The launch of the 2018-19 Principality Premiership took place at The Wern, the home of defending champions Merthyr RFC, on Wednesday evening – with the stress on entertainment as never before.
As well as players and coaches from the 16 participating teams, the Welsh Rugby Union leadership were there in force including chief executive Martyn Phillips and several elected directors.
Merthyr head coach Dale McIntosh believes the exposure of weekly live TV for the Premiership for the first team has put a responsibility on clubs to serve up rugby that excites.
“We as coaches and directors of clubs need to appreciate the investment the broadcasters have made in covering this level of rugby and entertaining the crowd needs to be one of our aims,” said McIntosh.
“It’s down to us coaches and players to produce a standard of rugby worthy of that commitment. If we can produce a good account of ourselves, I’m sure the clubs will see the value too with additional sponsors.
“There are a lot of nervous people in the Premiership at the moment, us included, with the added pressure of relegation at the end of the season, but it’s time to do the talking on the field and basically put up or shut up.
“We’ve all got a duty to the game and as clubs I believe our role is to provide the best possible standard of rugby for our level of the game.
“Whether your level is grassroots club, Premiership or professional, all you can do is be the best you can possibly be. I hope we can inspire some Merthyr youngsters to put on the Merthyr jersey one day and represent their town.”
BBC Wales plan to broadcast Principality Premiership rugby on their Scrum V Live programme every Friday evening, there will be highlights and features on Scrum V on Sunday evenings, while S4C will also continue to broadcast live Principality Premiership rugby throughout the season along with the WRU National Cup, Plate and Bowl Finals at Principality Stadium.
Top table presentations came from Geraint John (head of performance rugby, WRU), Geoff Williams (head of sport, BBC Wales), Sue Butler (sports editor, S4C), Julie Ann Haines (chief customer officer, title sponsor Principality) and Gavin Dacey (player/coach, Merthyr RFC).
This reflects the much wider importance of the league this season for Welsh rugby with the pressing need for there to be a seamless BBC Wales transition on a Friday evening from previously covering the regions in the Guinness Pro14 to now covering this league.
It will be a difficult task for the broadcasters as well as those being broadcast. Having lost the rights to the Pro14, following the loss of European rugby some years ago, BBC Wales are now screening what is, in one sense, the sixth tier of Welsh rugby.
It would have been the fifth tier – beneath international rugby, Heineken European Champions Cup, Challenge Cup and Pro 14 – until the Union inserted the new Celtic Cup regional A tournament for the best young players who would previously have played in the Premiership.
Having lost the Pro14 rights, that tournament is unlikely to ever come back to the BBC, meaning there is much riding for all concerned on the Premiership being a success on screen in Wales, maintaining the sport’s high profile on terrestrial TV.
For the first time since the new professional regions were created in 2003, the Premiership finds itself firmly back in the televised weekly ‘shop window’ of Welsh rugby.
The importance of this cannot be overstated, for it needs to evolve into a long-term broadcaster relationship, despite recent widely publicised disagreements over changes to the Welsh rugby player development pathway.
It will certainly be interesting in the coming months to compare the number of viewers tuning into BBC2 Wales to watch the Principality Premiership with those taking out a subscription and instead watching the professional regions on Premier Sports.
In addition to the season long Friday evening coverage by BBC Wales, S4C will televise 12 matches complete with a red button English-language commentary option.
As for the league itself, the talking point has been the decision to reduce it from 16 to 12 clubs in time for the 2019-20 season – albeit with the possibility of an additional cross-border competition.
As well as the four teams automatically relegated, the 12th place team will face a play-off match at a neutral venue against the winner of the Championship (if that winner meets the relevant criteria).
After three years of ring-fencing, this is a considerable insertion of jeopardy and there will be few meaningless matches as teams battle hard to finish no lower than in 11th place.
Whilst a number of teams have recruited strongly this summer, defending champions Merthyr RFC would be fancied by many to defend their title and complete a hat trick of wins.
“Defending the title is going to be tougher this season,” added New Zealand-born former Wales international McIntosh. “There are a lot of strong squads out there and whoever gets into their stride first will steal a march on the other challengers.”
The Premiership campaign kicks-off this Saturday afternoon, but there is no Friday night TV match beforehand in round one due to the Wales v England women’s World Cup football qualifier which has already been scheduled for BBC coverage.
The BBC2 Wales live match coverage begins on 7 September with Ebbw Vale v Aberavon from Eugene Cross Park, with the Scrum V weekly highlights and round-up programme continuing on Sunday evenings.