The Welsh Way – an alternative to the regions?

Evan Wall 

Rugby is one of the most prominent areas where Wales has its own successful identity, operating independently of England — and at times, more successfully.

As Welsh rugby has its own identity, we do not need to become part of an English rugby structure or continue with the URC to attract fans or foster a successful national team.

Welsh rugby exists in its own right.

Because of this, Wales could have a successful domestic league that would produce international standard players – as it once did.

The WRU do not need to rely on membership in the URC for our club game and can use the game in Wales an alternative to the regions.

The WRU have more chips on the table compared to the Football Association Wales, who could not pull its four professional teams from the English football league and create a Welsh domestic league without alienating interest in the game.

Although the national football team has been highly successful and the Cymru Premier is improving. It remains true that all the football clubs of professional stature play in the English structure.

Uncapped goalkeeper Connor Roberts is the only Cymru Premier player to be selected for the national teams squad.

Many play for Welsh clubs in the 2nd and 3rd tier of the English system, but the whole team play their football outside the Welsh league structure.

Club coefficients

No other European footballing nation, except Gibraltar and San Marino, score lower in association club coefficients. No other European nation has such a weak domestic game.

Welsh football and its success is completely dependent on club participation in the English system. If membership for the Welsh clubs in the English football league was revoked, it would be a disaster for Welsh football across the board.

But the same is not true for Welsh rugby.

Partly because rugby was professionalised far later than football in England, the game of rugby in Wales is different to football because it has been intertied to Welsh identity on a local and national level for generations.

Welsh rugby was born from a strong tradition of club-based rugby playing within Wales. In the pre-regional era, rugby was built upon local rivalries and loyalties, such as Swansea vs Neath, Cardiff Vs Pontypridd. It tapped into what is described as a “parochial” and “tribal” identities, thus interest in the game was not reliant on Welsh teams playing teams from outside of Wales.

Historically, interest in Welsh rugby has been sustained by local, community-based rivalries. Because of this, a strong domestic game is possible for Welsh rugby.

This contrast is crystallised when you compare the desire, ambition, and interest of children who play each sport in Wales. In football, all ambition is channelled towards the English football league.

If you look at shirts worn by adults and children in Wales there are as many Liverpool, Manchester and Arsenal tops as any Welsh team. If a Welsh person is good at football, they dream of playing across the border in the big cities of England, or at very least in the English football system.

From top to bottom, the football system is structured and psychologically attuned so that everything Welsh must go to England to gain fame, recognition, and a livelihood.  Football in Wales is reliant on England.

National identity

Rugby in Wales is reliant on local and national identity. Local and pre-professional players first want to play for their local club, especially in derbies against neighbouring valleys. This is what captures their interest and sparks their passion. The nature of Welsh rugby is one possessed by parochialism in the most positive sense.

Although some players are being pushed over the border to play rugby due to the WRU’s mismanagement, no Welsh rugby-playing child dreams of going to play rugby in the English Premiership; their greatest dream is to represent their communities and nation.

Local and national identities for young rugby players remain strong in Wales. One of Wales’s most promising, original and tenacious talents is a great example of this. Ospreys’ Harri Deaves “honed” his skill at Pontyclun. Despite being a pro, he spends a ridiculous amount of time at his village club. His dream is to play for Wales, now he has represented his local community on the highest stage available in the club game.

In rugby, even down to age-group village games, rivalries are fierce. In Deaves’ case, His hunger and passion for rugby was first expressed when he would represent his village against the neighbouring Llanharan. Welsh rugby players were not interested in being the best in England, they want to be the best in their local community and then the best in Wales. This psychological setting has been the springboard of historical Welsh rugby’s success.

The psychology also filtered up. These localised sensations become amplified when great Welsh teams of 23 tribesmen unite to battle teams from England or even Europe. It is then on steroids when we reach the climax of Wales vs England.

Emotional investment

Interest and emotional investment in the game push upwards like water pumped through a pipe, rugby rivalries stem from the local level and from a very young age. Our interest is like a sponge, which absorbs all the water which has flowed from the local to national level over the years.

The national game is then the highlight of the year because it is based on the club game structure. It is a distillation of local and national identities. That is why it is not only a spectacle to watch, but a spectacle that you feel.

When it comes to rugby, the Welsh are a village people, and the Welsh are a tribal people. We don’t have to build new teams; we have rich, competitive teams that the people once loved and can love again.

New fans

These teams have been put in the goldfish bowl of the Cymru Premier “Super” League. Meanwhile, regional rugby hasn’t created new fans for Welsh rugby. Contrarily, it has funnelled fans away from their local clubs, who were already great without the bank of the WRU.

A new competitive Welsh domestic league, supplemented by a Welsh cup (akin to the FA cup), European competitions and matches against touring international teams is a far more desirable than a “West” (Cardiff) and “East” (Swansea) franchise. It’s the only alternative that can sustain Welsh rugby at the roots.

This article is a proposition, a trialling of ideas, rather than a set in stone answer for the current crisis.

But any solution for the current issues faced must prioritise rugby at the community level. If the roots are not looked after, the tree will not grow.

A proud Welshman, Evan Wall is a doctoral Researcher working in the International Politics department of Aberystwyth University. His research focuses on the connections between Welsh and Irish nationalism. He grew up playing rugby in the South Wales Valleys