It seems that
within the WRU set up money and nepotism will buy you anything.
Merthyr RFC is reportedly
to receive a substantial injection of cash to improve their ground and buy in
players and good luck to them. The
money comes from multi-millionaire Sir Stan Thomas whose plans – if the media
are to be believed - include an artificial pitch and the buying in of several
past internationals. Sir Stan is the brother of Peter Thomas who is, of course,
the chairman of the Cardiff Blues.
This is where
it starts to get interesting. It appears
from comments that have been made that one of the reasons behind this is a
desire to somehow get one over on Pontypridd RFC.
He is quoted as
saying that “Cardiff Blues give them (Pontypridd) a number of players and then
you get all this disrespect in the papers…… Why are they so against Cardiff?”
Just a few days
later we read that there are plans afoot to increase the number of teams in the
Premiership from 12 to 16, and lo and behold one of the teams benefitting from
not having to qualify is Merthyr.
This move comes
on the back of an announcement that the regions have decided they don’t want any
of these pesky Premiership teams playing in the British Irish Cup but instead
want to field Regional A teams. This has caused anger at Pontypridd who have an
impressive record thus far in that competition.
As Pontypridd
fans we are often accused of being bitter and of failing to embrace the joys of
regional rugby. Is it really any wonder
why? It appears there are concerted
efforts by the Blues region and indeed the WRU to put us back in what they see
as our place, subservient to Cardiff. If they think that somehow this is going to
make us realise the error of our ways and start backing the regional team then
they really have not been paying attention.
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