Scarlets and Ospreys

[BengalTiger]

The WRFU are totaly inept and make our RFU look almost competent, cutting the rugby connnections to these two regions is just daft, I suppose as long as they fill the Pricipality Stadium with the equivilent of the prawn sandwich brigade, they just do not care about the club supporters at all.

[jgriffin]

Swansea v Neath v Llanelli makes Tigers/Saints look like a vicar's tea party (well could be like one in Midsomer Murders, maybe). The Gnoll could've provided all the Orcs for LOTR, and I can well remember having our car urinated on by Llanelli supporters while queueing to get in Stradey Park.
Merger? WF planet are the WRU on. After ploughing the Morfa stadium to make Liberty (and killing a terrific Swansea based athletics centre), are they abandoning it to footy?
I have always thought they make the RFU look like angels.

[johnthegriff]

Many Swansea supporters never made the switch from St Helens to the Liberty and even fewer from Neath. However Ospreys have been the most successful Welsh team and it must take a special brand of Old Fart to sacrifice them for the gamble of creating a viable rugby team in North Wales. From my point a view it will be a new place to visit and I look forward to that. English supporters take note, given half a chance the RFU will break us up into six regions, a merger of TIgers Wasps and Saints for the Midlands, Saracens, Quins & Irish for London, Sale, Newcastle & Carnegie for the North, Worcester, Gloucester & Bristol as South Midlands, Bath, Exeter and Pirates for South West plus a South East franchise based around Brighton. There would be a secondary league of feeder clubs with no promotion to the regional level, I bet they have already talked about it and it could happen.

[strawclearer]

Many Swansea supporters never made the switch from St Helens to the Liberty and even fewer from Neath. However Ospreys have been the most successful Welsh team and it must take a special brand of Old Fart to sacrifice them for the gamble of creating a viable rugby team in North Wales. From my point a view it will be a new place to visit and I look forward to that. English supporters take note, given half a chance the RFU will break us up into six regions, a merger of TIgers Wasps and Saints for the Midlands, Saracens, Quins & Irish for London, Sale, Newcastle & Carnegie for the North, Worcester, Gloucester & Bristol as South Midlands, Bath, Exeter and Pirates for South West plus a South East franchise based around Brighton. There would be a secondary league of feeder clubs with no promotion to the regional level, I bet they have already talked about it and it could happen.

...end of civilisation as we know it

[Scott1]

Never happen,not a chance! Clubs would just go on their own,more likely the RFU puts a team in Super Rugby which is basically then the International team too.

[strawclearer]

Ospreys chairman Mike James has resigned, citing the Welsh Rugby Union's "catastrophic mismanagement" of plans to merge them with Scarlets as part of a revamp of the Welsh regions.

[TigerCam]

Four Welsh regions - now to be one in the North seems to be the plan. Based at a 16,000 capacity stadium in Rhyl.

North Wales? That huge hotbed of Welsh Rugby right?

It was in my day, 70/80s despite the coal-mining regions down south providing the bulk of the national squads. I am all in favour of putting a franchise in NW. At the demise of the Ospreys is another matter? I guess their face doesn't fit with the welsh contingent of old farts - hey ho?

[northerntiger]

Many Swansea supporters never made the switch from St Helens to the Liberty and even fewer from Neath. However Ospreys have been the most successful Welsh team and it must take a special brand of Old Fart to sacrifice them for the gamble of creating a viable rugby team in North Wales. From my point a view it will be a new place to visit and I look forward to that. English supporters take note, given half a chance the RFU will break us up into six regions, a merger of TIgers Wasps and Saints for the Midlands, Saracens, Quins & Irish for London, Sale, Newcastle & Carnegie for the North, Worcester, Gloucester & Bristol as South Midlands, Bath, Exeter and Pirates for South West plus a South East franchise based around Brighton. There would be a secondary league of feeder clubs with no promotion to the regional level, I bet they have already talked about it and it could happen.

It could have happened if the RFU had been switched on when the game went pro. But they were not, the clubs contracted the players and that was it. The RFU could not merge the clubs, because they don't own them, nor do they contract the players.
The only thing they could do is create regions, then populate them with uncontracted players. And who would pay to see that

[Mark62]

An uncle of mine was the last mayor of Neath before it became Neath and Port Talbot.
One of my greatest memories was being his guest in the early 90s at The Gnoll for the Neath Swansea game and drinking well into the night in that small bar under the main stand .
When they heard I was from Leicester they all assumed Tigers were looking to poach their players.

If it happens then it will be tragic, but is another sign that history and heritage are becoming unimportant in this great game of ours

[ourla]

Seem to be different stories being banded about regarding how this came about.

Suggestion that Ospreys approached the Scarlets because they were in financial trouble and not driven by the WRU.

[Dangerous4]

Leicester Saints, anyone?

[ellis9]

Ospreys say it's not happening. This is their statement:

Until now, the Ospreys have remained largely silent out of respect to the WRU, despite growing speculation over the future of regional rugby in Wales. This can no longer remain the case.

The instability created by PRB’s chaotic approach to its own imposed restructuring criteria has been the height of recklessness at its worst and incompetent management at its best - an approach which has resulted in wild conjecture, hostility and uncertainty in the regional game.

Welsh rugby and the supporters of Welsh rugby deserve better. And the players, families, suppliers, commercial partners and those whose livelihoods depend on the regional game, certainly deserve better.

We stand fully behind the comments of Ospreys outgoing chairman Mike James and add the Ospreys’ voice to his in calling for fundamental re-examination of a truly disasterous process. We also stand behind the comments and concerns of the WRPA concerning the woeful lack of consultation to date.

The Ospreys are NOT on the verge of merging with the Scarlets.

Like the other M4 regions, the Ospreys were informed by the WRU that their decision was to create a new region in the North and this would necessitate one going in the South.

Beyond this, the regions have been encouraged to enter unilateral discussions to try and self-broker an outcome. Rather than every option being on the table, only one has transpired - which region should go.

Far from being a methodical, consultative process, involving all the game’s stakeholders, looking at the greater good and the long-term benefit to all, the South Wales regions have been forced into a leaderless race for survival, with self-interest as its guiding star.

The Ospreys are not afraid to think the unthinkable. Our region was born out of the previously unimaginable merger of Swansea and Neath and, later, the seamless integration of Bridgend. We remain the only region to have truly embraced, lived and breathed the concept of regional rugby. Our reward and Wales’s reward, has been an unparalleled level of success for our region and an unrivalled contribution to the national team.

We fully recognise the WRU’s argument that the regional game requires further restructuring in order to remain viable and we support this principle.

But, the way this has been approached has led to a fundamental breakdown in the fabric of the game. This must stop now. A new process must be expedited, with respected and competent leadership - professionally outlined and responsibly led - with transparency and genuine consultation as its foundation.


http://www.ospreysrugby.com/News/Article/54262

[bageo]

New merged Welsh club to be know as Welsh pests and play at Coventry. Original pests plc bondholders express delight saying there is no way that can pay their debts with just one stinging insect playing at the ground.

[wellstiger]

Leicester Saints, anyone?

More like Saints - Warps

[wellstiger]

In all honesty Professional rugby era is killing the development in Welsh regions.
Those that were slow to get on board are now declined to history.
A sad shame as the valleys were the hot bed of Welsh rugby.