How Soggy Is My Valley - From All The Tears Shed Over The Week-end

ON THE BASIS “a broken clock is correct twice per day,” I ought not to have been surprised at a BTL comment on a piece on 'Wales Online' this morning, bemoaning the absolute skelping which Cardiff Blues and the Ospreys took at the hands of Edinburgh and Glasgow, at the weekend.

The Taffia are hurting, they will – reluctantly – go to their default position: “You never beat Wales, you only score more points than them” after losing to an English team. They have learned over recent seasons to accept defeat from the Irish, but, losing by a combined 29-72 to The Jocks over one afternoon/evening, that's a hard one for the boyos to take.

The particular comment, one of 146 on the piece, which caught my attention, was from someone styling himself: 'Davo17' – perhaps a bench-warming prop, who wrote:

“It's all far more complicated than people think in my view but in the end it boils down to lack of public support. I hold my hands up and am as guilty as the next person but I have no desire to watch my region these days sitting in a cold, souless stadium watching players of which I know little playing in a league that has little form or structure and that appears to change every year.

There is little or no consistency in terms of kick off times, all of which adds up, it appears to me, to a sport which puts the paying customer bottom of the list when it comes to entertaining the public.

I hope in vain that the game in these islands will one day come to its senses and instigate a British and Irish league, something the WRU could have bought into years back but lacked the foresight. Even the apparently successful English Premiership is losing money hand over fist so it might not be a dead duck.

Hiding the issues facing the regions behind the success of the national team is a false prospectus. Wales has, for the last 15 years, had an extraordinary group of players and, for the most part, a successful coach hence a period of sustained success but if one, or either, of these is no longer the case then the whole house of cards might come crashing down.

The game needs administrators of foresight and vision to take it forward in Wales but, sadly, such men and women as as rare as regional successes in Scotland this past weekend.”

Another BTL commenter: 'MikeFman' makes a point I have been hammering for years – the way young players from the age group teams cannot get adequate game time, because the United Rugby Championship squads are filled by southern hemisphere journeymen.

Worryingly, considering Rugby Union is supposedly “The People's Game” in Wales, a lot of the commenters were suggesting there is not currently the talent in Wales to support four regions. I certainly have made that point before – I believe three Welsh and three Scottish teams would be a fairer division of resources within the URC.

What did surprise me reading the BTL comments, was the number of readers advocating Wales join Us in having just two URC teams – East and West Wales, one based in Swansea, the other in Cardiff.

I now wish to return to 'Davo17's' comment on Wales Online, in particular to his third paragraph:

“I hope in vain that the game in these islands will one day come to its senses and instigate a British and Irish league, something the WRU could have bought into years back but lacked the foresight. Even the apparently successful English Premiership is losing money hand over fist so it might not be a dead duck.”

Anyone with even half a brain knows this is the logical answer to rugby's problems in these islands. However, like my Welsh friend, I do not think we will see this British and Irish League until the last English club-owning millionaire admits: “my losses are now unsustainable.”

The reality is, the only level of rugby which is capable of attracting the size of crowds and the media interest which it requires to survive and thrive as a commercial business is INTERNATIONAL RUGBY. Anything else is a subsidiary branch of the full-fat, international game and has to be treated accordingly.

The problems with setting-up a British and Irish League are threefold:

1. The English would insist on running it, having the biggest say, the most clubs and the biggest share of any money it makes. Our way or the highway.

2. What happens to the Italian and South African clubs in the URC? The Saffers in particular bring a fair bit of cash to the table.

3. Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Wales at professional club level, each has enabled the governing Union to retain control, England has allowed the clubs to have control – the English clubs will be very hard to placate and get onside.

Rather than a British and Irish League, we should maybe be looking at an NFL-style European League – by combining the Gallagher Premiership, Top 14 and United Rugby Championship. However, a league or a competition involving 45 clubs – 13 English, 14 French and 18 from the URC - would be a bit unwieldy.

Everywhere but in England and France, the Unions run the show, are the English and French Unions strong enough to tell their big clubs:

• There will be a pan-European League, and we, the national unions, will be running it, our way.

• Not all you guys will qualify to get into this new league.

• There will be a CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) which every club will require to sign-up to.

On grounds of fair play, levelling the playing field and good management, any league, be it a British and Irish, or a northern hemisphere one, will require a CBA, the current club owners will not like that one little bit and if our hypothetical super league is suggested, I can see the CAS (Court of Arbitration in Sport) in Laussane, being involved for some time.