BACK FROM THE BRINK - BUT WHAT’S NEXT FOR LLANELLI?
IT is Ninian Park in 1977 and Cardiff City are playing Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup when news comes through that Cardiff rugby club have beaten Llanelli 25-15 in a Welsh Cup tie at Stradey Park.
Traditionally, the oval-ball game doesn’t excite too much interest among die-hard football fans.
But that January day an audible gasp went around the ground as the scale of Cardiff RFC’s achievement sank in.
Llanelli had won the cup four years running and were supposed to be unbeatable in knockout rugby, but Gerald Davies, Gareth Edwards, Gareth Davies, Alan Phillips, Chris Camilleri and Co had reported for duty and scored a famous victory. Even the Grange End were impressed.
Llanelli RFC were a scalp, one of the most prized in world rugby. That was the impression a schoolboy had as he left the football ground that day.
Phil Bennett, JJ Williams, Ray Gravell, Derek Quinnell and Roy Bergiers – what names. And the team played with panache, and delivered when they had to.
How had they lost?
Even in defeat, the club had gone up in the eyes of that youngster, for the respect they commanded back then was on a different level.
Today, of course, the bloodline to the club of Benny, Grav and JJ has a Scarlets regional dimension, Stuart Gallacher having fought a successful battle for standalone status when the regional era began in 2003.
But the name of Llanelli RFC lives on and many are determined it will continue to do so.
There are no guarantees, mind. A few weeks ago they played Pontypool in a play-off to secure Premiership status. Had Llanelli come unstuck it could have been drink up, game over, let’s all talk about the glory days.
The situation was that perilous.
RETURN OF A FAMILIAR FACE
Against such a backdrop, their former Wales prop, team manager and head of rugby Anthony Buchanan has returned with the aim of strengthening the club from top to bottom. A straight shooter who is pretty much liked by all, he is leaving his position as a Welsh Rugby Union board member after the World Cup and so will be able to devote more time to the club he represented with such distinction over the years.
He will not claim a bean for his efforts. Nor is he fussed about having a title, even though he will be effectively driving the off-pitch effort to put Llanelli on a more even keel. It will be reward enough if there is a revival.
The first job? Easy: to remind the whole world and his dog of how close the club came to calamity.
In an open letter that will appear on the club’s website, Buchanan says: “Llanelli Rugby Football Club is a name that is known across the globe, a club that has savoured so many historic days and produced so many great players.
“The play-off victory over Pontypool was one of the most significant results in the history of the club. It secured the club’s status in the Principality Premiership for next season and everyone concerned should be congratulated for their efforts in such a high-pressure situation.
“The result was a huge relief to everyone at the club because the game and what was at stake highlighted how close we came to the unthinkable happening, Llanelli RFC not being here.
“The stark reality is we were potentially 80 minutes away from that outcome.”
DISASTER
When we head to Parc y Scarlets to meet with Buchanan there is no attempt from the former front-rower to dilute the contents of the letter or underplay the reality that Llanelli were on the brink, and are not exactly in the best position right now.
“It would have been a disaster had we lost that game against Pontypool,” he says.
“Our funding would have crashed and we would have found it hard to secure our players.
“We would have ended up with next to no financial support and, put bluntly, we wouldn’t have been able to continue.
“It doesn’t bear thinking about.” He continues: “Of course, there’s still uncertainty, but I guess you could say the same about most Premiership clubs.
“I see my role as one of helping to create a sustainable financial future for the club.
“We still want to be at the top end of the club game in Wales, alongside our traditional rivals such as Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Aberavon, Bridgend and Pontypridd and clubs such as Merthyr, Llandovery and Carmarthen Quins who have come through strongly in recent years.
“But without a solid financial platform that will be difficult.
“It’s up to everyone who cares for the club to pull together and see if we can ensure a bright future.”
A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT
For those who have been on Mars over the past year or so, central funding to Welsh Premiership clubs is being slashed, in Llanelli’s case from around £95,000 a year to £75,000, with further cuts expected. It is an appallingly uncertain environment in which to operate.
Some, including Merthyr’s Stan Thomas, have argued the money on offer isn’t anywhere near enough to run a semi-professional operation, but so far their words appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
So what’s a club to do when history doesn’t pay the bills and support at the turnstiles can be modest at best?
Put their heads under the duvet and hope the problems will go away? It’s not an option.
A fund-raising scheme is planned at Llanelli, whereby those who want the club to succeed are being encouraged to rally to the cause.
In his letter, Buchanan writes: “We don’t want to become a club reliant on a sole benefactor and that is why we are appealing to you, the supporters, former players and the business community of the town.
“The first of a number of initiatives will be establishing two categories of support which would begin the process of generating much-needed income for the club. The first is to become a guardian of Llanelli RFC, which would involve a £10 monthly direct debit contribution over 12 months.
“The second tier is a vice-president of Llanelli RFC with a contribution of £20 a month. Both entitle you to access to all home Llanelli RFC games at Parc y Scarlets.
“This financial support, properly managed, will ensure we can build a squad that can not only be competitive at Premiership level, but will also maintain our ethos of developing players for further honours.
“Our history speaks for itself, we cannot allow the name of Llanelli RFC to disappear. As a town we need to come together to safeguard this great club’s future.”
DO PEOPLE STILL CARE?
How much are people bothered, though? The Scarlets, after all, is the entity that attracts attention nowadays, the glamour option for supporters and potential sponsors. “Llanelli RFC does matter,” says Buchanan, who made 226 appearances for the club between 1981 and 1991 and went on to be their team manager and head of rugby.
“I understand things have changed – of course they have. Regional rugby has happened and the Scarlets are now the top-table, professional team in this area.
“But that doesn’t mean Llanelli RFC is irrelevant.
“I was in Taupo in New Zealand the other day and got talking with someone who asked about rugby and whether I had links to a club or not. As soon as I mentioned Llanelli, the person in question said: ‘I was there when the All Blacks played a tour game against Llanelli at Stradey Park in 1989’.
“And people were aware of Llanelli beating them in 1972.
“The name is still huge, always will be and is worth fighting to preserve.
“I recognise there is a gulf between the Premiership and regional rugby.
“But a number of Wales internationals have come through at Llanelli and other clubs in this era.
“Playing for clubs like ours can be good for players and give them an identity and a sense of playing for a town.
“The Premiership can also act as a safety net for late-developers who might have slipped through the academy system.
“We have long provided the pathway for players to go on and flourish on the international stage.
“In recent times, later developers like Liam Williams, Aaron Shingler, Ben Morgan and Owen Williams have gone on to become accomplished Test match rugby players after playing for Llanelli.”
GENERATING SUPPORT
Buchanan plans to have themes for each game, among other ideas being toyed with. “It’s about being creative and doing what we can to generate interest,” he says.
“The bottom line is that we need to be self-sustaining.
“We have been in touch with some ex-players already and the response has been encouraging.
“I bumped into Simon Easterby the other day and he was very supportive when I told him what we were doing – Colin Stephens and Ieuan Evans, too.
“These are great names and the club meant the world to them as players and they still feel affection for what we stand for and everything associated with Llanelli RFC.
“Liam Williams, too, has been positive.”
Gareth Jenkins will also put his shoulder to the wheel.
Buchanan says in his letter, with a nod to the Pontypool game: “As a club, we need to ensure we are not in that same precarious position again and that means focusing our efforts on building strong financial foundations for our long-term future.”
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The certainty is Llanelli will not fail because of any lack of effort. “Like so many others, I care hugely,” says Buchanan.
“I came here as a player from Ystradgynlais in 1981 and never went home. The club have given me so many fond memories.”
They have always savoured their history at Llanelli. But survival in modern-day rugby rests on being aboard the train of the future.
Fortunately, some out west have recognised as much.
A verse from Dafydd Iwan’s famous Welsh language song Yma O Hyd that the club and region have long adopted goes: “Ry’n ni yma o hyd, ry’n ni yma o hyd. Er gwaetha pawb a phopeth...ry’n ni yma o hyd.”
It translates as: “We’re still here, we’re still here. Despite everyone and everything...we’re still here.”
It is a plus for rugby that Llanelli RFC are able to say as much.
But they need support.
Their future depends on it.