It means the route of losing twice as a way of
playing at the Millennium is closed – even those
players who were delighted to be playing there
last May were a little uncomfortable with how
their journey started.
“Having been in professional sport for 27 years
I found it kind of hard that you could qualify in
a knock-out competition having lost twice. It
was a reward for losing which seemed strange
to me,” explained for rugby league legend
Lydon.
Morriston enjoyed their
“This format we have got now, with SWALEC
day out at the Millennium
Stadium, beating Lampeter
continuing to sponsor and support the game,
in the fi rst ever SWALEC
Bowl fi nal
rewards teams for winning in a national
competition.
“There was a mystique that smaller clubs
wanted to play against the bigger names. In
reality, as you can see from the statistics of last
season, you had teams that withdrew because
they knew they could not win the game and
there was a lot of travel.
“If you look at the stats then those victories
by the small clubs over the bigger teams never
happened and some of those games never took
place. The odd chance to play a big team was a
thrashing in some cases.
“Not only that but there was a safety aspect,
which I am glad to say never materialised. You
could have a mis-match, particularly in the
scrum, where more developed players would
Neath made up for losing
the Premiership title to
have been playing in a game which mattered
Cardiff by beating old rivals
Llanelli in a classic fi nal of
and that could result in an injury.
the SWALEC Cup
“It would have been negligent on our part not
to look at that.”
The changes mean less travel until the later
stages and more chances for clubs to maximise
revenue.
“There will be some regionalised games with
a lot of local derbies in the early stages, but as
you reach the quarter-fi nals there will be the
chance to play nationally, still staying within
those three bands,” said Lydon.
“Teams have the opportunities to move up a
band through their form in the leagues.”
The SWALEC Cup has always been a vital part
of modern Welsh rugby, the Bowl and Plate
were a welcome addition last season which
Ammanford took the
have just got a little bit better.
SWALEC Plate with a 46-20
win over Risca
sportingwales
issue8twothousand&nine
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52