Troubled times for one of Welsh game’s most iconic rugby names
AS the Scarlets were celebrating taking the scalp of the Guinness PRO14 and European champions on Saturday evening, the young players of Llanelli RFC were dusting themselves down after a sobering afternoon at Sardis Road.
A 43-0 hammering at the hands of Pontypridd has left the men from West Wales rooted to the foot of the Principality Premiership table – a week earlier they had shipped six tries in a 43-10 home loss to Ebbw Vale.
These are testing times for one of Welsh rugby’s greatest clubs.
With four, possibly five teams, relegated from the semi-pro tier at the end of the season, Llanelli have an almighty fight on their hands to avoid falling into the Championship, where former ‘feeder’ sides like Narberth and Newcastle Emlyn currently play.
In name, they are the club that downed the mighty All Blacks in 1972, the side that claimed the prized scalp of the world champion Wallabies 20 years later and who reached European semi-finals in 2000 and 2002.
But the reality is, in the eyes of supporters, that side now play under the banner of the Scarlets.
And those who cheered on the likes of Phil Bennett, Ray Gravell, Rupert Moon, Ieuan Evans, Scott Quinnell and Stephen Jones, now follow the fortunes of Ken Owens and Co.
For Llanelli, the last few seasons have been a struggle.
Success brings in the fans, as the Scarlets have found, but Llanelli have experienced the opposite. Their average crowd last season was just shy of 300.
They have also had to borrow players from local clubs like Kidwelly, Felinfoel, Llanelli Wanderers and Llangennech. In many ways, it’s a remarkable state of affairs.
It hasn’t always been that way in their semi-professional guise.
They were Welsh Cup winners in 2005 and 2010, league champions in 2011 and have provided a conveyor belt of talent, not just to the regional side, but the national squad.
But the advent of the controversial new A-team competition, the Celtic Cup, has hit them like a thunderbolt.
At least 10 players who could have been playing for Llanelli in the Premiership, will be involved in the Scarlets A team over the next seven weeks.
Head of rugby Paul Fisher and his coaching team are hoping those players will return to bolster their ranks once A-team commitments are over, but by then they could have a mountain to climb.
Unsurprisingly, there are very real fears down west for the future of the club side.
Garan Evans played close to 350 games in a Scarlets jersey, the majority before the arrival of the regional revolution.
He went on to become the Scarlets’ team manager and, as well as still being employed by the region, is Llanelli RFC’s commercial manager.
“We always knew it was going to be tough for us this season,” he admits.
“It is not just Llanelli; you have Swansea, Neath, Bridgend, who are traditionally some of the biggest names in Welsh rugby in a similar position. It was always going to be a fear that we would be one of the favourites for relegation.
“We understood that, but it didn’t change anything, we still had the same budget to work to, we couldn’t put any more in.
“The Welsh Rugby Union have decided the A-team competition is the way forward and we have to go with it.
“The Scarlets are going as strong as they can with the A-team fixtures which means it is a challenge for us.
“We also lost a couple of players to other clubs in pre-season, which hasn’t helped.
“But the boys we have here are giving everything for the jersey and we do believe we have enough core players that we can get a couple of wins in this block of matches and then we will reassess, see where we are and
hopefully be able to utilise the nine or 10 players we will have returning from A rugby.”
It certainly doesn’t get any easier this weekend with defending champions Merthyr arriving at Parc y Scarlets on Sunday.
One reporter, a regular on the Premiership circuit, covered Llanelli’s defeat at Ponty and admitted he struggled to recognise the majority of the visitors’ line-up.
It is all a far cry from the days when the Shingler brothers, Ben Morgan, and a youthful Liam Williams, Gareth Davies, Scott Williams and Samson Lee used to pull on the jersey.
“We have always understood our role in the pathway and we are proud of the huge contribution we have made to Welsh rugby over the years; just look at the Wales squad in the last couple of seasons and how many have played for Llanelli RFC, we have played a big part in their development,” adds Evans.
“Unfortunately, that role may well bite us with four, possibly five teams being relegated this season.
“Where that leaves us, if the worst should happen, I don’t know.”
The negative effect of the Scarlets’ success
In a way, the recent success story of Wayne Pivac’s Scarlets has also had its impact.
Off the field, the club side find it hard to attract new sponsors.
After all, the choice of backing a team packed with recognisable international stars that gets widespread media coverage compared with a side watched by a few hundred people with very little exposure in the press is a no-brainer.
Yes, BBC Wales have live coverage of Premiership matches this season, but up until the new year, Llanelli are only on the broadcast schedule once – and that is an away game at Neath.
“We have a core group of sponsors who are very supportive, they have been long-term supporters of Llanelli as well as the Scarlets, without them we would have gone long ago,” admits Evans.
“A lot of other sponsors we have tried to get on board want to be part of the Scarlets’ success which makes it more difficult for us in finding new ones.
“With the new A-team competition coming in, support from the union in terms of funding is decreasing.
“I do think reducing the Premiership to 12 teams is the right way to go, it will definitely improve the competition.
“But we know we are really going to have dig in to be in it next season.”
The views of a fan and the fears for the future...
Mark Thomas has been supporting Llanelli since the birth of the Premiership in 2003.
“It’s probably the toughest it’s been here,” he said.
“I remember the first game at Parc y Scarlets, I know there was the novelty factor of the new stadium, but Llanelli played Cardiff in front of more than 4,000 fans and you had the likes of Ken Owens, Jon Davies, Aaron Shingler, Josh Turnbull and Rhys Priestland playing.
“I watched the A team game against the Ospreys the other night and it was a good standard, but those players used to be playing in the Premiership and Llanelli are struggling.
“For our home games, a lot of the time you get more away supporters in than home ones.
“Hopefully, they can turn it around, but I do fear for the club.”
There is no doubt, if the relegation trapdoor did open and Llanelli went tumbling through, there will be many questions asked.
There are proposals for relegated clubs to receive parachute payments, but there will still be a drastic reduction in union funding - from £90,000 to £15,000 a season over a period of time.
With that in mind, will Llanelli still play at Parc y Scarlets with the costs of security etc?
Where will they fit in in terms of the so-called pathway?
Will there still be a Llanelli RFC? For sure, these are troubled times for one of Welsh rugby’s most historic names.