Sportingwales 8

words Hamish Stuart pictures Huw Evans Picuture Agency
TURNING UP
THE POWER IN
WELSH RUGBY
No question about some of the More importantly there is a huge safety “That was the key to it, the ability to
happiest sportspeople in Wales aspect of completely amateur players play in a national competition with three
last season – the delight which taking on semi-professional or even fully ﬁ nals, six teams playing at the Millennium
comes with achieving something professional players, who are much bigger, Stadium.
they thought would be out of heavier and ﬁ tter than in the amateur era.
their grasp. The physical gulf has never been greater. “We went away and talked to a lot of
stakeholders in the game and came up
Hence the thrill for the rugby players of It was an accident waiting to happen, with something similar with that day in the
Risca, Ammanford, Lampeter Town and so the WRU and SWALEC should be sun at the Millennium Stadium, but now
Morriston who had the joy of running out congratulated for stepping in before it did. played in three tiers so it will provide more
of the tunnel onto the Millennium Stadium meaningful competition.
pitch in the ﬁ nals of the SWALEC Plate and “It still is a national competition, it still
Bowl competitions. has three ﬁ nals, but it allows teams to be “It will still be tough but more akin to the
rewarded as they progress through the level players are playing in the rest of the
Those matches were played there, building competition by winning,” explained the time.”
up to the SWALEC Cup Final so it was a WRU’s head of rugby performance and
wonderful addition to the Welsh rugby development Joe Lydon.
calendar, with just one oddity about it –
the teams had to lose in the early rounds “We took a good, hard look at last year’s
of the SWALEC Cup to qualify for the competition to see how we could improve
Bowl and Plate. it. It has a fabulous sponsor in SWALEC
who are a great supporter of the game,
It is an anomaly which has been tidied up but we wanted to look at improving the
by the Welsh Rugby Union for the coming competition and improving standards.
season, three separate competitions with
the goal of reaching the Millennium Stadium “I have to be honest there were some
if you can win all the way there in the anomalies last year, some mis-matches, a
SWALEC Cup, Bowl and Plate. lot of travel and some teams pulling out
of games, so it let the competition down a
Some have questioned the changes, for the little bit.
David and Goliath contests are a thing of
the past under this format. “Having said that, there was a fantastic
end-of-season event with three showpiece
However in truth those ﬁ xtures no longer ﬁ nals at the Millennium Stadium, which was
carry the glamour and the potential that great for the game at all levels.
made massive names of small clubs such as
Joe Lydon
Penclawdd and St Peter’s.
SWALEC Rugby
SW
Brought to you in association with
40
sportingwales
issue8twothousand&nine
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