representation of regions fans across Wales

Was up the Eisteddfod the other week in Wrexham and I was amazed at just how many people were wearing Scarlets shirts up there (or their kids/babies were wearing them), I was only up there for 4 hours for 2 days and I saw at least 15 different people wearing Scarlets shirts, but what amazed me was that I didn't see one single shirt for any of the other regions.

I know North Wales was supposed to be part of the Scarlets region, but people say we didn't do enough for that area - but I thought it was interesting that nobody (that I saw) was wearing any other regions shirts.

I'm surprised there weren't other regional shirt on show. I know a fair few Blues fans and they're all from North Wales. Glad from a Scarlets perspective that there were lots of supports on show though, can only be a plus for us

I'd say football is more popular in North Wales anyway partly because of its proximity to Liverpool and Manchester.

I'm not sure Cari - I know there is lots of scousers who live in North Wales, and I know lots of North Walians go to Liverpool regularly and support both them and the Mancs, but from what little I know there does seem to be a lot of interest in rugby up there

There may be a lot of interest in rugby, but (and I am guessing) I'd say that those who are into rugby up there will follow the Scarlets because they are the North Welsh region, and those who don't follow club rugby will just follow the international team.

There may some be political reasons for some as to why they will only support the Scarlets - the Welsh language, the North/South divide and so on - but I'd say they're in a minority.

Also, to be fair. Regional rugby isn't on their doorstep up there which can make a difference.

What you say is true - I just hope RGC 1404 survives and they invest enough money for it to flourish - as I imagine if it plays in Colwyn Bay with the odd game in Wrexham, and gets a few regional players on loan then the region will take off and you'll see a lot of future Welsh ints coming through that developmental region

I imagine the people wearing Scarlets jerseys were from the Carmarthenshire / West Wales area. I'd expect more people from that neck of the woods to go to the Eisteddfod than people from the other regions, if only because there are more Welsh speakers there.

Could well be, but then the Neath valleys have quite a few Welsh speakers.

I did see quite a few Ospreys and Blues shirts in the Eiseddfod a few years ago, but then that was in the centre of Cardiff

I think luckless' hit the nail on the head there.

Being from North Wales myself you see a fair few rugby tops around, more than you'd think. The majority would be Ospreys and Scarlets I think.

There is an appetite up here! For kids even to play for North Wales it shows a huge level of commitment to truck down to practices/away games all the time. Fair play to the WRU for pushing it, I could see it paying off in a while..

Cari wrote:There may be a lot of interest in rugby, but (and I am guessing) I'd say that those who are into rugby up there will follow the Scarlets because they are the North Welsh region, and those who don't follow club rugby will just follow the international team.

There may some be political reasons for some as to why they will only support the Scarlets - the Welsh language, the North/South divide and so on - but I'd say they're in a minority.

Also, to be fair. Regional rugby isn't on their doorstep up there which can make a difference.

Right I'm a North Walian that makes the journey down South on a regular basis I follow all the regions and support them all equally.
You will find that many people from up North do travel down some may have a favourite region but the vast majority will have no affinity with the regions down South they simply go there to watch our current and potential internationals in action.
Club rugby is very strong here most clubs have several age grade side that are well supported week in week out.
As for the Scarlets being a North Wales region can be compared to Charles being the Prince of Wales

I didn't think the Scarlets had any part of North Wales in their region now anyway, do they? I thought that was scrapped when the WRU set up that development team up there?

rugbydreamer - we don't anymore since the RGC 1404 region was set up, but as North used to be a part of our region - officially anyway, though i'm not sure how many north walians saw it that way.

Cymroglan:

Your views are similar to many in the south Wales valleys except you are further away from the regions (clubs really). In a lot of cases, people living in a so called region support another regional team e.g., in Cwmbran I see more Osprey shirts than all the others put together. It looks as if it is improving, I saw a guy with a Dragons shirt (a little success does help) last week. I like you want to see all the teams do well especially in the HC.

as a wrexham man (well teen)(and not by choice) most of my mates prefer football even most of my rugby team didnt support club teams apart from us ones more keen on the sport- then there was a split between sale sharks, scarlets and ospreys.

scarelts would be popular as they had matches at the race course and we were part of the scarlets region.

but the ospreys are quite popular with the younger kids, i mean if i have training on a sunday then you see lots of u9s, 10's, 11's etc wearing o's shirts.

blues a few shirts but no dragons.

difficulty is having allegience to a region which doesnt represent your area. thats why most north walians just tend to support wales rugby team and try and see them play matches (like i am doing this weekend)

and no dreamer it is now just rgc which is a complete shambles and most people dont know we have a "region"

Scarlets do have some good n wales players mccusker for one so proably will help sell shirts up there also the eistedfood will attract a lot of welsh speakers from west wales who are more likely to go for the scarlets as their team.



Just my view but the scarlets didn;t cover themselves in glory with the way they treated their role in n wales.

If I were from that area I'd go for RGC as my team

As for shirt sales all over wales I'd guess the national team is by far and away the biggest selling jersey then the ospreys then the blues then the scarlets and then the dragons.

However this could change depending on who is the most succesful region in any season and the scarlets and dragons are both certianly on the up while the others are on the way down imo

thing is mate rgc are really underpublicised i only knew about them as i was part of the u17 squad for 6 months

From what I can see unless the Union is willing to throw good money after bad then a professional team will never work in North Wales.
The Crusaders experiment has failed, and crowds dwindled.
Unless the WRU are willing to find about £4-6m a season to put a team up there then it's doomed to failure, because the Crusaders just haven't had the crowds long term to make them viable.

The best solution for North Wales rugby would be to add 3 teams to the new Welsh Premiersip:

Wrexham RFC renamed as Clwyd
You could also call them Clwyd Black Lions, from a marketing point of view, to add a bit of history to the team. The black lion of the Princes of Powys Fadog is taken from Denbighshire's shield, it is the most prominent symbol on the Clwyd coat of arms.
There is no real reason why this team could not play at the Race Course ground as it is now owned by the local University and is available for public use.
It wouldn't be too hard to transfer the RGC 1404 staff to this location.

Bangor RFC as Gwynedd
You could also call them the Gwynedd Dolphins, as the coastline and islands off Gwynedd are famous for the Dolphins, and it gives them a nice name, and the teddy should be fun also, though i have no idea how the mascot would walk!

Newtown RFC as Powys
You could also call them the Powys Red Kites, as the Red Kite is the symbol of the Powys coat of arms and a famous bird of prey in the area, Powys is one of the few areas the bird thrives in, in the modern day.

This would require some investment, firstly from the WRU to bring the club grounds up to spec to play in the Premiership.

The WRU could also push for them to be included in the Amlin Cup, and possibly the British Cup also.

Alyn the crusaders are a rugby league side so I cant understand why you would even use them as a yardstick to failure.
There never has been much interest in rugby league here but the union game is growing.
Let's not mess around by doing things slowly lets get a team in the premiership as soon as possible.

not sure about the idea- principle is good- problem with the crusaders is that they didnt win many matches so the crowds dwindled then there were the financial problems- its been the same for wrexham fc.

(will base my stuff on wrexham due to my knowledge of the club)

renaming wrexham wouldnt be a good move- if you knew alot of the Wrexham rfc chair people then you would see how they are quite keen on keeping wrexham quite old fashioned- wouldnt let my u16's team choose any colour for our tour kit. and to be frank wrexham arent good enough and i know people from mold, ruthin, etc wouldnt like the fact that they are basically playing for wrexham (much the same as people around cardiff dont liek the blues due to its name)

also the fact that bangor is in north wales aswell and is actually much closer for the rgc coaching staff (due to rgc being based around colwyn bay using llandrillo college and rydale high facilities)

another problem is that what happens currently is that youth players eventually go to senior squads- yet this wouldnt work if wrexham was to be the clwyd club as to get into the clwyd side you would obviously need trials- whereas currently you go to 1st 2nd or 3rd squad depending on your ability- meaning that many players wouldnt be able to carry on playing

AND main problem is the WRU either wont or dont have the money to inject- i mean they didnt even fully controll rgc to begin with and now have had to bail them out.

Cymroglan wrote:Alyn the crusaders are a rugby league side so I cant understand why you would even use them as a yardstick to failure.
There never has been much interest in rugby league here but the union game is growing.
Let's not mess around by doing things slowly lets get a team in the premiership as soon as possible.

My reasons for this issue is basically

1) The Crusaders don't really have many fans from outside the Wrexham borough. Most Bridgend fans wont go to the Ospreys as Swansea is "too far" away, that is despite us having a motorway. Mid and North Wales don't have a motorway just "A" roads and that area is two thirds of the land mass of Wales. The truth is rugby clubs are mostly filled out by local people within it's own town, or people who once lived in that town but moved away. The Dragons attendances havent really changed since regionalism, if you included the fans from clubs like Pontypool, Newbridge, Cross Keys, etc etc, then they'd have 20,00 a week, not 5,000.

2) Wrexham isn't much bigger than Bridgend in terms of population, and if professional rugby isn't viable in Bridgend which is a rugby town, then how can rugby flourish in a football town of similar size.

I just think it would be better to split North and Mid Wales into it's traditional provinces of Clwyd, Powys, and Gwynedd and stick the club in the largest town, Wrexham, Bangor and Newtown and try and build the game from the bottom up.