What next after demise of the controversial B&I Cup?
WELSH rugby bid farewell to Regional Premiership Select XVs at the weekend .... well, just about, anyway.
With the British & Irish Cup being scrapped, we won’t see these sides in operation from next season.
And it’s safe to say there won’t be too many tears shed at their demise. To put it mildly, they have been pretty unloved. There was a rather appropriate finale at the weekend, with all four teams losing their final group games, including a 68-0 hammering for the Blues XV at the hands of Bristol.
For, in terms of results, it’s been a pretty calamitous tale since the Select sides replaced Premiership clubs as Wales’ representatives in the BIC back in 2015.
In all, they have played 72 matches and won just 17 of them, with one draw and 54 defeats.
Things have reached a new low this season with 23 games producing just two victories both for the Scarlets XV, who have fared best overall in the event.
The Ospreys still have a game outstanding, with their fixture away to Nottingham having postponed back in December due to snow.
Despite neither side being able to progress to the quarterfinals, the match is still having to be played and has been scheduled for March 9.
It will be a fitting footnote to the way Welsh involvement in the event has petered out amid a general sense of public indifference.
Looking at the results over the past three years, it’s the Blues Select who have fared worst, winning just two of their 18 games, while the Ospreys haven’t done much better with only three victories from 17 matches.
It’s a record which has inevitably seen some Premiership fans vociferously questioning the wisdom of ditching their teams from the competition.
In the club era, there were some notable achievements, with Cross Keys reaching the final in 2012, Pontypridd twice making the semis and twice more the quarters, while Llanelli were three-times quarter-finalists.
In contrast, only the Scarlets have made the knock-out stages since the change and that didn’t end too well as they were routed 84-7 by Ealing Trailfinders.
There was of course much controversy when the decision was made to replace the clubs as Wales’ representatives.
Pontypridd, in particular, were enraged, with the tournament having become such a focus for them and their fans.
Speaking in May 2015, their chief executive Steve Reardon accused the regions of a ‘conspiracy’ and of being ‘downright disrespectful.’
He said Ponty had “an undeniable argument” to continue to represent Wales in the tournament, describing the plans as “very poor form” and “inconsiderate”.
At the time, that plan was to enter Regional A teams in the competition.
In the end, in an act of apparent appeasement, the WRU opted instead for four unwiedly-named regional Premiership Select XVs.
Ponty maintained their opposition to the new sides, but at the end of the first season, the other Premiership clubs voted for them to continue.
So the project was persevered with, but the problems with it have become increasingly clear.
From the outset, there has been a lack of public interest, with matches being played out in front of tiny crowds.
Retaining the Premiership aspect in the names didn’t persuade Premiership fans to follow the sides.
The appeasement appeased and pleased no-one.
There were practical difficulties in rugby terms as well.
What you’ve had is a mixture of Regional Academy players and Premiership semi-pros thrown together for just a couple of weeks here and there during the season.
They have then been asked to go up against fully professional outfits from England and Ireland, who train and play together throughout the season.
The end results have been pretty inevitable.
It was exemplified by what happened at Ashton Gate on Friday night.
The Blues Premiership Select side was made up of fresh-faced untried youngsters, with only four or five of
them having had any regional experience.
In contrast, runaway Chanpionship leaders Bristol fielded ten full internationals, including 30-cap Ireland flyhalf Ian Madigan, Wallaby winger Luke Morahan and Samoan stars Tusi Pisi and Jack Lam, not to mention Welshmen Rhodri Williams, Ryan Bevington, Jordan Williams and Dan Thomas.
You kind of knew what was coming and so it proved as the hosts ran in 10 tries during a 68-0 romp. It literally was men against boys. The Blues boys had also had 70 points put on them by Doncaster earlier in the campaign and ended up conceding 281 points in their six matches.
You do have to question what benefit there is in youngsters being on the end of repeated pastings like these.
Yes, they are getting the experience of playing against seasoned pros and you have seen the likes of Tadgh Beirne, Adam Beard, Owen Lane and Leon Brown dipping their toe in senior waters via the competition.
But when kids are just suffering successsive hammerings it can’t be great for their self-belief and thereby their development. So what’s the answer then? Well, not Premiership Select XVs, that’s for sure.
They are not one thing nor the other and of little use, with teams just cobbled together and handed very limited preparation time.
We don’t have to worry about fielding sides in the BIC next season, with the competition being scrapped in the wake of the English opting to pull out.
Explaining that move, the RFU’s director of professional rugby Nigel Melville said: “There’s no great appetite from the three sides (English, Welsh and Irish) and it’s not really working.
“There’s a lot of travelling involved and the variance of teams has been very up and down.
“There’s not a lot of spectator support for it, or commercial support either, so we want to look at other domestic-based options.” So it’s bye, bye BIC. With it disappearing, the question now for the WRU is what next?
That’s a debate which has been going on these past couple of months amid a review into the tier of rugby below PRO14 regional level.
The key issue is what form that tier should take in terms of providing the right development stepping stone for prospective regional players.
Various options have been suggested, including Regional A teams and a reduced Premiership.
There seems to be general agreement on the part of the WRU and regions that the current 16-club Premiership is not fit for purpose in terms of player development.
The view is there’s just too much of a gap between that semi-pro league and PRO14 rugby.
It’s understood the regions want to place their young players somewhere else, providing them with a higher level of rugby.
That’s why Regional U23 A teams look to be the preferred option, with those sides playing matches against each other and Irish provincial A teams.
That would enable them to train and prepare in a professional environment, stay together as a group for longer periods of the season and play games against fellow young pros rather than amid semi-pros in the Premiership.
To put that in place, you would need regional squads to be increased in size to match the kind of numbers the Irish operate under.
That clearly has a cost implication, which has led to speculation about the £1.7m currently spent on the Premiership by the WRU.
It’s essentially money paid out in recognition of the development role played by the semi-pro clubs.
But if that role is to be transferred to Regional A teams, logically you would expect the funding to be transferred as well, enabling more youngsters to be employed on Academy contracts.
The Premiership would then become the top of the community game, with the semi-pro tier effectively being done away with.
Now these are clearly contentious proposals and ones that are likely to provoke strong opposition from Premiership fans, who may well view it as their clubs being downgraded.
Alternatively, you could have a reduced, higher-standard Premiership as Tier 3, with maybe as few as eight teams.
But that, in turn, would lead to an outcry from those clubs who would miss out.
It’s a huge decision for the WRU and whatever way they go they are going to upset people.
But if player development is the absolute priority, then they have to make the tough call and not fudge the issue.
If that call proves to be Regional A teams then people will doubtless question who would watch them and the answer is not many.
But these sides would be about development and not attendances.
No-one questions crowds at reserve team football matches after all.
The time has come to be bold and to put the players first. So it may well be that, after three wasted years of BIC bungling, we finally end up with those Regional A teams.