson are going to the game tomorrow then I hear you ask?

It was free.

Until the next time.

The Welsh Rugby Union: Destroying The Sport From Within?

Hello there? Hope you're feeling well today.

When I've chatted about Welsh rugby in this blog I've focused on the club game. That's basically because I've nothing much to say about the national team. I've argued that at a club level rugby is, despite popular cliché, not the most popular sport in the country and part of the reason for that is the club structure they created for what is now the PRO14 which basically disenfranchised people who felt unable to support the top tier regional teams in their catchment area (People in the South Wales Valleys for the Cardiff Blues for example).

But the national team is different. The cliché about the nation watching the Wales team play on every available TV screen is not that far from the truth. On a regular basis the team is the catalyst that makes the people feel the most Welsh no matter what their views on other issues are.

So the news that the Welsh Rugby Union is considering moving the games of the Autumn Internationals, traditionally played with teams from the Southern hemisphere, from the BBC (where it has been shown since the dawn of time) to a pay TV operator is disturbing to say the least.

(A quick aside here - One of the Pay TV companies that is stated to be in the running to purchase the rights for these games is Sky Sports. They held some of the rights for the PRO 14 competition as well though lost that from next season. I've mentioned this before but if the PRO 14 competition was that good don't you think they'd have made every effort to get that? So there's a distinct possibility that Sky didn't think the PRO 14 League was worth it.)

You may think "why the concern?" after all the English autumn internationals are on Pay TV and the English rugby world hasn't collapsed? Well the answer is perfectly simple.

Wales is different.

As I have explained a Welsh rugby international unites the nation in a way few things do on a regular basis. This is definitely not the case in England where although there are obviously passionate fans it's rarely an all encompassing passion for the nation whatever your age, class or religion.

It will, especially as the PRO14 games have moved to Pay TV damage the game. Not instantly, gradually, watching the team will no longer become a national event,as a consequence less people will want to watch the international games  and of course less children will want play as that bond between the nation and the team reduces.

No one is saying that the Welsh Rugby Union should stick with the BBC. It could move to a commercial Free To Air Operator. But moving to the likes of SKY will, in the long term, damage a truly Welsh passion.

Until the next time.

Perhaps...Just Perhaps...The Lack Of Top Tier Free-to Air Welsh Rugby Might Be A Good Thing

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I am writing this, after all these months, in Wales. My mother is with me but next week I'll take her back to Essex and can leave her with a clear conscience. For whilst she's not a hundred percent she is well enough to look after herself. Barring an unexpected disaster Essex Exile has now finished.

One thing I discovered by accident when my mother was discharged from hospital but too ill to look after herself was that Welsh club rugby (shown on BBC Two Wales) was in fact available in Essex on the red button. So I had the very odd but almost comfort blanket feeling of watching it from far away.

This however is soon to be a thing of memories. Because the BBC have lost the rights to show Welsh club rugby (from the Pro14 competition) to pay TV operator Premier Sports.

It's not clear whether free-to-air top tier Welsh club rugby will be unavailable from next season. Premier Sports also own the FreeSports channel and negotiations with S4C are still ongoing. But for the moment let's assume that free to air coverage will be at the very least curtailed.

I've chatted before (whilst I'm not an expert on rugby) that I'm not a fan of the current structure of top tier Welsh Club rugby. Believing that it's greatest failure was that an assumption that because a place might be in a region's catchment area fans would automatically come to it (the South Wales Valleys and Cardiff Blues come to mind). The crowds, with or without free to air coverage have been I would argue consequentially pitiful compared to what would have been expected.

Taking away free to air matches would mean that the Pro 14 league will slowly fade away for most people. Out of sight out of mind. It will I'd predict in Wales anyway whither and die.

And for those of you who would trumpet the Pro 14 "product". I would point out that it's not just BBC Wales who've lost the rights. So have SKY. Don't you think if they really cared they would have battled tooth and nail to have kept it?

But perhaps....perhaps...it might be a good thing. S4C already and probably so will BBC Wales shows Welsh rugby games in the lower tiers. With clubs that are more connected with their community. With the focus on these clubs. Perhaps their crowds will increase. Perhaps more people will ignore the top tier and instead come together to support their local team.

Perhaps therefore there will be, all be it by accident, a return to the old values of Welsh club rugby.

Perhaps.

Until the next time.

Why Going To Pay TV Would Be A Disaster For Welsh Top Club Rugby But A Shrug For Most Welsh Viewers Without Scarlet Fever

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I am, I will admit, not the best person to chat about Welsh club rugby being a) English and b) whose first sport will always be football c) there are far better and more well informed bloggers on rugby than I'll ever be (I would recommend for example https://thevietgwent.wordpress.com) . However regular readers will know that for me the fact that football is first doesn't mean a dislike of what comes second.

However I was moved to go on Twitter when a Wales Online article suggested that in the forthcoming TV negotiations all matches in the Pro 14 competition might go to Pay TV. This might be just the PRO 14 people using this tactic as a threat to get more money from the non Pay TV broadcasters. But the possibility has to be taken seriously and therefore so have the consequences.

On Twitter there were two camps to this. One (which I'm in) is that it will be a disaster for Welsh Top Club rugby. The other was that those people who watch the two matches a week on non Pay TV should get off their backsides and go to the games instead. These people forget that free to air television is not free. The viewer pays for Welsh rugby games through the licence fee (BBC) or the cost of ads (S4C). It shows a contempt for the non Pay TV customer to forget that.

Everything I'm going to say next will in terms of support mainly exclude the Scarlets franchise. In terms of core support the seeming exception to this mistake that was the creation of the top 4 Welsh teams (though even they are apparently supposed to cover North Wales, from which I say....what?)

The trouble as I see it lays in the four club you cannot be relegated structure of the top tier of Welsh teams. I've discussed before how the regional spread in its creation in 2001 meant that the catchment regions included areas that were not emotionally linked to them unlike football. Consequently support is relatively low (I'm told it's growing but all I see generally are gaps in the grounds) and definitely insecure. Compare it to Cardiff and Swansea City football clubs and the difference is not only clear but also embarrassing.

Pay TV supporters partly attribute this to Free to Air channels. This is rubbish. Other Free To Air sport gets large crowds (BBC FA Cup football for example) but there needs to be that certain something that motivates people from their armchairs to actually going to a televised event, and taken as a whole top tier Welsh rugby has not been able to do that.

I know people in the South Wales Valleys who regularly go to Cardiff City home games. I have never met anybody from there who has regularly gone to Cardiff Blues games. In terms of Welsh rugby local teams get local support. Welsh rugby is not the NFL.

Also the fact that these clubs cannot be relegated meant that, taking it's total performance since 2001 (there will always be exceptions) there are moments of stagnation.

Supporters of Pay TV will say that sport is a business and there should no room for sentiment. But even judged on that basis I've always understood that the first rule of business is know your market. Taken as a whole the clubs have failed in this, and they cannot blame free to air TV.

The Newport/Gwent Dragons it should also be noted have been taken over by the Welsh Rugby Union because of financial issues.

With this insecure support the armchair viewer might be irritated initially if the games went to Pay TV but will ultimately go on with his/her life. Crucially I don't believe (unlike football or say English rugby club supporters) it will motivate the armchair fans to get a SKY/BT subscription. S4C will just show more matches from the lower tiers of Welsh rugby (which are exciting, even if their supporters were described to me as " a few men and his dog").

Consequentially out of sight out of mind with the consequent danger of death through neglect.

No change (and probable decline) in people attending. Low audience numbers.Less children will watch, and as a consequence in years to come the national team will suffer as the young will move towards other interests (indeed like England cricket the stage will be reached where most people will not be able to name most of the team).

Top four Welsh live rugby on Pay TV only will be a digital suicide note.

Until the next time.

The Welsh Rugby Union......Sport's Welsh Labour?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling today.

When I was young growing up in London my knowledge of Wales was limited and now I realise full of cliches. When Wales either in fact or fiction appeared on British TV it would generally include a coal mine, a choir,a pub, socialism and poverty (the last of which I'd argue still exists and has got worse in the last decade).

(A quick aside here. I was told when in London by a Welsh woman who moved there that the cliché she hated the most was that when the miners left the coal mine for the day they were singing. Her grandfather told her that they were too weary and just wanted to get home)

The other cliché that would always appear was rugby. That it was "the people's game". It was the sport that most people watched and played and followed their local team every Saturday afternoon after which they would go to the pub. And you know what? If my experience in the late nineties was anything to go by that cliché was basically true.

But in 2003 the structure of Welsh rugby at club level changed. Instead of a league structure like football with promotion/relegation there would just be five teams that would join teams in Scotland and Ireland to form the Celtic League. All the other teams, some with a great history like Pontypool would just become feeder clubs to the big five.

And yes I said five. The Celtic Warriors. The team that was the merger between Bridgend and Pontypridd. The team that I must admit was looking forward to taking my then baby daughter to on a Saturday to support her (and our) local team. But in 2004, for financial reasons that are too complex to explain here the Welsh Rugby Union closed the team down.

Thirteen years later however we have now got the news that the Welsh Rugby Union have taken over the Newport Gwent Dragons and possibly (at least for a temporary period) the Cardiff Blues because of various financial issues.

And the question needs to be asked how has it come to this? The answer I would argue is that taken as a whole (because I think Scarlets are an exception) these (now four) teams failed to convince enough people to follow them. In other words people from Pontypridd would rather watch their local team play in a lower tier rugby game than travel to Cardiff to see a club that they had no emotional attachment to whatsoever. Or why would I take a forty minute drive to Swansea to watch a team hoisted on me by default when the Warriors folded? Welsh rugby is not the NFL but the Welsh Rugby Union thought it would be a successful model for Wales. For the moment at least this isn't

Also the point about supporting a club is that you will have that dream that your team would reach the top of their sport. The Welsh Rugby Union took that dream away from a lot of fans in clubs across the country. Consequently a lot of these fans became disillusioned and didn't feel the impetus to attend every game whereas once was a reflex reaction to being a Welsh rugby supporter.

You could also argue that it has been unlucky with the relative rise in that period of Cardiff and Swansea City football clubs.  Swansea shares their ground with the Ospreys and the difference in attendances is embarrassing. Equally when for a short period the Blues shared with Cardiff City at the Cardiff City Stadium. When the Blues eventually moved back to the Arms Park it was I remember hailed by the BBC as a victory for the fans. But in reality it was an admission of failure. They could never even give an impression of filling the stadium which Cardiff City could do with ease. There is a good case for saying that at a club level football is now the national sport.

What could be done? Well I have no knowledge of the financial issues but I'm inclined to go back to the future and create the situation that existed before regional rugby was created. That way there would be local clubs that could be guaranteed real local support that could be built upon. It's no coincidence that when I see a second tier Welsh rugby game the attendances are impressive.

The Welsh Rugby Union find themselves in this situation because they alienated their base. Consequently whilst they are still the biggest sporting organisation in Wales they, and indeed Welsh club rugby, are not (talking generally) as part of the local fabric that they once were. The analogy with Welsh Labour is striking.

And they have only themselves to blame.

Until the next time.