stevecl

Fascinating. Thank you!!! Particularly loved the rather quaint "these are the differences page". Does the layout of the forwards - 4 and 2 - mean anything or was that just how the typesetter squeezed them in, it seems inconsistent with how the backs naames are arranged in a rough formation as we are used to seeing today. Does anyone know if there was a reason for the venue? It does not appear an obvious one for a 'Northern Union' team??

That does not necessarily follow at League 1 level and the WWR experience - admitedly not the best of role models - says that each season you end up re-booting as the previous season successes earn better deals elsewhere and the previous season failures are jettisoned.

Speaking as Wales RU - and RL - fan I was glad to see the back of Burgess in that game. He was effective for the time he was on but I never saw how Bath thought he was a 6. RU forward play is way too technical (NOTE : technical does not mean better it means different) to learn the game in a hurry. Had he wanted to stay he was IMHO definately a 12. He wasnt well used by England which is odd as Lancaster is a good coach but maybe other pressures elsewhere. There were some odd sound-bites at the time, there is a vid of him saying he "felt like a union player" and equally you can fine one saying "he always felt like a league player" but that may be down to his handlers at the time.

Dream on…….. It will take more than one person. We are constantly told here how rugby (union) is the ‘national sport’ when spectators and participant numbers would suggest soccer is #1. There is an entrenched RU bias in the media and she will do well to affect that on her own.

As the holder of the record number of Welsh caps I might churlishly take issue with the "An english coach....." bit, but good luck if true.

I don't know the situation but my immediate reaction is that it is hard to see how this ends well for them. If you resign from the governing body how do you get to compete in said body's competitions and hence any meaningful competition?

Raiders - by 1 Cougars Crusaders Oldham Hornets

11 and 14 are some of the few positions Wales RU are not short of talent. Sign him by all means if he comes on a “free” but I can’t see why Wales would buy him out.

Damn, clicked "submit" too soon. What I mean to say - and it was not a code comparison I think they were bothered yes but somehow it has lost it's way on the channel, too many competing calls on the purse maybe. I grew up in the "other code" but back when I started watching Big League on Sky, the coverage was streets ahead of anything the RU coverage could offer. I guess then the latter was probablty confined to BBC with the World Cup on ITV. I think they saw it as a vehicle for those Friday evenings and put a lot of effort into a decent production team and it worked. A lot of guys I played with at the time were watching the "other game" and commenting favourably on it.

I think they were bothered yes but somehow it has lost it's way on the channel, too many competing calls on the purse maybe. I grew up in the "other code" but back when I started watching Big League on Sky, the coverage was streets ahead of anything the RU coverage could offer. I guess then the latter was probablty confined to BBC with the World Cup on ITV.

I tend to go with those here that say "less is more". Why do I need someone - I am watching it for fecks sake and yes radio is different - but why do I need an "expert" to tell me that x passed to y. I sense the summarisers feel the need to earn their gig and fill every silence. Perhaps there is a feeling if they are too quiet then the producers will callin someone "more interesting" - meaning someone with more waffle.

But it's not just as east as "holding your nerve" for 10 years while you get beaten up as you develop younger local players. I think that unless you can get a full squad in "one hit", any emerging gems are going to get cherry picked by the other league 1 sides and higher teams and you never quite get that critical mass you aspire to. My sense - no names to hand - is that this happened to WWR and all the previous incarnations of the side and a mix of better RL teams and the "call of union" soaked up any emerging talent.

You have a better memory lol

Good to see wwr win but puts the Cornwall job in perspective when you lose and are “nilled” by the team that couldn’t buy a win for the last few years.

As many as that? Oh and you forgot "dim" since we are talking Wales...

Cougars by 80+ Hornets comfortably Crusaders Hunslet by loads Lions by loads

I admire your optimism but when an eighty point drubbing can be described as "better than expected" it does rather justify the theme of this thread.

But that's just random and you may as well put a kabadi team in England, a gridiron team in Europe, or a table tennis team other than China. In easch caser they will get strangled by the lack of quality players and probably supporter indifference to an inferior product. If you are using the phrase "expansion" then it is not just about setting up a club is it? It needs the will from the top to support and develop it and as already said by wiser posters than me, I just don't see it.

I guess you have to ask what is the reason - perceived or otherwise- for expansion? Are you trying to widen and grow the tv audience so the whole game benefits when rights are sold? I think the last auction went for less than in the past so there is no evidence of this yet. Are you giving a handful of curious Cornish / Welsh / Midlanders the chance to “try a new game”? Seems an expensive novelty for that. Is it a team for “northern expats”? I doubt you would turn your back on your favoured team for one of the losing expansion franchises. Some other reason? Discuss.

Shocked! I am not sure what I thought they got for playing but if that is truly all they get for getting a "kicking" then I admire their fortitude as players. There are probably RU clubs all around them who could afford the same amounts and they get a their lumps without the bonus of a long coach ride back.... That said, the club knows the geography and losing - ergo low payments - must sap morale and make it harder to recruit and retain and if they - the club - cannot deal with the geography they had no business trying.

I'll agree with the other answers to this statement and say it is because we care that we get so angry at the incompetance and mismanagement of this "franchise" and what it does to the game in Wales. People forget that in it's first season - as Scorpions - it made the play-offs, not bad for a newbie team and that first team had the likes of Anthony Seibold on it's staff - NRL and England RU on his CV since - showing some planning. Since then - with admitedly a few ownership changes - it has basically done feck all and gone from bad to worse. Try telling RU buddies that the game has something when they can just point to WWR....

Ok I will take that point - both as missed and accepted.

It’s got nothing to do with which code you support so why does it always come down to a “my code is better than your code” pi**ing contest. Ex players from both sides of the divide are taking actions against their respective governing bodies and all of them are going to need help and understanding in years to come. I’m not 100% convinced this should come at the cost of those governing bodies being bankrupted in court but it is the litigious world we live in.

I'd say Boris has more of a survival plan than WWR and he is "winging it" from day to day!!!!

I do get that and hope it works, though the point I was trying to make - badly it seems - is that it seems to me however much the juniors are playing RL, if the "other code" comes calling the lure is too great. I am not sure how else to account for the fact that 15 years of professionalism and development has - a few high profile cases aside - failed to create a generation of "born and bred" RL players and each year WWR and the precursor clubs seem to re-boot with a new set of "converts".