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Last night’s discussion regarding the future of rugby in Wales. There must be, what, still 300 rugby clubs in Wales? A country where we have a community club sport built on tribal and local rivalries. A very working class, village versus village culture. Can they all survive?
Firstly, the Wales Online article, inspired by Gareth Davies’s (WRU Chairman) words, is correct. Community clubs MUST stop paying players in order to survive. Trouble is, most clubs don’t want to pay players, they just feel they have to in order to field a team each week. Sad.
Particularly sad given we must have more junior players playing club rugby than ever. But fewer youth players, and far fewer senior players, to the point where 2nd teams are few and far between. Why do so many players give up the game between 16 and 19?
The answer to that is pretty straightforward. The game is too hard nowadays to attract social players or half-fit players, those in it for the craic rather than ambition to progress. So after 16 many players make the decision to give it a miss. Preserving their bodies!
As an aside, a disproportionate amount of players lost at youth age tend to be the brighter academic ones, many of whom have more involved parents, who’d make good volunteers or committee members, so clubs lose out there too. Making it tougher...
... because running a community rugby club isn’t easy. Clubs are generally skint, have too few volunteers, there is a shedload of work to be each week, and without the voluntary effort of a few hard working people, the provision of rugby would fall apart.
I understand the call for fewer clubs BUT, I’m reluctant to concede to that view because community rugby clubs are one of the last remaining positives in many villages. A closure of a rugby club would have a wider negative impact than a closure of a church!
I say the same thing each celebratory presentation night (luckily at Penallta we are fortunate enough to have usually won stuff!), the one thing that bonds all us in Welsh rugby, the one common denominator, is the rugby club. It depresses me to think of any closing.
But giving out on social media about too few players, too many clubs, and no money isn’t helping what is a complex problem with no easy answers. I genuinely think rugby union needs a creative and brave new dawn if it is to survive, particularly in Wales.
I believe the wider the bottom of the pyramid (the clubs) the better the top of the pyramid (the international side). And to ensure the strength of the bottom of the pyramid and to keep clubs in business we need all the focus to be on retaining players.
Retaining players WHILE stopping payments will be very tough, but, we can be inventive about the game. I think the first thing that need addressing is the entertainment factor. There’s no doubt the game is less entertaining to play than in was 20 years ago.
Players are bigger, defences are immense, pitches are the same size. So why don’t we make 13 a side an option among younger age groups, possibly up to under 18 level. And compulsory at 2nd team level, removing a flanker and a winger.
Also, most community clubs LOVE the new cups (Plate, Bowl etc) because they provide a genuine opportunity to play at the Millennium Stadium (a dream for most club players). So why not run another cup, or a 2nd team cup, with the same prize.
Not the healthiest idea, but rugby players love a social swig, so Gould the WRU and Welsh Assembly work with the breweries to give tax breaks on Saturday evening beers? It’d surely help rugby clubs.
There will be plenty of other inventive ideas that could help a community rugby club. But what will help more than anything else is your help. If you love your club and you want it to survive offer your help. I guarantee you, the hard pressed people running the club will take it!
Last of all, long live Welsh rugby and community club rugby. I’m 42 and I’ve been lucky enough to have a privileged life but most (if not all) of my best memories were made with friends at Penallta RFC. And I owe nearly all of the lucky things I have in my life to the place 
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