Root66
Player Valuation: £5m
12 wins in a row with a talent pool that only South Africa can rival.
So yeah.... We had a lot to be confident about.
Borthwick cannot survive the last 2 weeks. Simply has to go
Six Nations 2026
- Thread starter ChesterBlue
- Start date
12 wins in a row with a talent pool that only South Africa can rival.
So yeah.... We had a lot to be confident about.
Borthwick cannot survive the last 2 weeks. Simply has to go
France says hello.
widnesblue
Player Valuation: £25m
What’s going on with the WRU? Seen few bits about lack of funding and the people in charge are old and out of touch. Didn’t this happen in the late 90’s or early 00’s when they was going through a difficult time?
Always produced brilliant players and a true Rugby nation but the players look average. Wonder if football is becoming more popular amongst the youth? Being from a Rugby League town, league in Widnes is really struggling due to the rise of football and the premier league over the last 3 decades or so.
A couple of clubs are struggling financially I believe? The RFU are so lucky that the international game is so strong otherwise they’d have to go back to amateur.
From my own experiences of rugby union at youth level in North Wales, I`d say you`re pretty much spot on about the rise of the premier league and footy in general.
My lads played in multiple tournaments over the years in North Wales, in areas that used to be hot beds of rugby. Those areas where every little village seems to have a rugby club and if not. at least a pitch and some posts. Just like League used to be in the North of England ( still seems to be the case in West and North Cumbria )
Apart from Mold RUFC, the standard of the teams was pretty poor and Mold were only decent, as there was a good public school nearby, where they played a good standard of rugby and a lot of the boys who went to that school played for Mold.
From speaking to various Welsh coaches and parents over the years, they all said the same thing, the majority of kids weren`t interested in rugby over footy. Unless they played rugby at school or their dad / uncle / brother played, they just didn`t play at all.
I`ve no idea about South Wales, as we never got that far on the our travels,, but from what I`ve read it`s pretty much the same their too.
widnesblue
Player Valuation: £25m
You’d imagine in south wales it’s a lot stronger than the north but still a struggle.
I’m 38 and in Widnes growing up, had more rugby clubs than football clubs. Junior schools, especially catholic junior schools, you’d have a rugby team in the age of 7 up to 11 all playing league against other schools. I remember Dundalk road fields was full of rugby pitches, two cricket pitches and only one football pitch. It even had more bowling greens than football pitches, now it’s got one rugby pitch (doesn’t get used) no cricket pitches or bowling greens and been replaced by football pitches. In high school, you started to see a difference in rugby been played. We had a lot of kids from south Liverpool coming out high school and refused to play either code of rugby in PE and only wanted to play football.
My eldest lad whose 16, his junior team in league, in Widnes folded at under 13’s and had to go to blackbrook in St. Helens to play. To be fair, he’s got a scholarship at Saints now and worked in his favour but sad the decline. My youngest lad who’s 12, he played league and union, stopped last year and started playing football now.
Both codes need to come together and try and evaluate the state of junior clubs and how they are losing kids to football. More so league clubs to be fair, union will be stronger just due to the international stage they have but for a nation like wales to be struggling. It should be an eye opener.
blackie_jones75
Player Valuation: £5m
Unlike South Wales, North Wales has never been a ‘hotbed’ of rugby it’s mainly a football region and always has been. Also its a bit of a myth rugby is the national game, participation and club attendance wise then football far outstrips rugby. The outlier is when the Welsh national rugby team are playing its almost like a public holiday with everyone going out on the lash to watch it.
Explains why the standard at youth level in the region is so poor then.
I was always under the impression, that once you got past the likes of Flint, Mold etc, it was rugby territory.
Not keeping completely up to date myself but contracts weren't renewed on time, some dodgy stuff at the top with harassment, clubs running out of money, banning certain songs etc.
Afaik selling tickets was never an issue for them for internationals but now it is.
Strewth!
Is that France winger fast enough do you think?!
Is that France winger fast enough do you think?!
blackie_jones75
Player Valuation: £5m
no mate , Gwynedd , Anglesey , Pen llyn etc firmly football, like everywhere else a few towns do have rugby teams but also football, and football much more dominant. There is a rugby team based in Colwyn Bay called RGC (Rygbi Gogledd Cymru or North Wales Rugby) that I think the WRU set up to as a feeder team or try and capture players in North Wales thats had varying degrees of success. You could count on one hand the number of players from North Wales who have played for wales over last 40 years (George North is the most prominent) WRU see it as a geographical/ historical issue to try and recruit more from the North. I live in South Wales at the moment and to be honest rugby is in trouble from football down here as well.
england will do very well to keep things amicable in Paris.
widnesblue
Player Valuation: £25m
Is it that bad? I remember early 00’s the regions were in trouble but Wales seemed to still produce players and national team do well. From the outside looking in, it seems it’s at its worst. Rugby Union needs a strong Welsh team and hopefully it gets back on its feet and starts doing well again.
Work has altered and communities have seen youth disappear into the cities to find employment. It's a communities dynamic thing.
widnesblue
Player Valuation: £25m
There is that to it. Totally agree with that. The price of getting into games for Rugby in either code is expensive. To get into a Widnes game, it’s £25 for an adult. They play in the championship and £25 for a championship game is scandalous.
blackie_jones75
Player Valuation: £5m
The WRU have been a shambles for years. The old Welsh league was based on historic teams from towns and cities and fans have t really took to regions as the Welsh fans are too parochial. Unlike football the WRU has to centrally fund the regions and cant afford it so want to cut the number of regions from 4 to 3. At the moment it looks like the Ospreys are going to take the hit which means the Swansea region will not be represented. These fans wont then and go and support Scarlets (Llanelli) , Blues (Cardiff) or Dragons (Newport).
The Welsh football team has also been fairly successful and has savvy marketing which attracts younger fans, is more affordable, more bilingual and doesn’t have the same royalist / millitary links and patronage as the rugby team. In fact the WRU has started copying a lo of the Welsh FA’s initiatives.
The Welsh FA has also invested a lot of money into community 3G or whatever their called pitches across the country for kids and adults to play football. My local sports centres old abandoned / condemned 3G sand based pitch is being dug up and replaced with grant money from Welsh FA.
Im a kids footie coach and anecdotally more girls and boys are playing football in droves , rugby lot more physical and has issues with concussion and all sorts of other related injuries that can scare some parents. Sorry to go on like
Another simple reason is we just dont have any good players at the momentq after a lot of top level / legends retired around the same time over last 4 to 5 years.