sgorpioncaerdyddrob

Whenever I used to play Union I would just look away at the pretty girls lining the touchline and hope I might have cuaght one's eye but playing on the right wing with a team of neigh on all right footed players meant I never got much of a chance to show my skills, especially following the inevitable break down and reset of the scrum, even the CROUCH HOLD ENGAGE set that they have brought in now as done little to improve the binding and the physical contest these fans of that element refer to. resulting in numerous resets and cheap penalties To me it was all about the flair, quick tapp, grubber and the show and go. On moving up North al beit staying in God's country I soon discovered Rugby League maintained most of these charms without the endless druggery of the ROLLING RUCK , it stopped being a 'scrum' in the purest sense years ago. But as a winger I would say that. Oh by the way ,do you know a couple of taffy's paul and claire who follow the bees round your neck of the woods? they follow them everywhere!!

I think thats a bit premature , we are only just beginning to see the fruits of four and more years of development of RL in South Wales in particular, providing a predominantly Welsh born and bred playing squad.There is plenty of time yet. Got to say as a Welshman myself ,despite my father being English I would never want to play for England but obviously these lads don't feel the same, they are well settled in Cheshire now and see an easier and probably better funded path to progress playing for the 'Sais'. That difference just doesnt exist here in Union, if anything its the opposite.Just another couple of names to join the likes of Carvell and Halley.... but also just another obstacle on the way to glory for Welsh RL!! Definately need a touring GB Lions side, and have it periodically like the Union version , this story is not a reason to curtail the development of national sides however, given four more years England might just have some serious opposition on both sides of the Channel.

I think its less about the Geographical spread and more about whether that Geographical spread includes London and the London centric national media.As far as I know none of the national papers in terms of the UK has its head office outside the South of England. Other sports like Basketball have a wider Geographical spread at the top level than RL, the distant third most popular sport here in Cardiff is probably Ice Hockey, also a wider Geographical spread. It gets a few articles a week in the local during the season, it used to get far more national coverage when there was money in the League to attract top talent and a London team regardless of the numbers watching it. The key here is that neither has a top flight team in London and RL attracts far more people to its matches than these sports. I think that in terms of numbers itself RL is worth substantial National Media coverage, but clearly the National Media does not. Clearly a successful London RL side is paramount to getting substantial National Media coverage.

The person you would want to speak to about that I think would be 'Cardiff Cymru' he is the Press Officer for Wales RL/ Cymru CR and produces much of the promotional material about the developments of Welsh Rugby League. From what I know theres more than 300 schools in South Wales alone that play Rugby League, from wence there were less than 20 pre 2006 and we had a successful schools competition sponsored by the Scorpions this year which saw 500 kids play RL from Pembroke to Monmouth . We have 10 open age sides in the Welsh Conferences, which this year is now in two divisions instead of just one (my team Cardiff Demons) back in 2002 . There was even a cross city RL derby this year when the U17s of the Demons took on the South Coast Spartans which made the local paper. They along with Merthyr Tydfil Wildcats ,Penallta Storm and Glynneath & Abercrave Giants were established this year and played their first games of RL at u17 level or less. (G& A G especially looking very promising for the future from what Ive seen). I remember reading something a while back which was marked out as a significant milestone..... We have about as many amateur RL clubs in Wales playing as does the City of Hull. Make of that what you will. Haven't heard much about Brynteg School recently, I remember when they reached the Year 8 Final in 2006 ,surprising considering it has quite a reputation for producing Rugby talent , primarily in the other code such as JPR Williams, Gavin Henson ,Gareth Williams (if those names mean anything to you). I know the Welsh Schools Cup is one of the major subsideries of the Carnegie Champion Schools Cup and sends sides into the main competition each year. Dan Clements was the mian Development Officer for Wales RL when the Crusaders were based in Bridgend , and I think they are slowly starting to get things going up North, theres a North Wales merit league which started this year, tghe development up North is naturally far more elementary than it is in the South, which has always been the dominant force for rugby of either code here, North Wales was always football like Ian Rush and Neville Southall. I think North Wales is a few years off producing semi professional standard RL players but it will be interesting to see. There is going to be a good fight on now as for which Rugby code will take off in North Wales with the Crusaders established in Wrexham and the first semi pro Rugby Union Region Club being set up in Colwyn Bay.

True ,I don't get that either. Although I know a few of them like the Evans brothers at Warrington have been snapped up by English sides. Whats most dissappointing is Wales didn't win the Student and A side competitions this year either, the former having been won for the past 8 years. Gutted! The amateur scene is not as good as it could be but it has produced many of the players that are playing the game for the Scorpions and some of the Crusaders so it is producing some talent, plus Bridgend won the Harry Jepson a few years back and a Welsh side often gets to the semi final in that competition. Plus we had Blackwood get to the 3rd round of the Challenge Cup last year.

Think it would be better to have some local person like Evans or someone who actually supports Wire rather than a bunch of Leicester City Football fans who's manager follows them.

I agree with all of the sentiments of Red Rooster. On our supporters trip to Hunslet last Sunday I found out more about Samuel's dodgy dealings and that the demise of the club was inevitable from as early as the beginning of the season. Its infuriating that all of this was going on behind the scenes completely underminning the club . Clearly the people of Bridgend don't trust Leyton Samuel as shown in the crowds as the Jack says and he has now been behind the collapse of the town's two professional Rugby Clubs. It still hurts now that people and their ego's destroyed something potentially big as I really enjoyed following the Celtic Crusaders more so than my other love CCFC. It brought many local people to the sport in general (including rekindling my interest) and thankfully some of them have stuck with the Crusaders up in Wrexham and/or support South Wales Scorpions .We now have a playing foundation here than can compete against established heartland clubs. Wrexham should undoubtedly be persevered with as should the South. The crowds aren't bad regardless of the drop off from the beginning of the season, atleast they actually had a real budget to promote games and they have the financial backing and suitable people to run a professional club. None of this happened in Bridgend, the crowds were fairly constant around the 3,500 mark. I speak to people here now and more of them know about Crusaders RL than about CC as they get some positive coverage on Welsh TV now. A successful side will always get more fans , and the travelling support is certainly a big factor in the crowds up North. Should that be seen as a problem, no , not yet and not anytime soon. Some big improvments have been made but theres still a long way to go. If we had the best parts of South (player development,financial potential) and North Wales (crowds, club management,stadium) behind a SL side it could be very very successful!

I saw it Ian, great exposure, just need it more often, hopefully both Welsh sides making the playoffs should be key to that.

Must say I didn't think it would work better up in Wrexham , but the club have made some considerable improvements playing and fanbase size wise. Jut need to start setting down more solid foundations to keep it going on from here.

Ah , good to know anyway. What are the crowds like? Is there enough interest locally and financially for the club to make the step up IYO ? Best of luck

Am I right that our 'Colts' side that ran for the 2008 season in the Conference National and won the Grand Final are the only team to have stopped you being Champions every year for the past 5 seasons? Where next for Bramley? does this mean the question of making the step up to the professional ranks being ineevitable sometime soon as there is little left to achieve at Conference level for yourselves?

He has never been one to shirk a challenge , I've wanted to see him play League for a long time, as I think it could do wonders for the game here, but would have prefered if he had done it about 3 years earlier. Normally don't listen to Talkshite's sensationalist bull but good to see him getting out there and promoting it.

As a fan myself I agree, we would have to change the whole dynamic of the club and bring in imports and face the same ridicule from , rightly and wrongly 'holier than though' northern clubs, the Celtic Crusaders got. just got to keep developing the local boys and blend with some experience. Really enjoyed this year Cardiff Cymru, I take it the matches are going to be predominantly on Sunday's again? If so my cheque will be in the post ASAP.

The majoirty of those debts were accrued down here under the Samuel administration , one of the main reasons why the club didnt stay in South Wales was that local interested parties wanted the club but not to take on the debt as well, only Wrexham were willing supposedly.

Pays de Galles = Cymru I highlighted your point to my mate the WRL Press Officer ,so good to have it confirmed from the other side. Interesting choice of stadiums, must say thought having the Scotland game at Toulouse RU ground with 18,000 was possibly ambitious thought it would be at Des Minimes? Im hoping to be in Albi for what should be the 'decider' .

Its a nice idea and I hope it a few more years it could easily become reality, i just think we need to build the exposure of the game on a local level and keep developing the playing base particularly in the North , theres plenty of talent out west in the Llanelli area playing Union right now who might be tempted to play League given the opportunity that arises from what Ive seen as well. I think the future at the moment is to take it slowly and give it sometime as we know what happens when you build up too quickly without establishing solid foundations. Two professional clubs is roughly where the WRL wanted to be now wasnt it Ian? With the Scorpions taking much of the promising talent from the Welsh Conference particularly Valley Cougars and Blackwood who made the 3rd round of the Challenge Cup this year shows theres talent out there, i'd be worried having another CH1 side would spread our playing and financial resources too thinly at the moment. If we can get more conference clubs , we now have two Welsh Summer Leagues and 10 clubs follwoing the creation of Dyffryn Devils a few weeks in, seems to have made a fairly conpetitive competition, we'll see what standard there is sunday before the Scorpions match. Still matches get forfeited due to lack of numbers by some of the weaker clubs , I was going to watch Cardiff v Blackwood other week but it was called off as Blackwood were short, they and the Cougars have had to totally rebuild this year. If there was to be a new professional side then I would have thought it would have to be here in the capital where the money is. A Cardiff Conference National side would be a good start, a local consortium like the Scorps could work to support that, its only one level up from what the Demons play at now,I'd like to think it would get the necessary support, though I think the best playing base is in the Rhondda Valleys such as the Cougars at the moment so if they could get the support maybe they could step up. Im very interested in seeing how Merthyr Tydfil Wildcats go on from here As for naming the professional clubs Wrexham Crusaders and Neath Scorpions , I know it would alienate the fans of South Wales not from the town thats part of the appeal, with Neath theres already NeathPT Steelers. Wrexham ? can't say for sure.

It made the usual 4 hour plus journey back home go very quickly, not been that happy since the win at Bradford away last year. A marker and a major achievement to take on from this season. The defence was immense and the majority of the try scoring chances were taken, simple really , they'd been capable of this all season , losing 5 matches by 6 points or less says alot.I just wish there had been more 'Taffs' up there with us to see it. A side put together quickly about a month or so before the start of the season of a few seasoned pro's , talented local Union converts, a local South African and Australian with Welsh heritage have done remarkably well, but whatever their background they are now Welsh Rugby League players. I look forward to seeing many of them representing my country this Autumn in what will be a real barometer as to how well we're doing.

I thought the Wales U23 match in Colwyn Bay would be at the RU ground in the town not Eirias Park. Eirias Park!! Now that is a blast from the past, I went to the secondary school next door and used to train on the athletic track there as a youth. I might just have to come up for that, a mate in the Scorpions might be playing then as well .

As happy as I am to have it back on my doorstep if it is true does the RFL not know that February 13/14th weekend is right at the beginning of the RU SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP???? They might have a bit of publicity competition to contend with , but what else is new down here! Im not so sure the WRU would want them to be using their pitch in the build up to their money spinning season . I'll wait and see considering the WRU once described RL as the 'Child that should be strangled at birth' I'll reserve judgement .

I often see a couple of former London Bronco's fans , East End boys at Neath on matchdays ,who say they just can't support the Quins and the club playing in Twickenham ,it just doesn't work for them. They'd prefer ground sharing in the East End with a smaller football club in a more RL conducive area ,so Orient would probably be the best option on that front. I've often thought the same myself. Twickenham is a great idea in theory, but it doesn't seem to deliver as yet. London RL just needs a permanent base though more than anything, It just needs to stay in the sameplace for 15 years or more and establish itself in the area, you've got to remember going from Charlton to Twickenham is a large distance in sporting terms , compare the comparative distance in Yorkshire! Maybe they should go down the Union route where most of the top level clubs play around the M25 hinterland instead of the city itself, where the crowds have been better like Wasps.

A trophy is still a trophy, regardless of what it may get you as a result ( got to be honest it has to be Windnas nailed down for a SL place)! Its a step up from a Trans Pennine Cup ,certainly if not not quite the greatest ever achievement of Batley RLFC.Congrats to the Bulldogs