No regions to be cheerful

I didn't make the long trek to Narbeth to watch Pontypool. As it turned out the Pooler lost 27-6 which was probably about as I would have expected. We remain rooted to the bottom of the Championship with only Whitalnd beneath us but I hope a few more wins are just around the corner
Instead of watching Pontypool I flicked between the Ospreys playing at Toulouse and the Scarlets hosting Exeter. A glutton for punshment I even watched a bit of the Blues against Montpelier the following day. All three games ended in defeats for the Welsh regions and in truth they never looked like winning any of them. My first observation was just how sparsely attended the two Welsh grounds were while the Toulouse ground was buzzing. Thankfully the Blues were not playing at the Cardiff City Stadium but at the more compact Arms Park and even then there were large empty spaces. What next I wonder? - downsize to Glamorgan Wanderers' ground perhaps. The Heineken Cup is meant to be the pinnacle of professional club rugby and it is a tragedy that home support is not more forthcoming . I am sure it didn't help that all three games were scheduled to be played at lunchtime and all were live on the TV. Remember that there were also empty seats at the Wales v Australia game and even at the Wales v All Blacks game. The marketing men need to take a good look at themselves. As I remember it, when formulating your market strategy you needed to consider a lot of things starting with P:

• Product - losing rugby never helps but the game seems to have lost its ability to entertain, Too many collpased scrums and musclular collisions instead of artistry. Too few genuinely exciting players - hardly any genuinely world class players ply their trade in Wales these days. The regional product is clearly failing in comparison to club soccer in Wales.
• Price - falling attendances are a sure sign that the price is too high particulary when the games are virtually all on the TV. It's surely better to have a full stadium at a lower price than swathes of empty seats. The Irish seem to be able to fill their grounds in a country that is even more affected by austerity.
• Place - regional rugby seems to be restricted to the M4 and has forgotten about the Welsh valleys. Perhaps if a region fails to achieve a set attendance target the franchise should be offered out to tenders. I would also add kick off times to place as they are not exactly user friendly.
• Promotion - I have to say I don't really come across much promotional activity for regional rugby. I hear that now and then tickets are given away in supermarkets. The stuff on the TV and radio for Wales games is irritating to say the least. No one has yet persuaded me to go and watch the Dragons.

I hope that the new board or whatever it is going to be called will not just argue about money but will try and fertilise the dying grass roots of the game in Wales. The feelgood factor from last season is rapidly disappearing. The statistics speak for themselves - Wales have lost seven games in a row and there has only been one Welsh regional victory in the Heineken Cup. If I add to this Pontypool have only managed to win once it's looking like a long hard season!

Wales need to persuade the fat lady to sing earlier

You could almost hear Victor Meldrew saying' 'I don't believe it,' when the Aussies snatched victory against Wales in the last seconds yet again.
I felt a bit like dear old Victor as I sat through the pre-match "entertainment". You used to be uplifted by Welsh coral singing but this eeems to have become increasingly marginalised in favour of loud and discordant fanfares from the p.a. system interspersed with even louder advetrs on the big screen. The loudness of the p.a. system means that wehn they actually allow the choir to sing your hearing cannot take in the harmonies. Nevertheless the National Anthem was belted out with all its usual fervour and still makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. I hope that they will never decide to slip an advert in between the first and second verses although I'm sure that someone has thought about it..
I suppose we had better get back to the match. These are two evenly matched teams who try and play a similar style of rugby. Suffice it to say that two very strong defences were on top with line breaks few and far between. Wales had two chances to score from breaks from their own 22 but didn't take them and Australia with the last move of the game took their chance at the death. It was exciting stuff with the lead changing hands through penalties throughout the game. Wales really wanted this victory and carried on in a similar vein to the second half against the All Blacks . At 12-9 up, with under two minutes left and with a lineout right on the Aussie line you almost felt convinced that Wales could win. Memories of the matches in Australia this summer came flooding back and it somehow seemed inevitable that Australia would find a way to come back. The nervousness of the crowd was palpable and must surely have been felt by the players. The rest as they say is history.
Maybe those wizards who operate that fantastic p.a. system could blast out some music by a fat lady with a minute or so to go. Maybe we could have a choir of fat ladies in the stand ready for these kind of eventualities.
I still don't believe it.