Restrictions... but the game goes on!
THE top-tier Christmas rugby programme in Wales has been wiped out this year.
Both regional Boxing Day derbies were postponed due to Covid cases, while the following afternoon’s Premiership schedule bit the dust with clubs deciding it was impractical to go ahead, with crowds of any significant size prohibited under Welsh Government restrictions.
But there has been some rugby and there were even a few fans watching!
A number of community clubs decided to go ahead with their Boxing Day fixtures and some utilised the Government allowance of 50 spectators.
One of those was Caerphilly RFC, who staged a match between their under 30s and over 30s at Virginia Park.
“We’ve had that game for about the last five years on Boxing Day,” said chairman Gareth Ashman.
“It’s effectively a mix of the firsts and seconds against the Vets.
“When the restrictions on crowds were initially announced, we were wondering whether it was viable to go ahead, but we decided we just had to.
“Ironically, we recently had two security cameras fitted to cover the pitch.
“So we had the option of showing the game inside the club by streaming the footage from those cameras to the TVs inside.
“We were originally planning to have everybody seated inside watching the game that way.
“The way we saw it was some revenue was better than no revenue.
“When the Welsh Government then announced you could have 50 spectators outside, it was a bonus.”
So then it was a question of how to stay within that limit?
“Our steward on the gate had a clicker and counted 50 people in,” explained Ashman.
“He then ushered everybody else up the ramp to watch it inside the club.
“We were obviously limited on numbers, but we have got quite a large clubhouse, so we managed to get around 140 people inside, seated at tables of six.
“People took it in good humour to be fair. There was no real angst about whether you were outside or inside.
“Our clubhouse faces the pitch and we’ve got a load of windows across it.
“So we had eight tables looking out at the ground, with around 50 people watching it through the windows and then the rest watching it on TV. “We had a great day in the club. “There were a lot of families there and it was a really good social event.
“The police visited us later on in the afternoon and they were content with the arrangements we had in place, so it was a good day.”
But Ashman admits he is worried about the future with no end date for the restrictions on crowds.
“Our biggest concern going forward is we are so reliant on gate takings,” he said.
“We would like to understand how this is going to work economically for community rugby in Wales.
“Running a club, the overheads are significant.
“Are we going to get compensated in any way?
“Should we be advocating the postponement of the season until we can get our gate numbers up?
“We have got more than 150 season ticket holders. How do you say to one of those ‘Sorry there are already 50 in the ground’.
“How do you pick who comes in and who doesn’t?
“Some people have been coming there for 50 years, so it’s a bit of a quandary. I understand the rationale behind the decision.
“But we are disappointed on the limit on numbers outside.
“In Scotland, they are allowed 500. If that was the case here, that would see us through.
“We have a capacity of 5,999, so we could disperse 500 people around the ground with far more than two metres between each of them.”
He concluded: “I am really concerned moving forward how this impacts on community rugby and the pro game even more so.”
There was also a contest with a difference between Forgeside RFC and Forgeside AFC in Blaenavon.
That involved 30 minutes of football, 20 minutes of walking rugby followed by 30 minutes of rugby.
In other fixtures, Taibach RFC staged a Past v Present match which ended in a 25-25 draw, while there was an Over 25s v Under 25s game at Chepstow RFC.
At Old Tyleryan RFC in Abertillery, the Old Ts and the Young Ts played out their traditional Boxing Day contest.