The macabre pre-Christmas tales of Sardis Road and Cardiff Arms Park – how do we begin to reacquaint the national strategic player development pathway parallel universe with Welsh rugby’s cultural and commercial reality and living soul?

“It was also a time of fractiousness. The WRU had a notion – ‘vision’ might be overdoing it – of what professionalism might mean, while Cardiff had theirs. In those days, Cardiff was just a rugby club, although as they were ever keen to remind everyone they were hardly like any other. Modesty has never been Cardiff’s bag.” – Eddie Butler, The Observer

“The WRU and the club benefactors did not start with a clean sheet of paper. They started by trying to protect pre-existing interests and embrace other people in those interests. You won’t convince me that Cardiff and Llanelli and Newport were thinking about anyone other than Cardiff, Llanelli and Newport when they signed-up for regional teams. They were not thinking about a fresh start. The identity of the regions was ultimately far too close to the identity of the clubs playing in the next tier down in the Premiership. So you had duplication – Llanelli playing as both Llanelli RFC and the Scarlets, Cardiff as Cardiff RFC and the Blues, Newport as Newport RFC and the Newport-Gwent Dragons. The identities were never completely separated from region to Premiership club. There was a stronger impulse to cooperate and make that fresh start between Neath and Swansea, and that’s why the franchise took off more quickly than the others. Building a new stadium was part of that dynamic. Leighton Samuel said he wanted to, but he never did at the Warriors.” – Jason Smith, rugby player agent.

“Leinster used to play four or five games a season. They would have three inter-provincial matches against the others, maybe a touring match and perhaps one or two others against representative sides…The club football was where the loyalty was. The inter-provincial games were like a final trial. Could you get to the next level, could you play for Ireland? But the provinces did exist. The clubs were initially a bit resentful when things changed and the players went up to play for the provinces. But we didn’t have what you have. We know exactly what you have. Our A team played over in Pontypridd last season and I would have said if Cardiff had been playing in the Heineken Cup final that day they wouldn’t have cared!” – Mick Dawson, Leinster Rugby CEO

If these two photographs are not sounding alarm bells in relation to the crumbling structural integrity of the WRU pyramid, then nothing will.

Rugby player development in a cultural and commercial vacuum, a one way trip to ever greater financial stress in the lower (non-Test) tier of the professional game and below as we fall ever behind the Irish provinces let alone the English/French (broadcaster duopoly conflict fuelled) clubs.  A pictorial history of a national sport dying in front of our very eyes.  We always seem to focus on Pontypridd RFC, because they are at the centre of an East Glamorgan flashpoint, but the problems and the malaise go much wider.  So very much wider…

These photographs were taken at Sardis Road, the home ground of WRU Premiership club Pontypridd RFC.  The first was their club Cup match against Merthyr RFC in the WRU Cup last March (link).  The second was taken on 17 December in their region’s (embryonic) “A” team’s home 27-30 defeat against Ulster “A” in the British + Irish Cup.  So-called “Premiership Selects”, region “A” teams in all but name.  For anybody still not understanding the photograph and the underlying message, the second photo depicted the “bigger” “home” team, the next level up the WRU pyramid, in a more prestigious cross-border competition.  If a youngster plays well enough for a club in front of nearly 5,000 fans, he will get “promoted” to play for a region “A” team in front of a couple of hundred fans.  Welcome to Welsh rugby’s pyramidal structural mad house!

For those of you new to this blog, I must make one confession, and declare one caveat, at this point.

I must confess to being an out and out “regionalist”.  Region “A” teams for cross-border competitions such as the British + Irish Cup are perfectly logical, concentrating all the best regional player talent within the WRU’s strategic national player development pathway into region “A” teams.  If you select one club from a region, by definition you are excluding all the best players from the other WRU Premiership clubs within that region.  You could try and mitigate this by some sort of temporary draft system from the other clubs for the British + Irish Cup, but that “solution” would also create additional “problems”.

The underlying problem in Welsh rugby is that we do not yet have real representative regions, and we are continuously bogged down trying to overcome the problem of “super” clubs and their inherent non-alignment with a national strategic player development pathway.  We are always attempting to mitigate the worst symptoms of the disease, but we never actually get around to trying to cure the underlying disease itself.

There is no going back to the 1990-2003 club meritocracy (or the pre-1990 “1st class” club game) at the professional level.  “Regionalism” was truly hideously botched in 2003-04, but competent regionalism was and will be the only successful way forward.  And by competent regionalism I mean representative regionalism, club neutral regionalism, strategic nationalist regionalism.  That which works reasonably well in New Zealand and Ireland.  I don’t mean North Wales being totally excluded and much of South Wales, especially east of Ospreylia, alienated.  That doesn’t work at all.  And it won’t ever work.

And I must declare the one caveat.  If memory serves me correct, the Blues were the one region that voted against embryonic “A” teams called “Premiership Selects”.  Because of their particular additional problems, especially their heavy dependence upon the eastern Glamorgan valleys to produce most of their indigenous players since they acquired that territory (when the Celtic Warriors proved to be the superfluous 5th region that financially cracked first on WRU funding for 4 teams), but with an inability for various reasons to self-brand in a manner remotely palatable to most of the rugby fraternity in the eastern Glamorgan valleys, the Blues (correctly) identified “A” teams as particularly problematic for them.  So this piece is not to be interpreted as an additional criticism of the Blues.

Cardiff RFC was never a club that was good at young player development.  Yes, some good players came through the local schools set-up.  But their “bag” was acquiring fully developed players from other clubs, Welsh and sometimes non-Welsh (e.g. John Scott, even Richard Cardus) and moulding them into a very good team.  And they were very good at that, at least until the mid to late-1980s.  But hopelessly unsuited in club cultural terms towards developing the eastern Glamorgan valleys from 16 years of age.  The “solution” in 2016?  Shunt most of the valleys regional academy kids to Cardiff RFC.  I kid you not!

It was not as if the absence of any recognisable crowd for Blues “A”, at least as understood by conventional inquiry, came as a surprise to many.  My quick pre-match straw poll had confirmed the inevitable outcome.  The myth that this was Pontypridd RFC v Cardiff RFC, and there are plenty of non-Pontypridd RFC fans in the valleys that are not alienated towards “their region”, finally put to rest.  The absence of the vast majority of the Cardiff Blues or Cardiff RFC fans attending of equal or perhaps greater significance.

Does anybody expect much better for the next Blues “A” team match at the home of Merthyr RFC?  Of course not.

Lest we forget, British + Irish Cup matches at Sardis Road were not always a non-event commercial and cultural calamity.  Pontypridd RFC were frequent qualifiers through to the knock out stages, with home crowds of 5,000 or more (link)(link).  Cross Keys RFC even reaching the final of the British + Irish Cup in 2012, so it was anything but a one club issue.

The fan interest is not in the region “A” teams, but there were around 1,000 in attendance on Friday evening to watch Pontypridd RFC defeat Cardiff RFC 23-19 in the WRU Premiership at the Arms Park.  Hideous Christmas timing, the one Friday evening of the year above all others to avoid a trip into Cardiff city centre, but nevertheless.

And credit to the Blues in relation to a match that Cardiff RFC could not afford to lose in their quest for a top 8 position when the WRU Premiership shortly splits into 2 tiers.  Cardiff RFC now have a “must win” match against defending champions Ebbw Vale RFC at Eugene Cross Park.  The Blues may have released Cam Dolan, a USA Test international, to Cardiff RFC.  But they also released Garyn Smith back to Pontypridd RFC, a region player who, like Dillon Lewis and Jarrod Evans, is Pontypridd RFC “man and boy”.

When I recently discussed Welsh rugby structural issues, or rather the numerous Welsh rugby deficiencies and failures in this area, with Alan Drumm on Pundit Arena’s Oval Office podcast (link), I made the point that expecting a club fan base such as Pontypridd RFC to support Cardiff RFC as “their region” was roughly the equivalent of asking Limerick clubs like Shannon RFC, Garryowen RFC and Young Munster RFC to follow a professional team at Cork Constitution RFC as “their Munster province”.  From Alan, and from many other Irish rugby fans since, I was told that would never work.  Or spicier words to that effect.  Any regional/provincial structure based on partisan club branding is by definition sub-optimal.  The only question is the extent of the sub-optimality.

But plummeting crowds and lack of general interest might be survivable, if undesirable, if results were radically improving with regional “A” teams and at least that box could be ticked in isolation.  They have not, and that box cannot be ticked.  Not even the regional ethos Ospreys can get their “A” team to work to date, eliciting this tweet from exasperated BBC Cornwall rugby correspondent Dick Straughan after watching the Cornish Pirates demolish the hapless Ospreys “A” 41-5 on 23 October.

Since the Welsh places in the British + Irish Cup were reduced to 4 in 2013, it has been a case of decline.  11 Welsh club wins from 24 matches in 2013-14, with Pontypridd RFC losing their semi-final against Leinster “A” on try count.  45.83%.  10 Welsh club wins from 24 matches in 2014-15.  41.67%.  And then the embryonic “A” teams.  5 Welsh wins and 1 draw from 24 matches in 2015-16.  22.92%.  Slightly better this season, not least because the other 3 teams all suddenly won the same weekend that the Blues “A” were losing to Ulster “A”, but still 6 from 16 so far.  37.5%.  But whereas Pontypridd RFC were semi-finalists in 2013-14 and quarter-finalists in 2014-15, the Blues “A” to date have played 10, won 1, drawn 1, lost 8.  15%.  And it is played 4, lost 4 in 2016-17.  0%.

So whilst it would undoubtedly be a regional step backwards, is it time to reinstate the best club side within each region (league position or play-offs) or the top 4 club sides overall at the end of 2016-17 campaign in the British + Irish Cup in 2017-18?  It’s hard to think of any justification why the Blues “A” rather than Merthyr RFC and/or Pontypridd RFC should be entered in the British + Irish Cup in 2017-18.  And not because some of the academy players allocated to Cardiff RFC would probably jump at the chance of playing for these clubs, although that “allocation” issue is slowly bubbling away in the background and will inevitably erupt at some point.

As things stand, Aberavon RFC, Merthyr RFC, Pontypridd RFC and RGC1404 are the top 4 in the WRU Premiership and would likely be far more competitive than the struggling region “A” teams.  Aberavon RFC, Merthyr RFC, Bedwas RFC and Llandovery RFC the top 4 on a “by region” basis, to maintain the strategic link with each regional pathway (subject to agreeing temporary club control), with RGC1404 and their academy excluded once again as North Walian pariahs.

Only 1 region “in-house” club is currently in the top 10 of the WRU Premiership, Cardiff RFC down in the final tier 1 spot in 8th place.  With Cardiff RFC visiting 9th place and defending champions Ebbw Vale RFC this weekend, there could easily be no “in-house” regional club in the top 8 at the cut-off point for the split into tier 1 and tier 2 for the remainder of the season.

What we have tried last season and this season with embryonic “A” teams is clearly not working, for we are trying to run before we have learnt to crawl.  Once we have converted our struggling “super” club “system” into a proper regional rugby system, with consumer buy-in, then will be the time to plan successful region “A” teams.  In the British + Irish Cup, plus more generally.  At the moment, we mostly just seem to be sending academy youngsters out to be smashed to pieces and embarrassed in front of home “crowds” unworthy of the very name.  Glorified tackling practice, in many matches.