Jamie Roberts' ironic and malinchista attack on Welsh rugby (and to an extent Wales in general)

[Tooting Carmen]

For those who don't know what 'malinchista' means, it essentially means "assuming that everything foreign is superior to that of your own country". He attacks the 60-cap rule and believes that only by leaving Wales can players improve and become more well-rounded individuals. (Never mind that England, Ireland and NZ have much stricter bans on their international players moving overseas, and generally they understand the benefit that keeping their best players at home does for both the domestic and international sides).

Jamie Roberts rips apart WRU rule and says regions should be abandoned for clubs

The legendary Wales and Lions centre is bringing out his autobiography which is being serialised on Wales Online

www.walesonline.co.uk

 

[Wasps92]

I agree about the regions though, I don’t know why they were created in the first place. Fans would identify more with clubs.

 

[Tooting Carmen]

I agree about the regions though, I don’t know why they were created in the first place. Fans would identify more with clubs.

Because the clubs are too expensive to maintain, lead to talent spread far too thinly and a league involving them would be even-lower quality than the Celtic League in its various guises.

 

[Wasps92]

Because the clubs are too expensive to maintain, lead to talent spread far too thinly and a league involving them would be even-lower quality than the Celtic League in its various guises.

Agreed but couldn’t the clubs just replace the regions in the URC?

 

[Tooting Carmen]

Agreed but couldn’t the clubs just replace the regions in the URC?

Besides names and branding, what difference would it really make?

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I think the fans identifying more with the clubs is BS at this point.

When Scarlets and Ospreys were doing well the fans came out, they're being given a **** product for the most part which is why they're poorly supported.

 

[Tooting Carmen]

I think the fans identifying more with the clubs is BS at this point.

When Scarlets and Ospreys were doing well the fans came out, they're being given a **** product for the most part which is why they're poorly supported.

When people talk about 'product' in a sporting context, what exactly do they mean?

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Due to the quality of rugby and coaching, welsh players would 100% be better off in France or the premiership.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

For those who don't know what 'malinchista' means, it essentially means "assuming that everything foreign is superior to that of your own country". He attacks the 60-cap rule and believes that only by leaving Wales can players improve and become more well-rounded individuals. (Never mind that England, Ireland and NZ have much stricter bans on their international players moving overseas, and generally they understand the benefit that keeping their best players at home does for both the domestic and international sides).

Jamie Roberts rips apart WRU rule and says regions should be abandoned for clubs

The legendary Wales and Lions centre is bringing out his autobiography which is being serialised on Wales Online

www.walesonline.co.uk

Those things don’t conflict with each other. What’s good for labor is often bad for management.

 

[Bluemoon]

For those who don't know what 'malinchista' means, it essentially means "assuming that everything foreign is superior to that of your own country". He attacks the 60-cap rule and believes that only by leaving Wales can players improve and become more well-rounded individuals. (Never mind that England, Ireland and NZ have much stricter bans on their international players moving overseas, and generally they understand the benefit that keeping their best players at home does for both the domestic and international sides).

Jamie Roberts rips apart WRU rule and says regions should be abandoned for clubs

The legendary Wales and Lions centre is bringing out his autobiography which is being serialised on Wales Online

www.walesonline.co.uk

Jamie Roberts is trying to sell copies of his new book. He’s released a few attention grabbing statements like this in order to do so.

 

[Tooting Carmen]

Due to the quality of rugby and coaching, welsh players would 100% be better off in France or the premiership.

Apart from England itself, Wales have actually been the most successful European team since the turn of the century, with six 6N championships - four of them Grand Slams - and two World Cup semi-finals. And most of those players (even more so the case before 2011) have won those championships while playing for the regions. (Regardless of how many HCs the Irish provinces have won, their World Cup record is a joke and they still have won fewer 6N championships than have Wales. For that matter, their U20's have on average been no better than Wales' either).

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Thread ******** on Welsh system

I'm in heaven

The current Welsh selection system has done nothing for Welsh rugby bar taking much needed funds from Coaching and grassroots.
I get the idea in keeping the players at the regions but if you are happy enough with the way someone is playing at say a Prem club like WillGriff Johns or Rowlands was, why make them move at your expense to a team that might not even suit them? I could understand if Wales had the grassroots systems of Ireland but from what I gather then schools/academy setup is pretty poor.

Ross Moriarty is IMO a good example of this missed 3 seasons playing in the champions cup at Gloucester and has he or Dragons really benefitted from him being there?
Would the Dragons have been better off spending the rumoured £400,000 - £500,000 on getting 2/3 really good solid foreign players and created a good core for players who are available all season like Kalamafoni is what a 100K player prob at most and played 16 games for Scarlets last season, you could prob get 3 players like him and still have money spare to put into grassroots.


But why would the fans take the clubs/regions seriously when really they know a good chunk of the squad are only here to play for Wales and not the team?
Tigers had similar issues with some of the England players we've looked a more balanced squad without the likes of May and Manu than with.


also England has a massive population and Rugby is out and out New Zealand's biggest sport, and both countries have a very good academy/school system the RFU invested a lot into those academies in the last 10 or so years.

when you look at the pro 14 and champions cup tables etc what success has Gatland's law actually brought to the regions since it got introduced 5 years ago

 

[dullonien]

Due to the quality of rugby and coaching, welsh players would 100% be better off in France or the premiership.

Debatable. Plenty if players moved and went backwards. Even Roberts himself played by far his best rugby when at Cardiff. North another who gradually got worse and worse at Northampton. Jekins, Lydiate, Webb, JD2, probably more I'm missing.

Biggar has probably improved, but otherwise probably gotta go back to were probably Stephen Jones and Gareth Thomas, and it's not as if they were poor players before leaving.

The quality of Pro xx / URC is dragged down by the Welsh regions, the Irish provinces consistently offer the best competition in Europe.

The regions need to improve, that goes without saying. There's quality and lots of potential there, but the coaching is sub standard and player pool thin in certain positions, especially up front. The 60 cap rule has done a lot to strengthen the regions, and long may it continue.

Otherwise the regions probably need better coaches (Ryan at Dragons show the improvements that can be made by good coaching), and more funding to source a couple of top notch foreign imports in key positions. That's desperately missing at the regions atm imo. Most top sides have one or two, even the likes of Leinster at their best had Elsom etc. Regions used to have some - Rush, Molitika, Tito, Blair, Hollah, Tiatia, Marshall, Collins, Bowe, King etc. They make a huge difference, pushing standards, and are often available all season.

Home grown talent is obviously still key, but I don't think the regions can be successful on home grown talent alone. The current imports at the regions are either journeymen, or second rate/inconsistent.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

North also won his only piece of club silverware with Northampton.
Davies played in a champions cup final and Scarlets benefitted from him getting that experience the season after.
Halfpenny won a Champions cup title whilst with Toulon.


Welsh rugby has a lot of catch 22's
Is the reason welsh players form dip Internationally because at clubs elsewhere they are expected to play for most of the season unlike at the regions?
and can welsh rugby afford to keep star players at market prices, sign welsh players from the Prem and sign top forign players along with everything else.