Sink or Swim

Lewis has gone on record with his opinion (and, at this moment, it is only his unless I've missed Pickering's public approval of that stance) that the WRU should run the entire professional game in Wales. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20836386 This is quite a claim as there is no infrastructure in place at the WRU to run four...

Give Us the Information so that We can decide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxN5azRtUOAFirst of all, everybody needs to look at the above video of the RRW Press Conference at Cardiff Arms Park. It provides a number of useful pieces of information (not least on the breakdown of the money the WRU pays the four professional teams) and shows the quality of the questioning offered by many sections...

Having Your Cake & Eating It

The reality of the financial situation in Welsh rugby is that the four professional teams cannot earn enough income to be able to match the salaries on offer outside of Wales. The English have a £4.5m salary cap with the allowance of a marquee player whilst the French cap is 52% of a club's turnover,...

What are they fighting for?

A normal Welsh rugby civil war takes 6 to 9 months to play out. We saw this in 1996, we saw it in 1999 (when it took a little longer) and we saw it again in 2002-3. The Union lost the first one (who controled the players when professional rugby started) but won the next...

Our Friends to the East – danger approaches

A Danger To Newport RFC           Whilst it would be true that most Newport RFC supporters are unhappy with how events for their club have unfolded since 2003, it could be that even worse is on the way for them. Rightly so, many of them are upset at the Board (especially Tony Brown) for not fighting hard...

So where next?

If the PRGB is dead in the water, then what do the four (RRW?) do next? Sit by and wait for Roger to come up with another dead duck or, at last, actually kick back at the WRU. They must have surely realised that they will never be successful whilst playing second fiddle to the...

PRGB = BS = WTF? = Doomed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20836386 My friend, Roger Lewis, is seemingly keen on testing which nuclear option will be taken first in Welsh rugby - either the club owners throw their collective toys and walk away, leaving him to march through empty streets with his Team Wales army behind him, or they finally get some togetherness and go their...

Why the u23s? Why not the WP?

Top u23 players who are outside of the first team squad often drop back in to the WP when not required. The drop in quality is too great. The diversity of coaching and approach, combined with the issues of not training with the WP team, all on top of the disruption caused to the WP...

More than the English?

£102m over 8 years is what the English see as a payment for International Players outside of the IRB window. For the WRU, that value is (at present) £54m.See the difference? It's stark. Same product to sell (international rugby) but a different price.Look at what the RFU pay for: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/england/2325851/RFU-and-Premier-Rugby-announce-new-deal.htmlLook at what the WRU pay...

What to do with Valleys Rugby?

The vocal minority of wolves in Ponty clothing have gone a little silent since NIgel Greenaway launched a new business venture and Owen Smith got a proper job, but their followers still need to be fed a bone.For me, the obvious thing that they should look to do is to enter the English County Championship...