The Welsh Regional Debate

The landscape of Welsh rugby is in turmoil right now. While the national team are on a winning streak never before seen in the Land of St. David the regional structure is cracking at the foundations. The WRU are in the process of finalising a new agreement with the regions, focused on handling the finances of the game above all. This has led to a lot of debate on social media and in newspapers in the last week. Now I'm putting forth my thoughts.

I will put forward a small disclaimer. I do not know the details for the money being discussed, and even if I did I probably wouldn't understand what they mean. What is here is my thoughts on the regions, and the WRU's plans to change the look of professional club rugby in Wales.

The regions could be about to undergo the biggest shift in their history, as the WRU looks to build a long term plan.

The reason for the restructure, so called Project Reset, is to fix the unsustainable nature of regional rugby in its current format. It has been 15 years since the regions were founded and since then it's become apparent that their formation was problematic from the start. The WRU were reliant on private investors propping up the endeavour, and that money has been steadily disappearing from the game, teams have become reliant on the money the WRU sends them for players, and from TV rights.

Scarlets were majestic in 2017, but it was
one of a handful of Welsh championships.

The concept hasn't worked great at a sporting level either. Yes, trophies have been won every so often: Blues have two European Cups, Ospreys four league titles, and Scarlets have two as well. But over fifteen years that is a paltry return compared to that which Ireland - who have a similar system - clubs have won. And because of this, it's been a constant arm wrestle to get fans to attend games. There are only so many fans to attend sport each week, and due to recent success in football for Swansea and Cardiff, it has had a direct impact on rugby crowds.

There are grounds to claim that regional rugby has been too focused on South Wales, specifically around the M4, and the rest of the Welsh rugby public left to their own devices. A large resource of potential ticket sales waits to be exploited in mid to north Wales. It was this thought that led to the set up of RGC 1404 in Colwyn Bay, almost like a proof of concept by the WRU.

RGC have built quite a following across Wales.

And so it has proven to be successful with RGC building a strong following in the North West with a trophy in the cabinent already, and they currently sit mid-table in the Welsh Premiership. The appetite for rugby up north is there, and the WRU are keen to exploit it with a fully professional outfit, a new region. Something I - personally - am in support of, I'd like to see rugby unite the entire country again, and the current regions have no real support in the North.

However, the fact of the matter is the WRU cannot afford to run five regions, they can currently barely keep four afloat, which means if a North Wales region is to be set up another needs to close down. If we take a look at the available options, the Blues are safe since they are the capital city team, and the Scarlets are currently the best region, drawing a regular, strong, crowd. Which leaves the Ospreys and the Dragons. The Ospreys are historically the most successful region; the first of the regions to truly adopt the regional mindset instead of just being a "super-club", and they're situated in the second largest city in Wales. Meanwhile, the Dragons have always been viewed as the weakest side in Wales, disappointed for seasons, and have the smallest average crowd size of any of the regions. So logic would dictate the region to disappear would be the Dragons from Newport.

However the WRU own the Dragons, and so have no desire to disband the region, and so the Ospreys appear destined for the chopping block. If that is the case I doubt that many of the Ospreys fans will switch allegiance to the Blues or Scarlets, and I think many of the Ospreys homegrown players will likely move abroad refusing to betray the region that developed them, especially the likes of Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric who will have the required 60 caps to still play for Wales.

Alun Wyn Jones isn't impressed with the idea of playing for another region.

The WRU seem set on forming a North/East/South/West regional divide across Wales, and I don't blame them it sounds like a much neater scenario. However the proposal of keeping Newport to be East, and Cardiff to be South/Central, is a questionable one to me. Firstly on a geographical point of view Newport and Cardiff are much closer together than Cardiff and Swansea, and so have a bigger overlap of potential fans. Additionally, there is the fact that should the Ospreys disappear Welsh rugby will lose its best rivalry, fought over the Loughor River, between the Ospreys and Scarlets. So should the WRU wish to move forward with the creation of a North Region an alternative strategy should be considered.

Could the Dragon's relocate to the North?

This is where I put forward a more off-the-wall proposal. It will allow the creation for a North Wales region, whilst allowing the WRU to maintain their control on a region. Instead of disbanding one region and creating another, why not move the one region you have control of to the place you want a region?

It may generate some arguments, but a club moving is nothing new. We've seen London Wasps head to Coventry, London Irish move to Reading in the past, and in the world of American franchise sport, it happens on a semi-regular basis. Fundamentally it could work, the branding of "Dragons" would still work in North Wales, it would also mean that player's contracts would still be valid as the region never ceased to exist, and it would mean the WRU can more directly oversee the expansion into North Wales. There's no doubt it wouldn't be an easy process, but surely it is worth a look at?

Project Reset remains a mystery to many, and it could do for a while yet. What we do know is that it is certainly taking the gloss off the performance of the national team, in a year where everyone should be focused on the World Cup.