Paul Williams (Swansea Programme Notes)

Random thoughts of a lifelong supporter

What follows is a pure personal viewpoint and does not represent an official view Aberavon RFC.

A product of the ‘baby boomer’ years, I grew up through infancy in a family environment in which mentions were frequently made of an uncle (by marriage) who had played for Aberavon long before I was born, and conversations amongst those a couple of generations older than me used to involve debates in what seemed to be a foreign language about who was the best fly-half or prop or wing-forward or whatever. Looking back it seems rather bizarre, as neither of my parents seemed interested in contributing to such discussions, but my mother’s family were something of a local institution, a large, widespread family with untold numbers of uncles and cousins who had either played for or supported (or both) Aberavon RFC.

It was therefore somehow inevitable that at some point (as it happened, during my early teens) I would find myself turning up at the Talbot Athletic Ground to see first-hand what all the fuss was about. Back then crowds used to gather early to get the best seats in a grandstand that would regularly be full, the pre-match atmosphere would be electric with the smell of cigar smoke mingling with that of wintergreen, and as kick-off time approached a familiar voice – inevitably that of Cliff David, a cousin on my mother’s side – would ring out from the public address system, asking people in the grandstand to move closer together so that more people could fit in.

Every match, back then, was a ‘big’ one. Welsh Rugby at the top level was confined to a relatively small geographic area, and the cream of the players would be easily recognised during their climb to the top by the powers that be who ran the Welsh international team and had only to look at the form of sixteen or so club squads. During my teenage years Wales were hugely successful. The 1970s were christened ‘The Crowning Years’, international tickets were like gold, but thereafter the trajectory turned downhill.

So what happened?

The 1980s. A disappointing period after a decade of heady success. Meanwhile, across the Severn Bridge, England were getting themselves organised, restructuring their club game into comprehensive leagues with promotion and relegation. Suddenly they could tell at a glance where their best players were, instead of having to somehow rationalise what little they knew of players from such diverse areas such as Cornwall, the Midlands, the North-East etc. To us in Wales this was a bitter pill to swallow. The Welsh decline had to be stopped at all costs so, with a spectacular lack of originality, The WRU decided that Wales needed leagues, like England. That would sort it.

The 1990s. It didn’t sort it, and worse was to come. Professionalism – for so long regarded as a swear-word in Rugby Union circles, was on its relentless way in. The Welsh ‘First Class Clubs’ from which the national team was for the best part of a century selected were suddenly climbing over one another, cheque-books in hand, for the signatures of the top stars, and of course not all the clubs enjoyed the same levels of spending power. The old order of every match being a tough one was gone, with those with the biggest bank balances enjoying the greatest success.

The 2000s. All change. The problem, we were told, is that we have too many teams at the top level. Look at Ireland – they have four provinces and are doing well. That’s what we need – four provinces. So the powers that be invented the ‘regions’, with scant regard to the small matter of the Irish provinces having large, established supporter bases and being steeped in over a century of tradition and history.

So where are we now? Having watched our beloved domestic game repeatedly reorganised in just about every way possible, without solving a single problem, we’re now facing the likely removal of one of the ‘regions’. It happens to be the one that encompasses, among others, Aberavon RFC and Swansea RFC. So where does this leave our two clubs? The eight other clubs who compete in Super Rygbi Cymru will look at the re-drawn map and know that they will come under the auspices of either the Scarlets, Cardiff Rugby or Dragons RFC. Under whose auspices will Aberavon and Swansea be? Each other’s?

Enjoy the game.

Paul Williams