‘Axing team will quicken decline of rugby in Wales’
FORMER England fly-half and rugby pundit Stuart Barnes believes axing a Welsh pro team, reducing the number to three, would only quicken the decline of the sport in this country.
Barnes, who represented Wales at schoolboy level and played for Newport early in his career, also bemoaned Wales’ ‘unhealthy obsession’ with the national team as the pro game assesses where to turn next. He also believes the regional concept, moving away from traditional clubs, was the wrong one for Wales in the first place.
Problems have been bubbling under the surface for quite some time in Wales, covered by the relative success of the national team.
However, defeat to Italy – the first time it has happened on Welsh soil – earlier this year blew the lid off the issues.
Things have come to a head with proposals put forward that the way to progress in Wales is to slash the number of pro teams from four to three.
It is believed this would free up some much-needed cash to strengthen the three that remain and make them competitive in the United Rugby Championship and in Europe, where they have largely been alsorans.
Barnes, though, fears that losing a side would not necessarily have the desired impact. Writing in his column for the Times, he said: “What was once the most competitive club game in the world is suffering a slow and sad decline.
“Wales is a country with a love of its national team, but it used to be in love with rugby. There’s a difference. The obsession with the former has fazed out the latter.
“And so it was no surprise that the year in which Wales lost at home to Italy was also the one in which the plan to chop another team hit the headlines.
“Warren Gatland’s fine side masked the long-term problem. Wales have won the Six Nations on six occasions this century. It is a fine record but the foundations have been collapsing beneath them with everweakening professional regions.
Identity has been sacrificed for a system intended to help the national team.
”As a business proposition, the reliance on the Wales team is diabolically precarious.
“Wales was – at it greatest – a tribal rugby land. Cutting the number of professional teams will only hasten the decline of the sport. It is beginning to look like an inevitable decline.
“The professional models of regional/provincial rugby were as unsuitable for Wales as they were wonderful for Ireland. Wales had teams with tremendous identity.”
The proposals will be put before the Professional Game Board later this month, when representatives from the four regions will have to agree on a way forward.