: Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:27 pm
halifaxxx wrote:
celtic board and sponsors are best off cutting their losses by abandoning the sinking ship ASAP
Oh grow up.
Let's get this luddite nonsense out of the way once and for all. This 'it'l never work in Wales/London/anywhere outside the M62 valley bu11sh1t.'
Now I have been critical of CC's acceptance into SL, mostly because of the way it was done, and partly because I felt a premature franchise would harm the growth of RL in Wales.
But to suggest it can never work it just rubbish. The status quo is just that, it doesn't go on forever.
Who, in 1895, said 'don't bother setting up on your own, London's too powerful, the Northern Union is bound to fail'. (answer: I'll bet quite a few did, but luckily there were no fans' forums then).
In the 1920's when the Northern Union said they were going to take their cup final to Wembley, I'll betchya almost everyone said it was a ridiculous idea.
In 1930, when the first soccer world cup took place, European sides said it would never catch on. Same happened to the kick and clap world cup in the late 80's, in that it was dismissed as a mismatch which only a couple of teams could win. Union will never catch on in Japan, Argentina, Samoa, said the critics. Well dont you wish we'd had the courage to back our own international expansion and had faith in a four-year, expansive tournament of our own.
Wales has little or no grassroots history of RL, but there's absolutely nothing at all to stop it happening. CC have done their best work in youth development. The colts team that won the championship last year weren't illegal ozzies, but local lads. One of the centres at my team is from the valleys.. he says that the cream of welsh rugby is playing at the three pro union clubs (maybe 90 players), but that the next tier of players are all playing league.
Development is a very long term thing, and most fans live from weekend to weekend, or at most season to season. On the one hand, that's why I criticised the rush to get CC in SL. On the other, that's why there is no reason whatsoever why there can't be a massive hotbed of RL in Wales within a generation.
In the 1870's, a guy called John Houlding was a director at Everton FC, and the leaseholder on their ground. He fell out with them and they quit his turf. Bad move, you'd think. But he started his own team. Of course, Liverpool FC are (still) the most succesful English soccer team ever.
CC have suffered enormous problems, most of them entirely predictable (which is a shame, or a travesty, or a tragedy, or all three). But to deny the possibility of expansion is just plain stupid.
Everything was new once. The Beatles were a group of mates and scallies with wide-eyed dreams. Newton Heath FC were a collection of working lads with no visions of Old Trafford at the outset. England was a tiny, insignificant quarter of our islands until the 16th century, from which point it gradually built the largest empire ever seen on this earth... and then lost it again, melting into the middle distance. Nothing is writ in stone, as Osymandias might have said.
Or, as Zig Ziglar puts it, nobody just wanders about a bit and finds themselves at the top of Everest.
Anything worth doing needs a plan. Anything new will meet nothing but scepticism. Nothing that's here, now, has always or will always be here. RL can thrive in Wales. The success, or failure, of CC will influence the when and the how, but it makes no damn difference to the possibility that it can become the national sport. Yep, you heard me.
Hey, if you'd have told Bridgend fans 20 years ago that by 2010 there would be no Bridgend RFC, no Swansea RFC, no Cardiff RFC, no Newport RFC, but there would be a professional league side at Brewery Field playing host to Harlequins Rugby League, you'd have been laughed over the severn Bridge. If you've have told a Leeds United fan 7 years ago that they'd be playing league matches at Exeter and Yeovil while Hull City and Burnley took on Man United, you'd have received similar treatment. So go figure.
Whether RL in Wales will work is down to individuals and their efforts. Whether it CAN work in Wales should be beyond question.
