Welsh at it again: CL future in doubt

[thecoolfreak]

Celtic League threatened once again
Monday March 06 2006
Welsh hesitation causes anger among Scots and Irish
The Celtic League’s future is once again threatened by bickering between the three nations, with the Scots and Irish once again losing patience with the Welsh.


The Times said on Monday that the Welsh would have to agree to a series of ultimatums at an emergency meeting in Dublin on Tuesday, or face expulsion from the competition.

A four-year agreement for the league's future has been thrashed out, and should have been signed months ago, but the WRU are once again procrastinating.

“We are getting a bit annoyed with them,” Gordon McKie, the chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union, said on Sunday.

“They say they have been ‘very busy’, they have not been able to round to it.

“They have some issues and we understand they are consulting with their legal advisors but it is taking forever and we are looking for a bit of urgency. Broadcasters and sponsors, as well as players and supporters, all need to be told what is happening.”

The Celtic League has never had a sponsor, mostly because prospective investors have been put off precisely because of wrangles like this, and that last year when Wales suddenly defected and entered its teams in the Powergen Cup.

The new agreement was supposed to last four years and to add some consistency to the league and its structure so that sponsorship would come

It also addresses some issues like the regularity of the fixture calendar, with Scottish and Irish home games scheduled almost exclusively on Friday nights and attention paid to continuity when the calendar is interrupted by International weekends

“We want a more structured shape to the season,” McKie added.

“For example, Edinburgh won’t have another home game until April, it is hopeless.

“I don’t think we can resolve all the issues in this meeting but, hopefully, by the end there will be clarity on where we are going and a willingness from everybody to take it forward together and quickly.”

Wales may be busy sorting out their own internal affairs, but Scotland has also been completely re-vamping its internal union structure, and have still found the time to deal with the Celtic League issue.

The excuse that the Welsh are 'busy' is therefore met with the argument that it is both an internal difficulty and the WRU's fault for changing the Celtic season at the last minute.

[epaddy]

The CL is not the future, the Welsh will do everything they can to get out of it, our only hope is if the English go regional

[thecoolfreak]

The CL is not the future, the Welsh will do everything they can to get out of it, our only hope is if the English go regional

But we need it fto carry on for as long as possible because without we're f%~ked.

[epaddy]

The CL is not the future, the Welsh will do everything they can to get out of it, our only hope is if the English go regional

But we need it fto carry on for as long as possible because without we're f%~ked.

Any effort to make it a viable league will be half arsed as the effort will only come from ourselves and the Scots

[crumlinbob]

Last year the Welsh, as Grand Slam winners, threatened to end the Celtic League unless it was restructured to allow them compete in the Powergen Cup. This year, as possibly the worst team in the Six Nations because of a series of injuries to key players who have been forced to play too many matches, they still want to scrap their bread and butter competition. Who are the gobshites running Welsh rugby?

[ruck]

The CL is not the future, the Welsh will do everything they can to get out of it, our only hope is if the English go regional

i disagree with that! The Celtic League has been thoroughly enjoyable this season and is without doubt the best so far. It's also a lot more competitive than the GP and i find it much more interesting.
Two main things are leaving it down at the moment.
Lack of a sponsor & cr@p programming by Setanta.

[epaddy]

The CL is not the future, the Welsh will do everything they can to get out of it, our only hope is if the English go regional

i disagree with that! The Celtic League has been thoroughly enjoyable this season and is without doubt the best so far. It's also a lot more competitive than the GP and i find it much more interesting.
Two main things are leaving it down at the moment.
Lack of a sponsor & cr@p programming by Setanta.

Ruck your post is 100% correct. But until the welsh are told it will never happen by the English, we are up sh!t creek

[StuF]

The CL is not the future, the Welsh will do everything they can to get out of it, our only hope is if the English go regional

i disagree with that! The Celtic League has been thoroughly enjoyable this season and is without doubt the best so far. It's also a lot more competitive than the GP and i find it much more interesting.
Two main things are leaving it down at the moment.
Lack of a sponsor & cr@p programming by Setanta.

Ruck your post is 100% correct. But until the welsh are told it will never happen by the English, we are up sh!t creek

The IRB already told the WRU last year that they would not sanction a "cross-border competition" if it was to the detriment of the CL. What this comes down to is that if the welsh dropped out of the CL over this cr@p then the anglo-welsh cup wouldn't be allowed to go ahead by the IRB.

It's f'in ridiculous that the welsh still think they have a future outside the CL. The english set-up just can't and won't accomodate them and it's totally at odds with the regional/pro-team/provincial structure we have in the CL.

[epaddy]

i disagree with that! The Celtic League has been thoroughly enjoyable this season and is without doubt the best so far. It's also a lot more competitive than the GP and i find it much more interesting.
Two main things are leaving it down at the moment.
Lack of a sponsor & cr@p programming by Setanta.

Ruck your post is 100% correct. But until the welsh are told it will never happen by the English, we are up sh!t creek

The IRB already told the WRU last year that they would not sanction a "cross-border competition" if it was to the detriment of the CL. What this comes down to is that if the welsh dropped out of the CL over this cr@p then the anglo-welsh cup wouldn't be allowed to go ahead by the IRB.

It's f'in ridiculous that the welsh still think they have a future outside the CL. The english set-up just can't and won't accomodate them and it's totally at odds with the regional/pro-team/provincial structure we have in the CL.

Where did you hear that Stu?

[StuF]

Ruck your post is 100% correct. But until the welsh are told it will never happen by the English, we are up sh!t creek

The IRB already told the WRU last year that they would not sanction a "cross-border competition" if it was to the detriment of the CL. What this comes down to is that if the welsh dropped out of the CL over this cr@p then the anglo-welsh cup wouldn't be allowed to go ahead by the IRB.

It's f'in ridiculous that the welsh still think they have a future outside the CL. The english set-up just can't and won't accomodate them and it's totally at odds with the regional/pro-team/provincial structure we have in the CL.

Where did you hear that Stu?

It was said in an interview with an IRB executive last year during the last CL crisis but little mentioned. The basic idea was that a cross-border competition has to be sanctioned by the IRB and he said that if it came to it the IRB would never sanction a competition which threatened the CL which, although it is cross-border, is also the primary domestic competition for the celtic nations. I'll try to dig up a reference to it on PR.

[StuF]

The IRB already told the WRU last year that they would not sanction a "cross-border competition" if it was to the detriment of the CL. What this comes down to is that if the welsh dropped out of the CL over this cr@p then the anglo-welsh cup wouldn't be allowed to go ahead by the IRB.

It's f'in ridiculous that the welsh still think they have a future outside the CL. The english set-up just can't and won't accomodate them and it's totally at odds with the regional/pro-team/provincial structure we have in the CL.

Where did you hear that Stu?

It was said in an interview with an IRB executive last year during the last CL crisis but little mentioned. The basic idea was that a cross-border competition has to be sanctioned by the IRB and he said that if it came to it the IRB would never sanction a competition which threatened the CL which, although it is cross-border, is also the primary domestic competition for the celtic nations. I'll try to dig up a reference to it on PR.

Ok found a link to the story - not as concrete as I remember but I still don't think they would stand by and see the disintigration of the CL.

IRB article