The Welsh Regions Have Always Been Bad... Haven't They?
Huw gives us a little history lesson on Welsh Regional Rugby
A sentiment I see on Twitter from some - by no means all - Welsh fans is that the regions have been a failure from day one and have never been competitive.
This is factually untrue. Whilst we are in an undeniable dip at the moment, to say “t’was ever thus” would be a lie. In fact, the first ten years of reagional rugby saw a significant amount of silverware.
How it Started
In the first season of their existence, the Welsh Regions occupied 5 of the top 6 positions in the Celtic League. The Scarlets won the league in their first season of existence.
For our younger readers: yes there were originally five regions. Celtic Warriors were a team that existed for a single season before the financial backers pulled the plug and their players were scattered amongst the other regions.
Here’s how the first ever Celtic League (forerunner to the URC) finished:
The Scarlets and Ospreys won three of the first five league titles available to them and there was a Welsh Region in the top two of the league in seven of the first ten years. There was also a Challenge Cup victory for Cardiff, Heineken Cup semi-finals for Cardiff and the Scarlets and the first four Anglo-Welsh cups all had a Welsh Region in the final (two titles, two runners up).
One of the other reasons for regionalisation was that it would benefit the Welsh national side. In the first ten years of the regions existing, Wales won three Grand Slams, an additional Six Nations title and got to a World Cup semi final. Ben Darwin of GainLine Analytics has spoken about the additional cohesion created by reducing the number of elite teams in Wales was a large part of this success.
The following table shows the average league position for the ten teams that were ever-present in those first ten seasons, plus a list of what Welsh rugby achieved in that time. It can be seen that the Ospreys matched Irish Province Munster’s record whilst the Scarlets competed on a level similar to Ulster.
How it’s Going
The following ten years brought another league title for the Scarlets, another Challenge Cup for Cardiff and a smattering of semi final appearances for all. However, the trend has been mostly downward. The 2022/23 season saw all four regions dip below a 50% win rate for the first time.
The decline of the Ospreys - Wales’ most successful team ten years ago - will be the largest cause for concern. Off-field turmoil has no doubt played a huge part in this and one can only hope the new faces at the WRU can be part of a solution.
Are things bad now? Yes. Were things always like this? From results point of view alone, no.
You can keep up to date with how the Welsh Regions and all of the URC teams are doing in our weekly URC Round-up. If you enjoy what we do, please leave a comment and share a link with your friends!