Ireland aren’t the big worry for Welsh rugby: it’s Swansea and Cardiff City
Last year proved to be both as Wales clinched their 11th Grand Slam only to end 2012 amid their worst run of results for a decade.
How the Irish, with a mere two Slams in their history, and those some 61 years apart, would have loved such a rich return from their so-called ‘golden generation’.
Not that the likes of O’Driscoll, O’Gara, O’Connell, D’Arcy and Hayes haven’t helped to deliver an abundance of riches in their wonderful careers. It is just that the bulk of the honours have come at provincial level.
Irish provinces have dominated Europe’s top club competition, winning five of the last seven titles, yet that golden period has yielded just one Six Nations title between World Cup failure in 2007 and 2011.
However, Ireland are not alone. Even in 2003, when England swept all before them, not a single one of their clubs reached the semi-finals of Europe.
In contrast Wales have repeatedly defied their domestic form, winning three Grand Slams in eight years despite a lack of European success for their regions.
Two facts stick out like a sore thumb when contrasting Welsh and Irish rugby in the professional era. First, the age-old provincial system in Ireland enabled the pro-game to catch on quickly and helped to turn the Irish teams into powerhouses in Europe. Second, the internecine warfare between the clubs and then newly constituted regions in Wales has consistently stymied success in Europe. Wales has managed to squeeze the best out of its meagre playing talent as far as the national cause is concerned, yet has consistently failed to produce the goods at the next tier down.
The growth of the four Irish provinces has been in stark contrast to the demise of the traditional rugby centres in Wales. The once massive gates of clubs like Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Neath and Llanelli are now to be found at Ravenhill, the RDS and Thomond Park.
The finances of the Irish provinces are far healthier than those of their Welsh counterparts, all four of whom live from hand-to-mouth. A self-imposed salary cap of £3m was introduced two years ago and, since then, the Ospreys and Blues have stripped millions of pounds out of their wage bill and seen dozens of top flight players flee to England and France.
Jonny Sexton may be heading to richer pastures in Paris next season, but the ferries across Le Channel have already taken Lee Byrne, Mike Phillips, James Hook, Luke Charteris, Gethin Jenkins and Huw Bennett to France. Worse still, Jamie Roberts and Dan Lydiate are likely to be lining up alongside Sexton in the Top 14 next winter.
The IRFU’s clever plan to ring-fence their top talent has helped deliver unprecedented provincial success over the past 20 years. Six Heineken Cup titles across three of their four teams, as well as four Celtic titles, have seen fans flocking to worship their local heroes. But the rush to become Munster, Leinster and Ulster diehards has had an effect on the top end of the game, with the cash cow of international rugby not as attractive a proposition as of old in Dublin.
In Wales, it is the other way around. Team Wales has become such a powerful product, built on the back of the great facilities at the Millennium Stadium, hosting the 1999 Rugby World Cup, staging matches in the 2007 tournament and those three Grand Slams, that Welsh fans are happy to get their rugby fix in the international windows. Regional crowds have slumped to near all-time lows.
So, on the one hand you have a Union awash with money, setting record profits year-in, year-out, while the four teams that nurture and nourish the players who appear in red are constantly holding out the begging bowl. There was much ranting when the old nine Welsh clubs were condensed to five regions by former WRU CEO David Moffett in 2003.
There were even greater howls of ‘foul play’ when the Celtic Warriors were disbanded after only one season a year later. Now the gang of four are at loggerheads with Moffett’s successor, Roger Lewis, on the way forward. Don’t rule out further shrinkage if Lewis continues to focus on Team Wales and profit margins.
The WRU has become an ever increasing competitor in the congested professional sporting market place in south Wales since Lewis took office. More international fixtures has meant less interest in the regional game, with a subsequent drop off in spending power to not only keep the best players in Wales, but also to introduce overseas stars of the quality of Ruan Pienaar, Johan Muller, Isa Nacewa, Brad Thorne and Doug Howlett.
There is no end to the stream of talented youngsters who dream of playing for Wales — the Under 20 team beat New Zealand at the Junior World Cup last summer and finished fourth overall — and the best Welsh players are on a par with their pro counterparts across Europe. But there isn’t enough depth to that talent any more.
Why? Just look at the other attractions. There are nine professional sporting teams within a 100 miles radius in south Wales, served by roughly 1.5 million people. Included are four rugby regions, the Wales national team, a county cricket side playing out of a Test venue, one of the UK’s top ice-hockey teams and three soccer sides.
Now there’s the rub.
Swansea City and Cardiff City are the first names on the lips of most sports lovers in Wales these days. The Swans are flying high in their second season in the Premier League and have just reached the final of the Capital One Cup at Wembley.
Cardiff City, meanwhile, are 10 points clear at the top of the Championship and look set to head into football’s promised land next season. Then there is Newport County, now ground sharing with the Dragons, who are fighting to get back into the Football League as they hover near the top of the old Football Conference.
It is not that football is a new threat. It has always been a much bigger game numerically in Wales than rugby, but its major clubs have never enjoyed such sustained success at the top end of the spectrum. On most weekends the attendance at either Swansea or Cardiff City dwarves that of the two Welsh regions playing at home in Europe or the PRO12.
Irish rugby has the GAA to contend with, but nothing can compare in size and appeal to Premiership football. Rugby provided Ireland with a major professional sport. In Wales, rugby is a baby in professional terms and battling with all its might not to be thrown out with the bath water.
No wonder, then, the WRU are doing all they can to boost numbers not just in the towering stands at the Millennium Stadium, but also on the playing fields across the land. A quick look at the IRB’s vital statistics for the two countries is quite revealing.
Ireland has fewer clubs than Wales (234-314), but almost twice as many rugby players overall (153,823-79,800). And the Irish have more than twice as many senior male players than their arch-rivals this weekend (25,616-12,000). So, the battle in Welsh rugby isn’t just about money, it’s about playing numbers and player retention.
The Welsh are eternal optimists and the most fervent of fans. As many have observed, you never beat Wales, you just score more points than them! Can Ireland do that tomorrow? If you look at the figures, they should, but then again, the now ageing ‘golden generation’ haven’t delivered too many goodies on the international stage since 1995.
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