Ospreys and Scarlets to save Bridgend and Carmarthen Quins?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/15898040.stm

Bridgend RFC and Carmarthen Quins are set to win reprieves that mean they will be in the Welsh Premiership for the start of the 2012/13 season.

The Welsh Rugby Union had planned to trim the semi-professional tier from 14 to 10 teams with the approval of most of the division's clubs.

But following talks with Wales' four regions the Ravens and Quins are likely to remain in the division.

Tonmawr and Pontypool will still drop into a new National Championship.

The regions - Cardiff Blues, the Ospreys, Scarlets and Newport Gwent Dragons - must agree to fund Bridgend and Quins to stay put.

A WRU statement read: "Under the new plan put forward by the regions Bridgend RFC and Carmarthen Quins RFC will be the two teams added to the reformed Premiership in order to fulfil the talent recruitment strategy requirements of the Ospreys and Scarlets.

"The board of the WRU sanctioned the amended reforms in principle after agreeing there were important strategic and operational rugby reasons put forward to revisit the original reform plans.

"If the conditions for the amended Premiership are agreed by the regions the extra costs associated to the inclusion of Bridgend and Carmarthen Quins will be met through the regions and Regional Rugby Wales.

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All the feeder clubs from the Premiership attached to the four regions will have to be treated equally
Welsh Rugby Union statement
"Further conditions are that player quality and age profile standards are met by the two new clubs along with all other criteria set out in the Premiership Participation Agreement."

If the deal is finalised, the Ospreys will have four clubs in their area - Aberavon, Bridgend, Neath and Swansea.

The Scarlets will have three clubs to help develop players - Llandovery, Llanelli and Quins.

Two clubs - Pontypridd and Cardiff - will remain the Blues' back-up with Bedwas, Cross Keys and Newport underpinning the Dragons.

The WRU statement added: "All the feeder clubs from the Premiership attached to the four regions will have to be treated equally within the requirements of the agreement."

To earn a place in the Premiership clubs had to qualify for an 'A' licence based on criteria, sign a participation agreement and were also be judged on league results across the past six seasons.

Criteria on which clubs are judged included finance and administration, player development and ground facilities.

With Bridgend and Quins not involved in the 14-team National Championship, two clubs from Division One West will take their places.

The National Championship clubs will also be made up of Tonmawr and Pontypool plus teams from Division One West and East, already named as Bargoed, Blackwood, Bonymaen, Ebbw Vale, Glamorgan Wanderers, Llanharan, Narbeth, Newbridge, Tata Steel and Uwic

Below that league, the existing Division One East and Division One West will continue in their present formats.

I was hoping for some news like this for Bridgend, lets hope the Ospreys pull it off.
It sort of ruins the idea of condensing the league to make it harder and more competitive but was kicking Bridgend out really fair?

Ridiculous.

10 teams might have made the Premiership more competitive, but now they are slowly bringing in more - is 12 that different from 14.

Not to mention the fact that the Ospreys will now have 4 feeder clubs (despite the fact that they struggle to give gametime for the players they already have) and the Blues will only have 2 feeder clubs (despite having 2 U18 academies - so as soon as the players turn 18 they will have nowhere to go to get gametime).

Wrong decision by the WRU - They should have stuck with the plan rather than let the regions bully them out of it.

Would it not make sense to move Bridgend over to the Blues region so that each region has 3 feeder teams in the Premiership.

Bridgend is half way between Swansea and Cardiff so why not?

I think part of the problem is Bridgend are owned by Llandarcy sports, who also owns the Ospreys, since the split between Neath and the Ospreys all the funding that would of gone to Neath has gone Bridgends way and the Ospreys are keen not to lose that investment.

I think the basic idea is to let Aberavon and Neath drop away next season and the Ospreys to fund Swansea and Bridgend.

I said we should have had 12 clubs from the moment this idea was proposed. But, it seems that certain members of the WRU are still lacking in the thinking department. Anyone, whats 12 (no. of clubs) divided by 4(no. of Regions)?

Don't think it's fair for Ospreys to have 4 clubs at their disposal, they already have the most players. Bridgend going to the Blues makes sense but is it as complicated for that to happen as Alyn makes out?

Morgannwg wrote:Bridgend going to the Blues makes sense but is it as complicated for that to happen as Alyn makes out?

I agree, in theory it would of made more sense for the Blues to take over Bridgend when the Celtic Warriors went bust, but at the time Cardiff had no interest in anyone, or any thing outside Cardiff. Hence why Bridgend went to the Ospreys.

As I say the basic problem is the Ospreys have created a team called Bridgend Ravens to play at the Brewery field, and frankly when you go around the borough of Bridgend you will see a lot of people in Ospreys shirts, you will rarely see anyone in any other jersey, I can't say I have ever seen anyone in a Blues shirt where I live, so I guess we are all Osprey converts now!

AlynDavies wrote:at the time Cardiff had no interest in anyone, or any thing outside Cardiff

At the time??? Have things actually changed since then...

Jimmy Moz wrote:

AlynDavies wrote:at the time Cardiff had no interest in anyone, or any thing outside Cardiff

At the time??? Have things actually changed since then...

Yes, though not as much as I would like (even though I am from Cardiff) - Ponty players are being used a lot more, but i'd like to see more academy players sent to Ponty. At the moment Cardiff RFC is basically the Blues academy and they lack the experience on the pitch to bring through the youngster.

Shambles.

The pieces of the jigsaw are coming together. Llandarcy Sports (Cuddy) own Bridgend. Llandarcy sports are invoved in plans to build a major sports stadium at Island Farm, Bridgend. But who would play there?

The Swans have plans to increase the capacity of the Liberty by 7500, if they stay in the Premiership. Can you imagine a 3 or 4 thousand Ospreys supoporters in a stadium that big?

So who thinks that the Ospreys will move to the new Bridgend stadium?

Answers on a post card to Mike.Cuddy@llandarcy-sports

12 clubs I agree with, but surely it should be as a 3 club split equal between the regions?? It wasn't fair when the O's and Dragos had 3 each and the Scarlets and Blues had 2. It will be even worse if te O's end up with 4 and the Blues still just 2, that's ridiculous.

And if it is such a need for the O's and Scarlets' development to have the quins and bridgend up in the premiership, why aren't the WRU contributing to the funding? Why lay it all out for the cash strapped regions to pay for? Seems incredibly counterproductive to me to be honest. I thought the WRU was supposed to help develop Welsh rugby? clearly not in this case.

Well if Neath are the team on the outside of the Ospreys plans then why not let them become a Blues feeder club. Does it really matter where they are based.

I think the Blues would have 3 decent feeder clubs with Cardiff, Ponty and Neath.

I thought Neath were in talks to become part of the Scarlets set up? The Blues really do need another team. Someone on the Red Zone last night suggested that it should be Merthyr, which would be good geographically for the Blues region. What will happen if RGC get bumped in a few seasons after playing Div 1 rugby? Its just going to get messy again. And it will get even worse if they become a pro region playing in the Pro 12/13/14 or w/e it becomes in the future.

ah that was just rumours Coleman, no way the Scarlets would accept Neath, not when Quins, Llandovery and Llanelli have been so good for us.

What will happen with RGC is a good question though, as they will deffo have to join in with the premiership at some point if we are really serious about developing rugby up there.

Is the Neath Ospreys argument so far gone that there will not be any reunification?

The truth is Neath arent needed and neither are Swansea.
We already have the region in Swansea and Swansea only run a senior side, they have to my knowledge ever had any kind of academy or youth set up, they have always gone around nicking players off Llanelli, Neath and Aberavon, I went to St Helens for the Cardiff game this season and it was like a morgue, in fact if you go on the Ospreys forum all you see is obituaries on there from there because everyone at the club is about 70 years old.

Neath isn't any more useful, it's a stones throw from the Liberty and they don't really develop players either they simply use their financial muscle to buy failed or worn out regional players to try and be successful. Name me 3 good players to come out of that club in the last 5 years?

The brutal but honest truth is that Swansea are only useful for putting players poached from other Swansea valley clubs in while Bridgend are developing players hand over fist. there are 5 Porthcawl players in the Ospreys U16 team alone, which is only 1 town in the Bridgend borough.

maestegmafia wrote:Is the Neath Ospreys argument so far gone that there will not be any reunification?

Actually my understanding is the matter was settled a while ago and Neath have come back to the region.

The Ospreys have been investing heavily Bridgend, they have realised it's where alot of talent continues to come from, whcih is why cuddy bought into the club a while back. Ive heard the same as Alyn, that Bridgend and Swansea will get the Lions share of investment.