I have no interest in the precise details of the Welsh rugby crisis anymore. About a year ago, I really did try to get to grips with what was going on from both sides, but now none of it really seems to matter.
Yesterday I read articles which claimed that the possibility of Sam Warburton beginning the season without a club was surely the tipping point that made us want to raise our desperation to “Scream Painting” levels. But that wasn’t the tipping point for me - that would be Adam Jones being on the brink of going to Bristol.
Of course I get that Warburton is Wales & Lions captain and all, but let’s face it, he’s not the best in the world at his position - heck, you could argue that he’s not even the best in WALES at his position. Sorry if I’m getting a bit cruel there, but the point I’m trying to make is that when it comes to evaluating the sport’s best tightheads you’ll have to answer to me if at the very least the top 3 doesn’t include the Ospreys’ iconic hair bear.
So if an ongoing spat featuring countless statements, counter-statements, articles, tweets, retweets, blocks & unblocks actually has AJ playing in the RFU Championship for an entire season then I reckon everyone involved needs to be hanging their heads in shame.
But I’m not here to justify my reasons for flipping out over the crisis; I’m here to call everyone, and I MEAN everyone involved whatever name it takes to make them come to their senses, assuming they have any. Immature? Stubborn? Narrow-Minded? Greedy? Lacking in cojones? All of the above? Take your pick.
And please, please, please understand that I’m not having a go at the entire Welsh people here. This isn’t a national thing at all. Consider me an interested outsider - in fact, given we still have a mutual interest in the Pro12, Irish fans would be less “outsiders” than others (though even at that I certainly don’t speak for all of them either!!!).
Naturally there are those eyebrow-deep in the saga who are reading this rant by an Irish blogger and thinking either (to put it politely; I presume their words would be a tad more colourful) “I’m sorry, old chap, but I hardly think it’s any of your business” or “Oh, but what you don’t seem to realise is that [insert one side or the other’s name here] has done [insert some terrible deed here] and we just cannot bring ourselves to accept that!”
For what it’s worth, and I know it’s probably very little, all I can hear in amongst all that is “blah, blah, blah.”
Whether it’s the WRU, the RRW, David Moffett, the Welsh clubs, the Welsh mainstream media, even the so-called social media “Ultras”, or anyone else who has a vested interest in what’s going on…
Find somewhere to meet, go there, lock yourselves in, close all access to the outside world, and JUST. SORT. IT. OUT. Before you go in, tell everyone that you won’t see daylight until you can greet it with a functioning Participation Agreement.
I don’t care if it won’t be easy. There’s plenty of crap out there that’s way more complicated I can tell you, and maybe some people need to be reminded that although everyone in the global rugby community loves the game with a passion, it is, after all, just that, a GAME (everyone’s!).
Do it now! You could have it wrapped up by the weekend. And despite the fact that between you all you’ve prolonged the crisis for what seems like an eternity, you’d come out of it as heroes, and then the rest of us can get on with looking forward to headlines being inspired by actual rugby from the pitch, particularly if they include Adam Jones playing the likes of Leinster, Northampton and Racing Métro next season like he should be and not trudging back and forth between Moseley and Bedford. JLP
