With Rugby dying in Wales, is football ready to pick up the mantle?

[Forgotmyoldaccount]

Seems Rugby is dying, we're losing teams left right and centre, crowds are club level are no where near where they used to be.

Is Football can step up and fill the hole? Or are young fans being lost to online computer games?

[blue lewj]

Football is already the number 1 participatory and spectator sport here.

Rugby Union is in a testing time at the moment. It is on life support down under too. The NRL being by far the best league in either code of rugby.

[Canton Kev]

Doesn’t seem to be just happening in Wales. Even the big clubs in England like Leicester, Bath, Exeter, etc have seen a drop off in crowds.

[blue lewj]

Doesn’t seem to be just happening in Wales. Even the big clubs in England like Leicester, Bath, Exeter, etc have seen a drop off in crowds.

Not to mention Worcester and Wasps going out of business and having to virtually start again.

If rugby league could get it's act together with regards to an international game it would blow it out of the water. Union is a far inferior product to watch regardless of how many slow motion replays they show with dramatic voice overs on the BBC.

[the other bob wilson]

London Irish might be in trouble as well apparently.

[Stanmore Bluebird]

I have never shared the love for rugby, unlike the majority of my fellow Welsh people.
Left school in 1972 after A levels, and last summer we held a 50 year reunion get together. That night I was practically the only one wanting to talk about Cardiff City or even interested in them; with one or two exceptions only, the other men were all still besotted with the egg chasing game.

[B. Oddie]

I don't follow rugby at all but two boys in work support Ospreys and Cardiff Blues respectively and often bemoan the emptiness of the stadiums.

[TWGL1]

English Premier Division attendance figures have been published in this article

https://www.gloucesterbid.uk/news/gl...living-crisis/

[dembethewarrior]

Do you walk around with your eyes closed? Plenty of kids in United and Liverpool tops, kids having a kick around is usually with a football not a rugby.. football had been in the ascendency for years.

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

Do you walk around with your eyes closed? Plenty of kids in United and Liverpool tops, kids having a kick around is usually with a football not a rugby.. football had been in the ascendency for years.

In fairness, when I was a rugby-mad kid, nobody played around with a rugby ball, it wasn't practical due to the very nature of the game. It takes numbers on each side (rugby) to be meaningful, plus you're going to get your clothes messed up and you really don't want to be slamming into your friends.

[goats]

Can’t stand rugby, rugby people etc…happy to see it die off even more….

[Des Parrot]

This starts with the schools, football was not even on the curriculum when I was at school (too many decades ago), I suspect this isn’t the case anymore & football is no longer excluded.

Secondly as mentioned above the culture for physical activity is fading away. My local league North Gloucestershire used to have 60-70 teams, it’s now done to around 40.

[dembethewarrior]

In fairness, when I was a rugby-mad kid, nobody played around with a rugby ball, it wasn't practical due to the very nature of the game. It takes numbers on each side (rugby) to be meaningful, plus you're going to get your clothes messed up and you really don't want to be slamming into your friends.

Kids that want to kick a rugby ball around will manage it. We used to play with small numbers on a patch of grass as kids, one lad was always down the park practicing his kicking as well.

A kick around isn't meant to be meaningful, it's a laugh and passing time with mates.

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

Kids that want to kick a rugby ball around will manage it. We used to play with small numbers on a patch of grass as kids, one lad was always down the park practicing his kicking as well.

A kick around isn't meant to be meaningful, it's a laugh and passing time with mates.

But rugby, by its essence, isn't about a "kick around".
Okay, so let's suppose that as a kid you fancy a game of football with your mates - you could literally get hold of a plastic ball and play almost anywhere... in the street, car park, wasteland, it wouldn't matter (as long as it was firm and dry).
Rugby on the other hand, by its nature, has to be played on grass (no matter what level) - there lies the problem...."Let's go and play on a sodden patch of grass with our clothes on, shall we?" Of course, there wouldn't be any lineouts, scrums, drop kicks over the posts, or even tackling (try that on tarmac!). It all becomes so diluted to become meaningless.
Putting on a rugby kit wasn't really an option, it takes away the spontaneity of having a "kick around"
I was rugby-mad as a kid, however, I can never recall getting together with my equally rugby-mad friends to have a game in our spare time for the reasons I've mentioned.

[dembethewarrior]

But rugby, by its essence, isn't about a "kick around".
Okay, so let's suppose that as a kid you fancy a game of football with your mates - you could literally get hold of a plastic ball and play almost anywhere... in the street, car park, wasteland, it wouldn't matter (as long as it was firm and dry).
Rugby on the other hand, by its nature, has to be played on grass (no matter what level) - there lies the problem...."Let's go and play on a sodden patch of grass with our clothes on, shall we?" Of course, there wouldn't be any lineouts, scrums, drop kicks over the posts, or even tackling (try that on tarmac!). It all becomes so diluted to become meaningless.
Putting on a rugby kit wasn't really an option, it takes away the spontaneity of having a "kick around"
I was rugby-mad as a kid, however, I can never recall getting together with my equally rugby-mad friends to have a game in our spare time for the reasons I've mentioned.

But we did

Played 2v2 3v3 if there was a spare the better players had less numbers etc.

Always went home in muddy clothes.

Touch rugby if you were on concrete..

[splott parker]

If there were only two of us, we’d go over Splott Park or Greenway Park, both had rugby posts, and play Gainings. Didn’t half improve your kicking.

[the other bob wilson]

Only rugby and baseball (rounders) I've ever played was in school - always football and cricket (with some tennis during Wimbledon fortnight and pitch and putt over Llandaff during the Open) if we wanted to play sport out of school hours. We even used to play hitting the crossbar with our football on the rugby pitches over Ashcroft Park.

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

If there were only two of us, we’d go over Splott Park or Greenway Park, both had rugby posts, and play Gainings. Didn’t half improve your kicking.

Yes, that was a popular practice. As you said, it was a great way to improve your kicking by building up leg strength.

[blue matt]

Doesn’t seem to be just happening in Wales. Even the big clubs in England like Leicester, Bath, Exeter, etc have seen a drop off in crowds.

I know a few bath rugby season ticket holders, when they have a spare, I am often asked to go due to me being Welsh which means I love rugby ( I dont, I despise it after being made to play in school and told if I wanted to play school football I had to play for the rugby team aswell, I really should try and let that resentment go after 35 years )
Anyways, even the Season ticket holders are not bothering to go, yes Bath are doing crap, but its very unlike them to not bother going, as it a occasion for them, Few Drinks and lunch out, then to the Rec

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

I don't hate rugby , it can be a fantastic game to watch

But my school years were memories of rugby , rugby and more rugby

I have nothing but contempt for the one eyed rugby teachers .....they were not games teachers ....it was rugby all the time

Most of them were from west Wales and went to the rugby fascist teacher training place in cyncoed

Thick feckers who would have struggled to do anything else but teach rugby

[JamesWales]

Rugby in Wales has its challenges at the moment and isn't a 'growth area' for the game unlike some countries, but it's a push to say it's dying.

The biggest problem is the absolutely gash league our clubs are in. No promotion and relegation, no real away travel, no real punishment for mediocrity. It they scrapped regions and opened up the whole system as part of the English leagues then overnight you would probably see crowds grow by 50%.

What's the point in watching clubs like Pontypridd, Pontypool, Ebbw Vale etc now? They are effectively in a reserve league, confined forever to the lower tiers. There's a social side to watching of course but hard to see a sporting one.

As for the 'regions' most games are largely meaningless. Cardiff may finish 4th or 10th and it makes little difference in practice. The derbies are fun, the odd European game is exciting but the average league game has little riding on it.

And don't get me started on the charlatans at the WRU..

[Taffy Blue in Berkshire]

I went to Cardiff High in the late 60's early 70's and no chance to play soccer, it was all rugby. Me and a few mates were regulars at NP on the Grange End. My loyalty to City has never changed and although I check on the egg I can't say I lose sleep over it.

We need 3 points tomorrow against the J B's!

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

I went to Cardiff High in the late 60's early 70's and no chance to play soccer, it was all rugby. Me and a few mates were regulars at NP on the Grange End. My loyalty to City has never changed and although I check on the egg I can't say I lose sleep over it.

We need 3 points tomorrow against the J B's!

It was maths or geography or history teachers who had an interest in football who would in their spare time run the football teams

The sports teachers simply didn't give a toss about football

And a lot of people hate rugby and everything that goes with it to this day

It's perfectly legitimate and understandable

[A Quiet Monkfish]

I don't hate rugby , it can be a fantastic game to watch

But my school years were memories of rugby , rugby and more rugby

I have nothing but contempt for the one eyed rugby teachers .....they were not games teachers ....it was rugby all the time

Most of them were from west Wales and went to the rugby fascist teacher training place in cyncoed

Thick feckers who would have struggled to do anything else but teach rugby

As you say, it's not the game per se, it's the sheer snobbery that permeated through the clubs and supporters in Wales up until the last couple of decades.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

As you say, it's not the game per se, it's the sheer snobbery that permeated through the clubs and supporters in Wales up until the last couple of decades.

Cardiff Rugby appears very solicitor , surveyor , bank manager territory , all sipping away in the pubs around Westgate