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Five Alive
By Paul August 16 2008
In some respects this weeks talk of expansion and atonement from the WRU is not entirely a surprise. Considering the recent flow of sound bites and announcements, it's becoming apparent that Roger Lewis et al are very keen to expand the role the union play in rugby development below the national team.

Regular readers of this site would not have been surprised with news of plans to set up a development side in North Wales.

What was surprising though was the manner in which Lewis dangled the carrot of the union not having ruled out such a side being placed in the South Wales Valleys, in tandem with his comments that could he turn back the clock, he would “certainly not have disbanded the Celtic Warriors.”

Lewis also talked of the “financial risks” the union would be willing to take in setting up a fifth region.

All this is a marked change in stance from a union that's decision seemed more governed by Barclays bank than rugby itself.

The mere concept of a “development” is another to send a chill down the spine of fans of Connacht and those formerly of Borders, being treated as second class citizens is not fun.

But then again the success of supposed reject team the ACT Brumbies in Australia, would suggest that handled correctly, potentially they may be half competitive.

Realistically though without enough private finance in the form of a benefactor or two, it's going to be hard to see the North Walian public being bothered enough to see their side being hammered every week.

There is also the knock on effect this will have on the Premiership. Having already been diluted by recently created regional A teams, losing their best players on a permanent basis will be an even harder pill to swallow, with the quality of the league being diminished further.

This is all very much hypothetical and I'm sure as the WRU begin to tie together their new plan, we can really get our teeth stuck into this.

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Re: Five Alive:
Posted by: Zippy (IP Logged)
Date: 2008:08:17:11:35:26

Yeah I think Roger's comments are more to give appeasement and hope rather than actually start to mobilise people to put franchise proposals together.

To be honest we're prob looking at 2-3 years down the line for anything to happen.

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