Pro14 - Sooner SA teams the better

[FLIP]

Cardiff Blues are no more

Long live Cardiff Rugby

https://twitter.com/cardiff_rugby_/stat ... 4403238913

That dreary old bore Phil BB and his Cardiff diehard ilk will be ecstatic with this, I bet his twitter account was on fire yesterday!

In reality it won't really make any difference, it will be please the people who already go to see them and further alienate those who insist they are not a region and never have been.

One of the shocks of my life was seeing that xenophobic pricks name pop back onto my screen after managing to avoid sharing any forums with him in recent years. Still as unhinged as ever.

[blockhead]

Cardiff Blues are no more

Long live Cardiff Rugby

https://twitter.com/cardiff_rugby_/stat ... 4403238913

That dreary old bore Phil BB and his Cardiff diehard ilk will be ecstatic with this, I bet his twitter account was on fire yesterday!

In reality it won't really make any difference, it will be please the people who already go to see them and further alienate those who insist they are not a region and never have been.

One of the shocks of my life was seeing that xenophobic pricks name pop back onto my screen after managing to avoid sharing any forums with him in recent years. Still as unhinged as ever.

I noticed that Phil BB on twitter, I wouldn't call him completley xenophobic, he loves the english.
One thing that is very regular is that when he posts, Simon "hands across the severn" Thomas is usually right behind, and visa versa. Like they were one and the same.
Of course Simon would probably lose his job if he posted that stuff as @simonrug.

[FLIP]

I noticed that Phil BB on twitter, I wouldn't call him completley xenophobic, he loves the english.
One thing that is very regular is that when he posts, Simon "hands across the severn" Thomas is usually right behind, and visa versa. Like they were one and the same.
Of course Simon would probably lose his job if he posted that stuff as @simonrug.

They're not the same person. PhilBB is definitely older and has some connection to Peter Thomas (part owner of Cardiff Blues) which is why a lot of the Welsh forums put up with him (as the forum admins are mates with him IRL)

[JB1973]

Phil BB is a sad case with frankly a weird obsession for Cardiff rugby and delights in trolling anyone who doesn't agree with him or his odd ball small but vocal cabal of followers and their vision of why Cardiff are the greatest thing in the history of rugby

Simon Thomas is by all accounts a decent guy but imo a poor journo who now claims the word region is toxic and that we must rebrand welsh rugby as "clubs" and this will some how magically transform all the on field results, see capacity gates at every home game and see an anglo English league launched and welsh clubs conquer all

Both of them have their heads in the clouds and are in for a rude awakening as the "rebirth" of Cardiff rugby achieves next to nothing.


The fact of the matter is the English don't want or need welsh regions or clubs or what ever in their league and it is not going to happen

So instead of slating the league we are in we need to try and work out how to make it better and start delivering on the pitch

Frankly these people do more damage than good to welsh rugby and I wish they would go and find some other sport to follow

[ronk]

The Pro14 can’t have ambitions of being ahead of international rugby or Heineken Cup. That’s not true for Top14 and PL (realistic or not).

Build it around the product that is it. There’s lots of room for growth within that. Or rebuild post COVID May be more realistic.

[The Doc]

...and see an anglo English league launched and welsh clubs conquer all

I see this point many time. Along the lines of "we want to see our historic rivalries with the likes of Bath and Glouscter and the ability to travel to away games". But I've not seen the answer to the question of what happens when the Welsh teams have been relegated and are playing in the Championship against Jersey and Ealing - or even a second relegation and are playing further down the leagues.

It seems like a plan built on hope and memories

[Dave Cahill]

Simon Thomas is by all accounts a decent guy but imo a poor journo who now claims the word region is toxic and that we must rebrand welsh rugby as "clubs" and this will some how magically transform all the on field results, see capacity gates at every home game and see an anglo English league launched and welsh clubs conquer all

I don't thats entirely accurate. Simon has never been an advocate for an Anglo-Welsh league. He knows (and has said) that its never going to happen. There is nothing in it for the English clubs and would be recklessly perilous for the Welsh sides to the point where good governance in individual clubs would not let them join an Anglo-Welsh league anyway.

The word region is toxic in Cardiff (for whatever reason, it is, there is no getting away from it), mildly infectious in Newport, Llanelli are indifferent to it entirely and Ospreys have made a real go of it and have become a "proper" region from a rugby POV and indeed the term Ospreylia has been used to describe the geographic region also. I don't see this need for everything to be the same thing anyway. If Cardiff want to be called a club - good, if Ospreys want to be called a region - good, if Newport Gwent Ebbw Vale Dragons want to be called Clive - let them, what does it matter.

[JB1973]

Simon Thomas is by all accounts a decent guy but imo a poor journo who now claims the word region is toxic and that we must rebrand welsh rugby as "clubs" and this will some how magically transform all the on field results, see capacity gates at every home game and see an anglo English league launched and welsh clubs conquer all

I don't thats entirely accurate. Simon has never been an advocate for an Anglo-Welsh league. He knows (and has said) that its never going to happen. There is nothing in it for the English clubs and would be recklessly perilous for the Welsh sides to the point where good governance in individual clubs would not let them join an Anglo-Welsh league anyway.

The word region is toxic in Cardiff (for whatever reason, it is, there is no getting away from it), mildly infectious in Newport, Llanelli are indifferent to it entirely and Ospreys have made a real go of it and have become a "proper" region from a rugby POV and indeed the term Ospreylia has been used to describe the geographic region also. I don't see this need for everything to be the same thing anyway. If Cardiff want to be called a club - good, if Ospreys want to be called a region - good, if Newport Gwent Ebbw Vale Dragons want to be called Clive - let them, what does it matter.

I'm sorry but Simon has been and advocate for an anglo welsh league and has mentioned this in the past and I'm sorry for the vitriol I'm about to unleash in this post

The reason Cardiff never took off as a region is basically the shoddy way they treated the rest of the region, calling them selves Cardiff blues, playing every game in Cardiff and playing in Cardiff colours really showed contempt for any one who wasn't a Cardiff fan . Yet that still wasn't "cardiff" enough for their fan base many of whom are stuck in 1953 and refuse to move with the times. They see the valley clubs as serfs and there really is a master and servant attitude with them and their arrogance is not only annoying but looking at their trophy room misplaced

As for the reborn Cardiff ,they can be called a club but that means they get treated like a club. At present they are called a region and get all the benefits of a region, especially access to the talent that comes from other parts of the region, at present no other welsh side can approach junior players in the their regional area.

Once they are have opted to be run as a club and be known as a club then the regional benefits are gone and if other junior clubs in their previous regional area wish to link up with another region to send their talent to that region, cardiff will just have to suck it up.

They don't get the penny and the bun and I hope mike Ruddock is on the phone to the likes of Pontypridd rfc right now sorting out a future partnership with them the next generation of ellis Jenkins and cory hill would be very welcome in ospreylia.

I look forward to this move falling flat on it's face and if the dragons do the same thing with Newport , I guarantee you within ten years they will both have egg on their faces when they are forced to merge

The game has moved on and these dinosaurs with their selfish back to the future attitude and "everything was better in the day" bs are imo a disgrace and a divisive part of welsh rugby and the sooner they are gone the better.

I wonder how would the rest of leinster feel if you rebranded yourselves as the Dublin Blues and or the rest of Munster feel if they were rebranded as the limerick reds?

[Dexter]

I'm sorry but Simon has been and advocate for an anglo welsh league and has mentioned this in the past and I'm
I wonder how would the rest of leinster feel if you rebranded yourselves as the Dublin Blues and or the rest of Munster feel if they were rebranded as the limerick reds?

We need to be more specific and be named the Dublin 4 Blues