As Wales sleep-walked to yet another opening autumn series defeat, and Ireland woke up the rugby world by beating New Zealand, the club game paid tribute to Roger Addison. Geraint Powell was at Pontypool Park where funds were raised in memory of the former Pooler player left paralysed playing for the club in 1966.
I unusually missed the Wales match this weekend, not even available as a live TV viewer. Not because I feared the result, but 8-32 against the Wallabies was particularly disappointing and an echo of the November 2009 match, although the Welsh national team have almost invariably played poorly in their first match together for the best part of two decades now. A problem pre-dating the “regions”, but one certainly not cured by them. Welsh opening match wins in the Autumn Internationals or Six Nations are like gold dust, the latter not unusually accompanied by a complete Grand Slam so rare are they in the post-1995 era.
And also not because there are 4 Test matches on consecutive weekends in November nowadays and therefore potential fan burn out, for I readily accept that “Team Wales” currently has to foot nearly all of the hefty bills of Welsh rugby. Even the “regions” would quickly fold without their annual £9-10 million of financial aid from the wider Welsh rugby club membership. From clubs with less ability to successfully commercially generate enough income of their own, it should always be remembered by those of you interested in the economic opportunity cost.
And I also missed the live TV viewing of the Ireland v New Zealand match in Chicago, although what a cracker to watch yesterday (unlike the Cardiff match!) and I was obviously pleased that the All Blacks winning streak, when finally brought to an end, was done so by another successful union organised small country professional rugby model. Sadly, despite the best intentions in 2001-03, this model still eludes Welsh rugby. We have a hybrid mess, illogically caught hopelessly between the two global business models. One unsuited to us, the other ideologically resisted by a powerful and vociferous minority.
Yes, the All Blacks had a real injury crisis at second row, with Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock and Luke Romano all unavailable, and it is unlikely that Jerome Kaino will be asked to start there again any time soon with Scott Barrett now emerging, but Ireland were missing a couple of big names of their own in the back row. What a magnificent 40-29 win in the Windy City, perhaps the perfect tribute to Anthony Foley.
This weekend for me was all about rugby heritage. And I mean positive rugby heritage. I don’t mean what now so often and negatively constitutes “rugby heritage” in Welsh rugby nowadays, such as the obsession of a fanatical movement within the Blues region supporter base to preserve a club brand and to pervert an entire region from its objectives and with the predictable negative consequences in sporting and financial terms. No East Glamorgan equal to Leinster, for it has to be for some the equivalent of one club in Dublin. The Irish rejected that approach, and with very good reason. Multiple Heineken Cups collected by multiple provinces, now joined by an All Blacks scalp for Ireland, the ultimate vindication of the actions of Syd Millar and Tom Kiernan in the late-1990s.
Friday evening at Pontypool Park, under the floodlights. I always preferred Pooler matches under the floodlights, the pitch black behind the terracing adding an almost visceral foreboding for many away teams. Pooler were hard to beat for many seasons in the 1970s and 1980s, but practically unbeatable for many of them on a Wednesday night in front of a packed bank. And such midweek crowds inclusive of many fans otherwise with their local clubs on a Saturday afternoon, not an exact replica of the Saturday crowds.
And all in aid of an extremely worthy cause, a match against a select team from the Torfaen cluster of rugby clubs in Gwent and raising money for Rockwood hospital in Cardiff and Stoke Mandeville hospital in Aylesbury in memory of Roger Addison.
A fleeting reminder of the past, when Pooler were de facto the 1st class club hub of the entire Eastern valley. And a hope for a possible restoration of this in the future. Pontypool and similar clubs helping to connect the national team and regions above them with the smaller community clubs below, and an end to the divisive language of severance within the WRU pyramid.
Roger Addison (1945-2010), tragically paralysed 50 years ago from the neck down by a collapsed scrum during a match at Rugby RFC on 5 November 1966. A match excellently organised by Pontypool RFC archivist/statistician Ray Ruddick, assisted by WRU District A director Bryn Parker, and with £6,000 raised. The gate money having been generously matched by Pooler Chairman Peter Jeffreys. The wider rugby fraternity at its very best.
A 33-17 win for Pooler, against a spirited Torfaen XV coached by former Pooler and Wales hooker Nigel Meek. But this was not about the result, but a coming together within the local sub-region in aid of a good cause. And a get together for players from that 1960s team. No more of club rugby entirely hibernating for the entire month of November, needlessly leaving a community vacuum because of Test matches.
Saturday was a trip to Wembley, for a reunion with friends from my days in Cape Town. For an exciting 31-31 draw between the Barbarians and a weakened Springboks.
Wembley has changed considerably since 1997-99, and my numerous visits to the old stadium that was the temporary home for Welsh rugby whilst the National Stadium was being replaced by the Millennium/Principality Stadium at the Arms Park in Cardiff. The twin towers long since demolished, a modern and fitting cathedral for English soccer. But once again, a temporary rugby home on Saturday. Home for the day for the Baa-Baas, the club that has no home. Not even the former Esplanade Hotel in Penarth anymore.
The Baa-Baas were expected to be a casualty of the professional era. Their biggest role in concluding the northern tours of the Southern Hemisphere giants, from Gareth Edwards legendary try against the All Blacks in 1973 to Haydn Mainwaring’s legendary try saving tackle of Avril Malan against the Springboks in 1961 (a 6-0 defeat to the Baa-Baas in Cardiff being the Springboks only defeat on a marathon 34 match northern tour), surplus to requirements in the professional era of club control of player contracts. But somehow, with the aid of the Southern Hemisphere unions, they have carved out a new niche role for themselves come November. A tour for Super Rugby non-Test required players, coached in 2016 by the excellent Robbie Deans.
A warm-up match for the Springboks ahead of their northern tour, shorn of their unavailable Northern Hemisphere based club players in addition to a lengthy injury list, ahead of the Regulation 9 window that now opens for the next three weekends. The Baa-Baas themselves have another match against the Czech Republic in Prague tomorrow evening, followed by a match against Fiji in Belfast on Friday evening. And a novelty value, in an era of constant Test matches to fun the professional game. A 46,646 crowd, for a warm-up match at Wembley not involving an English team before 4 consecutive weekends of Test rugby at Twickenham.
And what a match, end to end stuff. A true aerobic challenge and a display of basic executed footballing skills so lacking in the attritional professional rugby north of the equator. Draw the defender and pass, attacking players propelled at angle and at speed into space and with ball in hand. Away from the contact area. Only one real kick chase, a novel up and under to the posts from a touchline penalty. The referee disallowing the “try”, much to the frustration of the crowd.
5 tries apiece. Lions centre Janse van Rensburg well and truly announcing his arrival on the highest stage of rugby with the Springboks and Waratahs wing Taqele Naiyavoro outstanding for the Baa-Baas. And Luke Morahan reminding all of his attributes. But no exhibition match this, the cavalry including Eben Etzebeth summoned from the bench at 19-31 when the Springboks were staring down the barrel of the gun of defeat. A draw secured by the Springboks, but no more.
An enjoyable reminder of a more inclusive age. Not only are the Baa-Baas refusing to fade away, but that other “anachronism” of a previous age hangs completely over and entirely dominates this 2016-17 season. And the Irish win over New Zealand in the Windy City, with the current All Blacks aura diminished, has simply further wetted appetites for the 2017 British + Irish Lions tour of New Zealand and what hopefully will become a titanic clash between the tourists and the All Blacks over three rounds.
The sport of rugby union may ultimately get commoditised, as with soccer in England, diminished with price everything and with values nowhere to be seen, but its soul has no intention of dying any time soon or without a damned good fight…
This article appears courtesy of The VietGwent – a Welsh rugby blog. https://thevietgwent.wordpress.com/2016/11/07/a-very-personal-weekend-of-rugby-unions-finest-values-remembering-roger-addison-and-the-baa-baas-hosting-the-springboks-and-entertaining-the-crowd/