Sunday 25 March 2012

So near and yet so far ....

The visit of the Wizards from Aberavon is always eagerly anticipated as it gives Pooler a chance to wear their alternative strip. This year it is a rather fetching pink which I have to say did not really have enough contrast with the red and black of Aberavon on a bright sunny afternoon at the Park. Pontypool Park on a nice spring day is pleasant place to be and a decent crowd basked in the sunshine.
This really was one that got away! Pooler started brightly with an early try but then Aberavon, playing down the slope, took over with some slick and powerful rugby and had soon established a lead. Pooler looked all at sea with a new half-back pairing of Evans and Tovey, on loan from the Dragons, not really gelling with the rest of the team and we feared the worst. As the half progressed, Pooler gradually settled down and the hot conditions seemed to take the sting out of the heavyweight Wizards' forwards. The teams went in at halftime with Pooler losing by 8 points - it could have been a lot worse we thought.
The second half was all Pooler and it seemed inevitable that they would overhaul Aberavon. Pooler spurned some excellent opportunities both from good field position and from the kicking tee. Aberavon were reduced to 14 men after a yellow card but still managed to outscore Pooler by two penalties to one during the sin-bin period. It looked all up for Pooler but they never gave up trying and a fine try and a penalty closed the gap to just 3 points for the last few minutes. Pooler camped deep in the Aberavon half and even spurned an eminently kickable penalty in their pursuit of victory. Blakey, the prop, was held up over the line and despite a period of intense pressure from the resulting 5 metre scrum Aberavon managed to hold out.
It was hard luck on Pooler who could of and should have won but this is why Aberavon are at the top of the table and we are near the bottom. We had ample chances to win the game comfortably but didn't capitalise on them particularly as a result of some wayward goal kicking.
The regional rugby over the weekend resulted in good victories for the Dragons and Ospreys away in Scotland and Ireland respectively. The Ospreys win at Leinster was particularly impressive where a dominant scrum stole a rare victory. The Blues v Scarlets game was exciting but littered with mistakes. The Scarlets backs showed their class and that combined with some awful defending meant that the West Walians took the spoils. The game was played at the Cardiff City Stadium in front of a small crowd which was really disappointing when so many of Wales' Grand Slam players were on view.
At Pooler we are still on "death row" waiting to hear when we are to be executed. Rumours still abound that a last minute reprieve from the President may yet arrive. That sad old padre is waiting outside, however, and it looks odds on that we will be touching the green, green grass of Newbridge next season.  

Monday 19 March 2012

Grand Slam is a Brilliant Achievment

Congratulations to Wales for a magnificent Six nations campaign. I was lucky enough to go to all the games and this was, in fact, my first live Grand Slam and I have lived through the tension. Make no mistake this Grand Slam was built on teamwork and an indomitable will to win. First and foremost we had an almost watertight defence with everyone contributing but with Lydiate outstanding. In each game there were flashes of individual brilliance in attack that put the points on the board - George North's off-load in Ireland, Scott William's try in Twickenham, Alex Cuthbert against France, Jamie Roberts against Italy and Leigh Halfpenny against Scotland. Yes we missed the buzz that we got whenever Shane got the ball but someone always stood up to deliver the goods. My abiding memories will be the brilliant tackles of Warburton and Halfpenny/North at Twickenham and that last minute penalty in Dublin that set us on the road. Having watched England dismantle the Irish scrum on Saturday we must also spare a thought for the Welsh front row that never took a backward step. I am particularly glad that the two unsung heroes Ian Evans and Dan Lydiate have been singled out for praise.
Whist the Welsh team flourishes, there are still major concerns about what is happening in the tiers below. I watched the Dragons v Blues game on Thursday night on the TV and the standard was truly awful. How can full time professionals play with such mediocrity. The ball handling was simply dreadful. The scrums were a disaster area with the referee unable to persuade the front rows that watching them collapse and get penalised does nothing to add to the entertainment. It seems that the rules of engagement at scrums are making the whole thing farcical. We used to laugh at the scrums in rugby league but at least they achieved the objective of getting the game going again quickly. Half the problem seems to be that the loose head props never seem to get their left foot forward to give them some kind of stability - this is a result of the so called "hit". I don't know what the answer is but can't we go back to the laws we had when the Potypool Front Row were plying their trade?
On Friday night I went to St Helens to watch Swansea play Pontypool. St Helens was a sad place and not just because one of Welsh Rugby's legends Mervyn Davies had died the previous day. Mervyn played for Swansea with distinction and I was there on the fateful day when he collapsed when playing against the Pooler in the Cup semi-final. The playing surface at St Helens is probably the best in Wales but the rest of the ground is in poor condition with crumbling terraces and bits of scaffolding and old fences scattered around. Pooler had to change in a portacabin. To think they used to play international matches there! As a Pooler fan I paid close attention to the covered standing and it was a joke - there was no terracing, no barriers and was filled with the goundsman's bits and pieces. What price the Premier League's ground criteria here? The crowd was pitifully small - I estimate 200 people max with a goodly proportion of Pooler fans who had braved the Friday evening traffic. I know Pooler are hardly box office but still you might have expected a bit more interest even if it was only to say goodbye to Merv the Swerve.
The game was entirely one-sided with Swansea on top in all aspects of the game. Their powerful forwards and fleet-footed backs soon put paid to an out of sorts Pooler who were disjointed in the three quarters when they got the ball. Pooler eventually lost 43-11 and I was glad to leave after a thoroughly miserable evening.
As expected the Wales under 20's were turned over by France to end a disappointing season. The trouncing that they had from England tells us that we do need to worry about the future no matter how young the current side are. Haven't we said that before?
Still three Grand Slams in eight years cannot be bad but let's not forget to nurture the roots of Welsh Rugby.

Monday 12 March 2012

A Mixed Weekend

Pooler welcomed the league leaders to the park and Neath set about us like rabid dogs from the kick off. Their defeat by lowly Newport the previous week had clearly led to recriminations and to say they were motivated is an understatement. They were far too strong and athletic for a shell-shocked Pooler and we feared that a drubbing was on its way. To their credit Pooler defended stoutly and, despite the early loss of powerful centre Robinson to injury, dug in and managed to restrict Neath to just 8 points in the first half even though the Welsh All Blacks were playing with a keen wind at their backs. In the second half the wind speed mysteriously dropped a few knots and the Pooler were unable to make much impression even though Neath's tempo slowed. There was some hope of a bonus point loss after Pooler scored a try and kicked a couple of penalties but Neath pulled away and eventually won 23-11. Pontypool could not be faulted for their defensive effort as in previous years this would have been a much greater loss but it was still a defeat.Worse still, the news filtered down that Newport had beaten Pontypridd so we are back to last but one in the league. We still have to play Newport at home and Bedwas away so there is an opportunity to avoid being the bottom club in the Dragon's region.
The following day I visited the Millennium Stadium for the Wales v Italy game. It was disappointing to see so many empty seats even though Wales are on a roll. My ticket was £72 and with the game being on the telly you have to wonder if it is value for money when you add in all the "extras". The game itself was rather flat and in many ways reminded me of the Pontypool v Neath game the previous night in its inevitability. Italy were never going to win but defended strongly and restricted Wales to two tries. Both games were lessons that you can stop the superior side from scoring if you can slow down matters at the breakdown. This season it seems that the refs are more likely to penalise the attacking side at the breakdown which leads to frustration in the stands. It can be such a frustrating game to watch when you add in the time it takes for scrums to be reset and the frozen animation of the scrum half at the base of rucks. Still most people would have been happy with a twenty one point margin before the kick off and Wales move on to the Grand Slam game. We do need Warburton back to boss the breakdown if we are to beat France.
Ireland looked quite useful that evening against the disappointing Scots but that is the limit of my analysis as the "extras" caught up with me.
I agonised about what was the best result for Wales before the France v England game. After some thought I came up with a one point win for England which would mean France could not win the championship and England would need two surprising results to snatch the championship on points difference. The problem with that was that it would mean supporting England which is virtually illegal in Wales. In the end I couldn't resolve the issue and watched dispassionately. Strangely France also seemed dispassionate and diffident which meant that England were able to race into an early lead. The commentators enthused and it seemed as if it were England under 15s playing and winning against all the odds rather than a team of seasoned, highly paid professionals. France did manage to stir their stumps towards the end and actually could have won with a late drop goal but messed it up as they had done against Ireland the previous week. England were jubilant but the French did not seem that bothered. I wonder whether they are more interested in keeping their places in their club teams with the massive influx of top quality imports heading their way. I consoled myself in the knowledge that this was almost my ideal result even though they were wearing white jerseys.

Thursday 8 March 2012

Good victory against Cardiff but......

It started off as a pleasant sunny afternoon but the clouds soon gathered and an icy wind started to blow. The rather hostile climatic conditions coupled with an enterprising and hard-working performance from Pontypool soon put paid to Cardiff. It was one of Pooler's better performances of the season and a decent sized crowd were overjoyed apart from the few pockets of Cardiff fans who had made the trip. We got a bonus point for scoring four nice tries and we had edged above local rivals Newport in the league so we were happy.
Then you get to thinking - we finish above Newport, so what? We are doomed to life in the lower leagues and cannot really do anything about it on the field. The WRU have decided that our face does not fit at the Premier League table for reasons that are not clear to us and we had best just grin and bear it. It seems incredible to the die-hard supporters that we can be treated so shoddily and it is to the team's great credit that they still feel motivated enough to give their all each week.
There are murmurs on the Bank that it is not all over yet and we will fight for our rights. The eyes of the Wales, however, are focused on Triple Crowns and Grand Slams and do not spare a thought for our plight .
Anyway the next visitors to the park will be the league leaders Neath a nice appetiser for the Wales v Italy the following day.

Falling Attendances


So the WRU are worried about falling attendances at Rugby matches. It should come as no surprise to them because no thought has been given to the person who braves the elements and actually wants to watch a game in the flesh.
At the international level, admission prices have soared and the average rugby fan does not think it is a bargain to have to travel on overcrowded trains or pay exorbitant car parking fees to mix with the drunken hordes that gather in Cardiff. As a debenture holder, I still attend every home match but, rugby apart, the enjoyment is waning. It is evident to me that the people who actually watch rugby at club level and have attempted to understand the ever more complicated laws of the game are in the minority. This is evidenced by the shouting and bawling of absurd comments often using foul language. On top of this a large proportion of the match is taken up either letting people pass with trays of drink or inevitably making a trip to empty overflowing bladders. The WRU would argue that they still manage to fill the ground for most matches so why worry.
            At the regional level, attendances are generally low and the majority of games take place in cavernous stadia with little atmosphere. It is a wonder that the TV companies do not feel the need to dub on canned crowd noise. We have ended up with four regional franchises that are divided into two pairs with stadia that are only separated by about ten miles. The games are played on an ever-changing mixture of days and kick off times to suit the TV and of course virtually all are televised live. Most fans I talk to would prefer to plan their lives around attending a rugby match on a Saturday afternoon. The concentrated nature of the locations of the regional teams and their reluctance to travel to play in other parts of their region means that the regional teams are restricting their fan-base. With games televised, high admission prices, rising fuel costs and limited parking it is no wonder that fans are quite content to watch at home or in the local pub. If this was not bad enough, two of the regions are based in soccer dominated cities where they will always come a poor second in terms of attendances. One of the joys of attending rugby matches was the chance to mingle with opposition fans but away attendance has also dwindled with the RaboDirect Pro League.
            There is still Premiership rugby in the regions you will say. Unfortunately this too is gravitating towards the South leaving large swathes of our rugby hinterland unrepresented even at this level. The recent WRU plan to reduce the Premiership to ten clubs from fourteen with four of these teams based in the same place as the regional team and two actually playing on the same ground (with another likely to move in the same direction) actively encouraged this. It was pleasing to see that they back-tracked on this ill-conceived plan and allowed Carmarthen Quins and Bridgend (incidentally two of the more southerly based clubs) to remain in the league. This still leaves, for example, the whole of Gwent east of Newport unrepresented including the Eastern and Western Valleys that have long been a breeding ground for Welsh rugby talent. Think of Pontypool, Ebbw Vale, Newbridge and Abertillery and you think of tough forwards like Graham Price, Clive Burgess, Clive Davies and Alun Pask. There was a plan to include North Wales too but this seems to have been ditched somewhere along the way. It is barmy to go forward on this basis. It is even more barmy when you consider that the WRU are still dithering about what to do with the game at regional level
            If these sides are good enough they will rise to the top in our league structure you might argue. The plan is to ring fence the Premiership for the foreseeable future so no hope of that happening. The WRU in its wisdom decided to reduce the number of clubs to improve the standard by concentrating the better players. Take this to its logical conclusion and we could end up with just a league of regional second teams. The basis on which the original ten (and now twelve) was chosen was a complicated mixture of the quality of facilities, playing record and a host of other factors. The standard of facilities required was overblown and the position that a side achieves in the Premiership would seem to be determined by how deep their sponsors’ pockets are and how many regional players are released to play for them. It does not seem that the heart and soul of the cub, the number of members and supporters, has been taken into account as some of the clubs that have been selected could never be described as well supported. The upshot of the reduction to twelve clubs will probably be even less people watching rugby and a decline in interest and participation in previously highly productive parts of Wales. The Premiership has been badly organised from the outset with no one quite sure what was going to happen at the end of the season even halfway though it. The current situation with half of the league playing Anglo-Irish cup matches and the other half playing league matches is a good example of poor planning. What is the bottom half of the league going to do while the top half are catching up on league matches? Then we have the play-offs at the end of the season again for the top clubs. The lower half of the league is just not playing enough rugby and this is unsatisfactory for both the players and the spectators. I believe that too many promising young players are spending their time in the gym, on the practice ground and sat on the bench rather than getting match-hardened - maybe this would even reduce the number of injuries.
            Would it not be a better approach to give more young players the opportunity to play at this level and rub shoulders with professionals and expand the league to sixteen and ditch the unpopular Anglo-Irish Cup - incidentally the size of the Western Mail Championship in the glory days of Welsh rugby? We should think carefully about spreading these clubs geographically about the regions to try and correct the current unbalanced situation even if it needs a re-evaluation of the way the WRU’s money is distributed. You will say we cannot turn back time and things have moved on. They may have moved on but is it at the cost of damaging the roots of Welsh Rugby and perpetuating a downward spiral? We should be taking advantage of the positivity from the recent performances of the national team in New Zealand and in the 6 Nations Championship and trying to grow the game not shrink it.