Welsh regions struggling

[flustered]

Wouldn't surprise me with Halfpenny, if we lost Rob/Luke to France I reckon Halfpenny would be a great replacement for either those (espec as he can play both at FB and on the wing).

[dropkick]

It looks like one of the regions could soon get the chop. Looking at the map of the regions there, I'm astonished that the 4 regional sides are all based on the south coast with nothing up north. The WRU made a balls of that.

[simonokeeffe]

IRFU not very keen at all on provinces signing players who'll be away for Autumn and 6n.
Halfpenny is lucky as Wales need him as their 10 isn't a good enough goalkicker, Fussell not an international, Byrne is 2nd pick at Clermont, Hooky outhalf all the time now, and Scarlets have a youngster. Priestland loses his place and Halfpenny might drop out

Sounds odd but I reckon for Wales it's better the sooner the remaining Cardiff internationals leave; if theyre walking into Welsh side despite underperforming in a bad Cardiff side eg Warburton that creates a bad atmosphere in the Welsh camp

Cardiff saying theyre going to sign marquee replacement for Roberts but who is going to move to a broke, rubbish team who wont win anything?

[Bite and Belloq]

It looks like one of the regions could soon get the chop. Looking at the map of the regions there, I'm astonished that the 4 regional sides are all based on the south coast with nothing up north. The WRU made a balls of that.

South Wales and the Valleys are the rugby heartland. Even the short-lived Celtic Warriors drew from Bridgend and Ponty.

Organising an amateur regional development team RGC 1404, based in Colwyn Bay, to play in the Welsh domestic league seems to have been the sum total of Union's attempts to spread northwards. In fact though, after some kind of weird reverse takeover, half of that team are now Canadian and the Cannucks will even be playing a couple of internationals there this month.

[totalrandomer]

It looks like one of the regions could soon get the chop. Looking at the map of the regions there, I'm astonished that the 4 regional sides are all based on the south coast with nothing up north. The WRU made a balls of that.

No one lives anywhere else. Llanelli is a town of 45000 and there are very few others in the whole of the Scarlets region (which includes north Wales) any bigger.

Most of the rest is wilderness and mountains bar the little bit closest to Liverpool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_We ... on_density

[Hornet]

It looks like one of the regions could soon get the chop. Looking at the map of the regions there, I'm astonished that the 4 regional sides are all based on the south coast with nothing up north. The WRU made a balls of that.

No one lives anywhere else. Llanelli is a town of 45000 and there are very few others in the whole of the Scarlets region (which includes north Wales) any bigger.

Most of the rest is wilderness and mountains bar the little bit closest to Liverpool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_We ... on_density

North Wales population is 2.5 times the size of Munster's.

[cormac]

It looks like one of the regions could soon get the chop. Looking at the map of the regions there, I'm astonished that the 4 regional sides are all based on the south coast with nothing up north. The WRU made a balls of that.

Rugby is and pretty much always has been a South Wales game. All the famous teams are along the South Coast or in the valleys close by. There's probably more rugby tradition in Connacht than North Wales.

[Vamos los azules]

Halfpenny is rumoured to be pushing hard for a return to the Ospreys. Homebird indeed.

It could work for the WRU if he agrees to stay in the country on the condition he gets to move home. Maybe there are some young Ospreys players who wouldn't mind heading to Cardiff and the 2 regions could do some kind of swap. Anyone except Tipuric - Cardiff already have 2 decent 7s so they're fairly well sorted in that position. 1-6 and 8-15 are all up for grabs I would say though.

[johng]

It looks like one of the regions could soon get the chop. Looking at the map of the regions there, I'm astonished that the 4 regional sides are all based on the south coast with nothing up north. The WRU made a balls of that.

No one lives anywhere else. Llanelli is a town of 45000 and there are very few others in the whole of the Scarlets region (which includes north Wales) any bigger.

Most of the rest is wilderness and mountains bar the little bit closest to Liverpool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_We ... on_density

North Wales population is 2.5 times the size of Munster's.

Half of them in the north east corner. And very little rugby there.

[simonokeeffe]

all the towns in mid and North Wales tiny until you get to Northern coastline
WRFU initial proposal for regions was to have a province based in Wrexham (one of four) but clubs rejected it as some had started to pair up and Llanelli were refusing to pair up with anyone

[Dexter]

No one lives anywhere else. Llanelli is a town of 45000 and there are very few others in the whole of the Scarlets region (which includes north Wales) any bigger.

Most of the rest is wilderness and mountains bar the little bit closest to Liverpool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_We ... on_density

North Wales population is 2.5 times the size of Munster's.

Half of them in the north east corner. And very little rugby there.

Soccer country I think.

[TerenureJim]

Flicking around tv last night I came across a show called The Valleys, I think Wales has far bigger problems to sort before worrying about regional rugby.

[johng]

Flicking around tv last night I came across a show called The Valleys, I think Wales has far bigger problems to sort before worrying about regional rugby.

I've never seen it, but is it like all these Tallaghtfornia ones? If so I'm not sure that Wales is on it's own from that perspective.

I know I will sound like a bit of an aulfellah but I can't watch any of that reality or celeb stuff. Any programme where you are embarrassed for the people you are watching does nothing for me.

[Peg Leg]

Flicking around tv last night I came across a show called The Valleys, I think Wales has far bigger problems to sort before worrying about regional rugby.

I've never seen it, but is it like all these Tallaghtfornia ones? If so I'm not sure that Wales is on it's own from that perspective.

I know I will sound like a bit of an aulfellah but I can't watch any of that reality or celeb stuff. Any programme where you are embarrassed for the people you are watching does nothing for me.

Seeing them listed as "culture", really kills me!!

[TerenureJim]

Flicking around tv last night I came across a show called The Valleys, I think Wales has far bigger problems to sort before worrying about regional rugby.

I've never seen it, but is it like all these Tallaghtfornia ones? If so I'm not sure that Wales is on it's own from that perspective.

I know I will sound like a bit of an aulfellah but I can't watch any of that reality or celeb stuff. Any programme where you are embarrassed for the people you are watching does nothing for me.

Trust me Tallaghtfornia looks like the week in politics compared to The Valleys.

[Hornet]

Soccer country I think.

Rugby League played at the Racecourse, Wrexham's ground. Trouble is it's fairly close to Widnes, Warrington and St Helens. (30-40 minutes away to Widnes).
Llanelli played some games there as well a few years back. The main population centers are along the North Wales coast and along the Wrexham - Shotton corridor. Transport links and poor road connections make it difficult to get to Wrexham from most population centers in North Wales. Saying that i have seen a healthy number of Welsh fans heading back to places like Llandudno, Bangor and Holyhead on the train, after an International at the Millenium Stadium.

[Peg Leg]

Wales star Dan Lydiate and Ospreys fly-half Dan Biggar have both been linked with moves to France according to reports in Wales.

Lydiate, who was named Player of the Championship after the Six Nations this year, is currently sidelined due to an ankle injury but is a target for Racing Métro according to WalesOnline.

Racing owner Jacky Lorenzetti has reportedly offered Lydiate £50,000 to sign a pre-contract agreement with the club.

The Parisian side have also been linked with Cardiff Blues centre Jamie Roberts, who announced last week that he would be leaving Wales at the end of this season to join a club in the Top 14.

Biggar is the target of several clubs in the Top 14 after his impressive form early on this season for the Ospreys. The fly-half is believed to have rejected an offer from Racing last season but may find it harder to say no a second time round.

Biggar was not included in the squad for the tour of Australia back in June, but may get a rare chance to impress for Wales against Samoa on Friday.

A big money move for Biggar!!! Well done IRFU, because they must be beating J10's door down. In light of this and Kidney's refusal to entertain anyone other than ROG, the IRFU best be nice to Keatley, Jackson & Madigan.

[Oldschool]

A comparison between Wales and Ireland is interesting.
The Irish Provinces doing very Well, their Welsh well counterparts poorly.
The Welsh national team doing very Well, their Irish counterparts poorly.
What is the bottom line comparison?
Is Ireland Rugby inc doing better than Wales Rugby inc. (Where inc. is Natioanl + Provincial teams)
I'm only guessing but I think Ireland might be doing better financially.
Which then begs two questions:-
How do we transfer provincial success to national success?
How do the Welsh transfer national success to provincial success?

There are also a lot of whys to be explained.

[fourthirtythree]

Getting hockeyed by Argentina isn't that great. Their failure to put away a shambolic France in the world cup ain't so great either. Not putting away south Africa before that, despite playing all the rugby Igave me belief that we could beat them. But we are also shambolic.

Despite being far better than us they needed poor refereeing to put us away.

They aren't really all that great.

[simonokeeffe]

said before but we got lucky with a provincial structure ready made for pro rugby

our national side playing a different style to our provinces which are now playing quite similar styles (Ulster and Leinster were last year)
until regions finances stabilise they will underperform/fail to keep players, not enough clear authority/leadership from WRFU on how game is run, they let clubs have too much power from the start and it has always cost them