Rugby Quagmire

It looks as though our rugby is drawing towards our soccer, with the very best players going abroad, as John Charles did, with Chinaglia even playing for italy, but he had double nationality I assume, so it's slighly different; perhaps Bale will go to Barcelona; most cross Offa's dyke where the money is, and Swansea & Cardiff are left to carry the flag as exiles in someone else's league structure, bringing in non-Welsh players to survive. And where's the money in rugby with low crowds leading to a cap on wages. The top players are leaving for France, we have cross-national leagues with an internal championship set-up, with a Welsh Premier in rugby with it's equivalent Welsh Premier in soccer. All our soccer teams now have european aspirations, some through English qualifications the rest in Cymru, but none can win, only Swansea have a chance, if they were good enough to qualify. Our metropoles, for in no way are they regions, more like conglomerates, as in the uniting of neighbouring local authorities, what can I say, they were supposed to be our pharos, our guiding lights with our leading lights to give us success at the highest levels by concentrating our best players, now they are haemoraging players and losing to French reserves, they have no following so what's their point, it looks as though we have a quandary that is beyond me. Our soccer is weak but stable and growing; our rugby tried to better itself but is now losing its support except for the big one and the little community clubs. Go back to the basics and do the simple things well. We are not New Zealand. A word that is very important everywhere in the world, not just in Cymru/Wales is 'identity', I think the WRU have lost the plot, especially as they don't even have time for the language of Phil Bennet, Barry John & Gareth Edwards; it looks to me as though they are now in a quagmire of their own creating from which will be difficult to extricate themselves . The situation cannot stay as it is, there is a shortfall of money, our soccer is now organized and settled for growth, our rugby appears to be heading in the opposite direction; our soccer is in the community, our rugby has left it. IDENTITY comes from the cradle to the committee, it is not to be found in sycophancy and a search for honours & glory. Our soccer has professionals running what is basically an amateur game, with the top sides being mainly semi-professional; rugby is a professional game run by amateurs at the top, or at least that's how it seems to me. Or perhaps rugby outgrew itself in the 70s, syphoned off a lot of soccer players & supporters, and now things are returning to normal with rugby's core support finding that their teams have been taken away fom them by overly optimistic administraters and are now at a loss, in a lurch with nowhere to go and to give heartfelt support.