Wales v Australia - 17/11/2024 (16.10)

[Lé Ddanno]

Who?

Not you Al, you're alright if a tad paranoid

 

[Lé Ddanno]

You've got Joes now bro, it's going to be ok.

Bang on, they're BACK

 

[Geordie]

England fans
" We're in a crisis"....

Wales fans
"Hold my beer"

 

[dullonien]

Gat's can do one. The 20 min. period wirh a man up says it all. We look like Aus did at the WC, getting dicked by an average side!

 

[Tooting Carmen]

I am shocked. I thought Australia probably would win, but not like that. It seems that the Welsh players just gave up.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Honestly I genuinely want Aus to trash Wales

Dreams come true

 

[Tooting Carmen]

I have defended Welsh rugby for a long time despite its manifest failings and difficulties, but this is the last straw. Nothing short of mass resignations and root and branch reform will do.

 

[Amiga500]

The WRUs main concern today will be a crowd of 56k.

Yep - now that there is stormy weather hitting the top of the tower, they'll pay very heavily for ignoring all evidence for years that pointed to fundamentally broken foundations.

Is it recoverable?

You go back to 2017 before you find the Welsh U-20s finishing outside the bottom 3 of the U-20 6N. Those guys are now 27 years old.
They actually won it in 2016 with a grand slam. Those guys are now 28 years old.

If they haven't impacted the senior squad by now, they won't.

This years U-18s look a bit better, only going down to England by a point and beating Ireland.
But the sporting world is absolutely littered with examples of folks who had the world at their feet as a 17 year old then were totally derailed by the time they were a 22 year old.

So can't see any brightness this side of 2028. Will the WRU be a going concern by that point if attendances drop off?

Maybe the volume of travelling away fans in 6N games may save them. After all, who wouldn't want to travel to Cardiff to watch their team put 50 on the Gwyndafs?

 

[dirty harry]

Wales is a small microcosm of Rugby union as a whole.

Losing global market share, run by relics, and most clubs not run by private owners willing to lose a fortune are on the bones.

I recently laid it out bare to a development officer, non Welsh PGCE students, in increasingly over subscribed PE teacher courses in uni are gaining positions in welsh city schools (Newport, Cardiff, Swansea). These PE teachers aren't rugby people, they're mostly football, and between that, and changing cultures oflver the last 15 years in major welsh cities, football absolutely dominates.

I can give you 7 high schools in and around Cardiff that barely run rugby teams, or has rugby on the curriculum.

In a small country, being culturally changed radically by their government, rugby is a old fashioned custom that is dying out.