Programme Notes (Newcastle)

Originally published in the Cardiff Rugby programme 15 January 2023.

And so on it goes.

At time of writing a solution to the impasse between the WRU and the Welsh professional teams has not presented itself. Aside from the cold comfort of talk of “verbal agreements” Welsh rugby apparently cannot rouse itself to give any vestige if job security to the hundreds employed in the game.

We are at risk of becoming a broken record at this point, but it is a point that cannot be made enough times. This has been a shameful episode. It will continue to be a shameful episode until such time when deals are signed and clubs can finally get on with the business of offering employment contracts. Perhaps our teams may even be able to have that great luxury of beingable to plan for the medium or even long term, which our contemporaries in Ireland, Scotland, England and France can take for granted.

It is tempting perhaps to compare Welsh rugby’s ability to hop from crisis to crisis like a drunk kangaroo with the comparative calm and clear decision making in evidence elsewhere and conclude that perhaps Welsh rugby is uniquely difficult to govern. Something about the essential character of Welsh rugby makes it uniquely difficult for administrators to achieve solutions.

The reality is that Welsh rugby has been afflicted by inadequate, complacent leaders for too long. It is difficult to govern because the governance structures of the Welsh rugby union lag behind the rest of the world.

The past few weeks were disappointing on the field for Cardiff, but they also showed a glimpse of Welsh pro rugby at its best. Packed houses, Passionate fans. This with such a cloud hanging over the sport, It tells a story of how much the Welsh game still means to many of us, and how much potential it still has, If it is finally allowed to get on with it and plan for the future instead of having endless obstacles thrown in it’s way by an incompetent governing body,

And so, broken record or not, we’ll keep making the same points. The biggest enemy in all this is apathy. And Cardiff rugby club has never been a place where there aren’t people on and off the field willing to sweat blue and black blood for the good of the club.