Owss last blog post…Views on the British & Irish Cup

I don’t believe the WRU are anything other than an organisation that is actually starting to understand that the professional code requires vastly more resources than amateur and have finally hit on the same idea as football teams and change their away kits to something different to generate a bit more of that much needed money. But I don’t think it’s quite like that yet, possibly just a feeler for future kits and gauging how the welsh public took the change of direction.

My point about it was that they were using something identifiably welsh to get the colour from – the flag of St David. Granted Celtic Crusaders and Cardiff have used the same colours, but mainly black with yellow trim and I think from your lack of riposte, I gather we both agree black would be presumptuous for us! But I cant see how you can say any colour can be attached. The 2 flags are symbolic of Wales, what else could you use that would have any kind of symbolism to a Welshman?

As for sponsorship, we have been doing it with the “Brains” & “Brawn” thing for a few years now, so what difference does it make if it ties in with Brains gold and the WRU make £x million more? Smart commercial decision I thought for a normally backward thinking board. As for a marketing bonanza, I’m afraid I cant agree with you on that in any way, shape or form as probably another reason for my aggression on the last post was probably due to frustration. You see, I had been searching online for the yellow kit (which is how I stumbled upon this post) as I have been told by a few of the larger sports retail chains that the kit is exclusive to one retailer on the high street and that they would never be allowed to stock them. Now if this was as you claim, just to get some cash, I would say that they really, REALLY dropped a hefty clanger there! So as far as I can see, the WRU have made a kit, which is difficult to find, uses a welsh flag as its source and changed the writing on the shirt.

I could understand your points if the WRU made the kit freely available everywhere and had changed sponsor and changed the away kit to match their product, for example being sponsored by orange and changing the shirt accordingly (Please GOD NO!), but given the fact that the shirt is difficult to find and the fact that we have had various changes on the Brains theme already, I cant see this as a money maker, in fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the WRU gained nothing from the brains gold theme on the shirts, claiming “It’s all Brains, only a change of wording etc” coming from the top brass. As I said earlier, I think this is just a feeler to gauge public reaction to the change and maybe it does signal the start of what you refer to as marketing bonanza’s in the future, but what’s the problem with that? Hell, we have one of the finest stadia in the world and a team that are followed passionately even during the bad times. For a board of any organisation in professional sport, that’s the dream ticket isn’t it? A continuous stream of cash garnered from its loyal supporters to put back into the future of our national, regional and grass roots rugby. At least, that’s the ideal. What ACTUALLY happens to the money is a bit more of a grey area given some of the things reported about the WRU.

I believe that this is the correct model for the future, but given the WRU’s record over the years, something’s bound to go wrong somewhere along the line! In an ideal world where things were run properly at the top, this model could generate huge revenues for the WRU to invest in the rugby of our country, help regions develop their stadia and players through more grass roots coaching programs and the like. Then we could hold the World Cup without the need for another country to help stage the matches, I know the support would be there if we had the facilities. This is what the southern hemisphere nations have been doing for years, we’re playing catch up and it looks like we are ahead of our 6 nations rivals on this one so far. Touch wood, we’ll be so far ahead when they realise their mistake that we will finally be able to play a world cup entirely in Wales, have improved so much during that time by investment in grass roots rugby that we can even lift the trophy at the end of the tournament. THEN we can maybe think of wearing the black kit eh?

I know I’m a dreamer and I look for the positives, but you have to as a Welsh rugby fan or repeats of periods like the 90’s could well be fatal!!

I might not be an historian, but I can smell a marketing bonanza when I see one, and you must pretty wet behind the ears not to recognise that the “gold” shirt matches very neatly with Brains SA “Gold”.

That’s not to say the WRU aren’t making reference to Wales’ history, but the way you tell it sounds like the WRU are some benevolent organisation intent on instilling tradition at all costs. Well they aren’t. Money drives them now, and it always will. I applaud them for the “package” they are selling (including the St David’s flag motif), but they are still an corporative environment, and first and foremost are driven by the pound sign. Why else would they hike the ticket prices for the international matches to £60+ a pop?!

Yellow is the colour that just makes Wales look a little different, but if you look for it, you could tie virtually any colour to any national team. I don’t believe this stemmed from the flag but more of a commercial benefits associated with the resurgence in the use of the St Davids flag (see Cardiff City RF / Celtic Crusaders kits for example).

And don’t get me started on the “heartland” of Welsh rugby. I’ve got black and white blood in my veins.