Scarlets celebrate 5000th game!

I'm sorry if I'm bringing up the touchy subject of regionalism in Wales. But having just read the write up of the Scarlets game with Leinster last night the article brought up the fact that the Scarlets were celebrating their 5000th game. Well done Scarlet's on reaching that fantastic milestone. The only problem I find with this milestone is with the Scarlets only coming into existence as a region in 2003/04 season 5000 games seems an awful lot of rugby to cram into 8 years. My question is are you a region called the Scarlets or are you really Llanelli in disguise. Surely the team that plays in the Welsh premiership should be celebrating these milestones.

Well a team plays about 30-40 games a year, so 5000 games /40 (games a season) = 125 years.

Llanelli RFC was established in 1875 so
2011 (current year) - 125 (years) = 1886.

So no the Scarlets haven't played 500 games, but they have if you combine them with the Llanelli RFC entity they were before regional rugby.

That's not my point Alyn. My point is the Scarlets are supposed to represent a region. As a region they were formed 8 years ago and that's when their history began. Yes the total is going to be 5000 games if combined with Llanelli RFC. Llanelli RFC still ply their trade in the Welsh premiership as do Llandovery another team in the region the Scarlets represent. Maybe we should add their games played to the total.

Llanelli were pretty much a region before the regions were formed or even thought of, The Wood. It made sense for them to continue on with the history that had built up over the years when they fully became the Scarlets.

I think it's a bit harsh on Llanelli RFC for the Scarlets to combine their histories like that, but it makes sense from a regional perspective to give fans a bit of history to buy into and to provide a platform and ethos going forward. Scarlets have made no secret over the years about merging their history with Llanelli's, so not sure why such a fuss is being made over it now.

It seems to be that given time the Scarlets will probably revert to there previous identity. They already share a history, a ground, so they might as well share a name. I'm not just having a go at the Scarlets rugbydreamer. The truth of it is that regional rugby doesn't really exist. There are four professional teams in Wales and they are Cardiff, Swansea, Llanelli and Newport.

Think that if you like The Wood but I am not going to agree, Llanelli acted as a region before the Scarlets were formed, and had done for years.

Llanelli RFC is still a very active and prosperous rugby club and is a different entity to the Scarlets. The Scarlets may have taken on their history, but they are so much more then Llanelli by itself could ever hope to be.

Location wise it may seem like there just being super clubs, but the work the Scarlets have been doing over the last couple of seasons makes them so much more than that.

By taking on the Llanelli RFC history makes a mockery of you saying the Scarlets are doing such good things. By taking the history you are Lanelli in all but name.

I said in the last couple of seasons they have been doing good things, not before. To begin with the Scarlets made a huge mess of it, even keeping Llanelli in their name, but thankfully they've dropped that now. They have also been trying to put a bigger gap between themselves and Llanelli RFC, and now have a very good system in using players from Llanelli, Llandovery and Carmarthen Quins.

I do find it odd that they've taken on Llanelli's history but from a marketing perspective and giving a set of fans something to follow, I can fully understand why they did it.

Yeah it makes sense from a marketing perspective- very sensible business to associate with the biggest club and the biggest town in the region. I just find it really confusing. I think a lot of people do; like last night we were talking about how it annoys fans sometimes when people refer to Scarlets as Llanelli. But then, they are associating themselves with the history of Llanelli RFC. So when they do that, it draws the association that Scarlets and Llanelli are the same entity and people innocently make that mistake.

It's a complete contrast with Aironi in Italy, who have made a complete clean break with Viadana. New colours, new logo and as far as their concerned their history started last season. But on the other hand I completely understand why they've done it because history and tradition seem to be very important to the Welsh rugby public. It's a very tough line to walk.

My question is; does this irritate fans of other clubs from elsewhere in the region? I suppose if they don't care then it's not an issue.

I think the Scarlets were different in that for them they were already a region. I know from when I was little, we used to go and watch Llanelli play because they were the only big club anywhere near us. But I never cheered on Llanelli, I cheered on the Scarlets. I don't think they could have become the Scarlets properly if they left all the history behind. I can see that it's confusing for others though, hell it confuses me a lot of the time too.

The problem was that the regions were set up badly in the first place. The Scarlets made the mistake of trying to be a super club to begin with and they alienated a lot of fans from around the region. They then moved stadiums and dropped Llanelli from the name and that alienated a lot of the fans living in Llanelli. They are in a bit of a no win situation that way no matter what they do. I think the only fans in the area that might have issue with the Scarlets keeping Llanelli's history are Llanelli RFC fans, but to be honest I've never seen it being too much of an issue.

I think all the regions have needed time to really make themselves a proper region and to give the regional populations time to get used to them. THe Ospreys started off really well with this but seem to have faded somewhat in their efforts and have lost a lot of their fans.

The Scarlets and the Dragons now both seem to be trying their hardest to promote themselves throughout the whole region and not just the town/city they are based in.

The one region that needs to buck up it's ideas are the Blues. I've seen little evidence of them working as a region as apposed to a super club in the almost 3 years I've been living in Cardiff.

Like all things though it takes time. there's still a lot of bad blood about how the regions were formed, and I guess the Scarlets keeping Llanelli's history doesn't help matters. BUt the regions are here, and they are slowly embading themselves in. I can only see them going from strength to strength as the youngsters grow up only knowing them and not the clubs instead.

Yeah, the Blues. I got a bit of stick of for calling them Cardiff but I didn't even realise their region extended outside of Cardiff.

I think you're right, time heals all wounds. But the regions have a lot of room for growth if it weren't for the recriminations and disillusionment. We were exceptionally lucky we already had the ideal set-up in place when professionalism came along to transition from the club game to professionalism.

Funnily enough, nothing sells like success. I'm sure if a region won the European Cup they would see their attendances take off.