THE LAST WORD
WALES need all the help they can get against France on Friday, which is why it is alarming to discover that thousands of tickets for the Six Nations showdown at the Principality Stadium are unsold. This is the title holders taking on Grand Slam-chasing visitors. It is a game which shouldn’t require marketing to generate a sell-out. Tickets aren’t cheap but the old, proud stereotype about Welsh rugby obsession is at stake. The regions have long struggled for decent crowds and now the national team are facing the disheartening prospect of playing in front of half-empty stands. The alcohol-free zone in the stadium is the area with most unclaimed seats, suggesting fans won’t turn up if they can’t drink through the game. That is a sad state of affairs. For a couple of hours, abandon the bars, fill the stands and sing. Without the trademark Cardiff noise and fervour, Wales are surely doomed.
IT WASN’T a bad way for Saracens to welcome back Mark McCall — by beating Premiership leaders Leicester. The hosts’ director of rugby had a month off for medical reasons but now he is in charge again and his team are full of ominous intent. They will make the play-offs no question and, if they go on to claim a home semi-final, even the mighty Tigers will struggle to deny the Londoners another title. Saracens will be reinforced soon by their England contingent and they have a powerful collective purpose — after the salary-cap controversy — along with plenty of individual motivation for players such as Owen Farrell, Billy Vunipola, Elliot Daly and Alex Lozowski.
THE decision to bar Doncaster and Ealing Trailfinders from entry into the Premiership — in the likely event of either club finishing top of the Championship — is lamentable and predictable. Perhaps more flexibility would have been shown to these clubs if they had made it known that they were prepared to pay £25million for the right to become league shareholders? The fact they do not wish to spend a fortune on ‘P’ shares is likely to be counting against their efforts to gatecrash the elite. The system is deeply flawed, if not utterly rigged. Clubs striving for promotion can’t commit to huge infrastructure investment until they have the certainty of joining the top division. Yet Ealing and Doncaster are having to appeal against a ruling that blocks promotion because they don’t yet have adequate capacity. But they don’t need it now, they only need it if they go up, so there should be an agreed timetable for development work once that is confirmed. Rugby’s short-sighted attitudes continue to drag it down.