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Bic failure

We're going over old ground, but I really don't see how you can say this is a failure until you wait and see how many players blooded / given game time in this tournament and the next few go on to senior Wales honours as has happened with the Irish teams over the years.

Maybe this is just taking games away from the PP clubs, maybe it is the start of putting into place a conveyor belt of talent that will set Wales in good stead for years to come. Rightly or wrongly, it appears that the PP isn't seen as a suitable vehicle to develop players, so with only four senior sides in the country, surely something more must be done to give game time to fringe / up and coming players.

FWIW, I watched bits of the Cardiff Barbarians vs Pirates game and they didn't look too bad to me, they were unlucky to run into a very well organised, resolute Pirates defence which prevented them from getting more out of the game.

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Particularly as the Championship is such a small league, pretty much every side has their eye on either the play offs or avoiding a relegation dog fight, few if any DoRs could put their hand on their heart and say that a BIC match is as big a priority as a league match. The crowds when compared to those for league matches give the same impression. I'm surprised that Bristol charge the regular price for BIC matches, I had the impression that most charge less, although I must confess that I haven't attended one since Pirates won the final on home soil.

I think you'd struggle to find a single supporter (other than maybe of the team that wins the competition) who wouldn't rather ditch the BIC and replace the blank weekends with league matches created by adding the top 3 of National One. Chairmen and Treasurers may be less keen though - all of a sudden there would be 3 more mouths to feed from the same pot at the same time as the squad becomes more expensive as it needs to be able to withstand 6 more league matches without the facility to bring in fringe / loan players.

As for trips to the Mennaye, as this season's match suggested, regular upsets for the Pirates may be a thing of the past for a while at least. It's funny that you would bemoan the 400 mile round trip - Bristol is Pirates' local derby!

I respect your views, but if we look at player development, all current internationals in Wales have at some point played club rugby unless they have come through a regional development squad, so this idea to play the regions in the BIC doesn't hold water, any players good enough will rise to the top it matters not whether they play for their club or region in the BIC, the point is that the competition had meaning to the clubs and the supporters, it now means nothing, nobody watches the regions in this and looking at the attendance figures in the European matches last weekend, hardly anyone watches the regions either, less than 8,000 at the Ospreys on Saturday, Ponty used to get that many when we played in Europe.
 
Bemoan?? That's not a word I would use I love the place, it's people and the club. It's the travelling that is the issue for me as it is for the Cornish pirates and their supporters. Do I wish Penzance was closer to Bristol? To right I do but that's purely for selfish reasons. As for the new SFC, being centralish in the county has to improve their support base and I really do wish them well but like so many Bristol fans we will miss our weekend breaks in Penzance and the old ground but not the beatings we often got there lol

I only used the word bemoan with regard to the mileage, not the destination.

Previous to their return to the Mennaye in Penzance, Pirates played in Truro and Camborne (both more central) and enjoyed significantly higher crowds. For balance, you can't consider the location in isolation, in those days, the team was riding higher and the man on the street had a few more pennies in his pocket. All three venues have their merits. While the Mennaye is a traditional rugby ground and Penzance is a great destination for a rugby based weekend away for visiting supporters (Truro is a decent destination too), the match day experience is a pretty poor one, views are poor for those of us who like to stand up to watch our rugby (I know this is becoming a thing of the past in many places), the pitch is almost impossible to drain and the bar is a tent serving overpriced beer. On top of this, it's out on a limb for the majority of Cornish rugby supporters. A Stadium For [sic] Cornwall would get over all of these shortcomings, so surely it would improve crowds. I just hope that it doesn't become yet another soulless, generic venue.

For my mind, Camborne was a good venue for Pirates - it's right in Cornwall's rugby heartland and more central to the county. The party line when the decision was made to move back to the Mennaye and crowds dropped off was that despite smaller crowds, the club were better off as they weren't paying rent and had control over food and drink sales. The cynic in me would like to have seen the figures to prove this and even if this was true at the time, wonders if it is still the case now that crowds have dropped off further.

The downside to Camborne is that it would never have been able to meet AP criteria. That said, the medium term priority for the club must be to ensure sustainability of Championship rugby and build back towards being regular play off contenders before worrying about the promised land IMO.

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I respect your views, but if we look at player development, all current internationals in Wales have at some point played club rugby unless they have come through a regional development squad, so this idea to play the regions in the BIC doesn't hold water, any players good enough will rise to the top it matters not whether they play for their club or region in the BIC, the point is that the competition had meaning to the clubs and the supporters, it now means nothing, nobody watches the regions in this and looking at the attendance figures in the European matches last weekend, hardly anyone watches the regions either, less than 8,000 at the Ospreys on Saturday, Ponty used to get that many when we played in Europe.

To an extent, I am playing devil's advocate and must admit to being almost entirely ignorant of the development pathway for Welsh talent. The difference between players representing a region in the BIC and representing a regional side is that in the regional side, they are playing under regional coaches within the system that they aspire to become a bigger part of, this sounds preferable to me.

The situation in England is similar. AP clubs have academies and frequently dual register (a load without so much paperwork) players with level 2, 3 and 4 sides depending on the player's level of ability. However as these players develop, they will find themselves spending more time playing in the A League and the LV= Cup (in non-RWC years). The clubs seem to prefer this, presumably as they're able to keep a closer eye on these players and exert more influence upon them.
 
I only used the word bemoan with regard to the mileage, not the destination.

Previous to their return to the Mennaye in Penzance, Pirates played in Truro and Camborne (both more central) and enjoyed significantly higher crowds. For balance, you can't consider the location in isolation, in those days, the team was riding higher and the man on the street had a few more pennies in his pocket. All three venues have their merits. While the Mennaye is a traditional rugby ground and Penzance is a great destination for a rugby based weekend away for visiting supporters (Truro is a decent destination too), the match day experience is a pretty poor one, views are poor for those of us who like to stand up to watch our rugby (I know this is becoming a thing of the past in many places), the pitch is almost impossible to drain and the bar is a tent serving overpriced beer. On top of this, it's out on a limb for the majority of Cornish rugby supporters. A Stadium For [sic] Cornwall would get over all of these shortcomings, so surely it would improve crowds. I just hope that it doesn't become yet another soulless, generic venue.

For my mind, Camborne was a good venue for Pirates - it's right in Cornwall's rugby heartland and more central to the county. The party line when the decision was made to move back to the Mennaye and crowds dropped off was that despite smaller crowds, the club were better off as they weren't paying rent and had control over food and drink sales. The cynic in me would like to have seen the figures to prove this and even if this was true at the time, wonders if it is still the case now that crowds have dropped off further.

The downside to Camborne is that it would never have been able to meet AP criteria. That said, the medium term priority for the club must be to ensure sustainability of Championship rugby and build back towards being regular play off contenders before worrying about the promised land IMO.

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To an extent, I am playing devil's advocate and must admit to being almost entirely ignorant of the development pathway for Welsh talent. The difference between players representing a region in the BIC and representing a regional side is that in the regional side, they are playing under regional coaches within the system that they aspire to become a bigger part of, this sounds preferable to me.

The situation in England is similar. AP clubs have academies and frequently dual register (a load without so much paperwork) players with level 2, 3 and 4 sides depending on the player's level of ability. However as these players develop, they will find themselves spending more time playing in the A League and the LV= Cup (in non-RWC years). The clubs seem to prefer this, presumably as they're able to keep a closer eye on these players and exert more influence upon them.

This comp is still ****e and the clubs would have performed far better WRU and Gareth Davies aka WRUIN and perfect hair, you have screwed up again.
 
This comp is still ****e and the clubs would have performed far better WRU and Gareth Davies aka WRUIN and perfect hair, you have screwed up again.

Wayyyy too early to be writing off the regional A sides after just 1 season. No it wasn't a good season results wise, but they're still building the teams. Give it a season or two and we'll see a big imprudent improvement I reckon!

Still not convinced that the premiership to regional set up is working as well as it could, at the moment which is why I was in favour of the Regional A sides in the B&I Cup.

Suppose the biggest issue is that the A teams don't have a chance to play outside of the Cup. If they had a proper league to play in, don't think we'd have seen the issues we had thus year.
 
Wayyyy too early to be writing off the regional A sides after just 1 season. No it wasn't a good season results wise, but they're still building the teams. Give it a season or two and we'll see a big imprudent improvement I reckon!

Still not convinced that the premiership to regional set up is working as well as it could, at the moment which is why I was in favour of the Regional A sides in the B&I Cup.

Suppose the biggest issue is that the A teams don't have a chance to play outside of the Cup. If they had a proper league to play in, don't think we'd have seen the issues we had thus year.

Its still crap, with crap results for our sides and even worse attendances.
 
Great constructive input there.

You can spay manure with air freshener but its still manure, doesn't matter how you dress it up the WRUin have made some bad decisions in the past and this is right up there with the worst including of course the appointment of perfect hair.
 

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