Quote Famous="Famous"It is a myth that Rugby Union is this huge sport in Wales and everything else is small in comparison. This is a myth pushed by the media and Welsh Rugby Union fans and it has little substance.'"
Most Welsh RU fans actually claim the opposite, they believe football is the national sport of Wales and the nobody in Cardiff or Swansea cares too much about rugby unless their father worked on the docks or came from the valleys. Fact remains they only teams that attract good crowds are the ones plaing in the English football championship this is the second biggest and the richest tier 2 competition in the world of the world's most popular sport. If those two teams were playing in the Welsh Premiership their crowds would be a fraction of what they currently are. You are plying a myth about a non-existant myth.
Quote Famous
If you are comparing like for like then the Welsh Premiership Rugby Union hardly attracts huge attendances either and only attracts a few hundred to matches.
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But it is not like for like is it? Welsh Premiership is the national domestic competition (teams compete in the football champions league the worlds biggest club competition of any sport) the Welsh RU Premiership is the tier 2 competition which contains clubs associated with the four welsh RU regions playing in Celtic League.
Quote FamousFootball is much bigger in Wales and Swansea and Cardiff get much bigger attendaces than the Welsh regions and that doesnt even include the huge number of people that support English clubs. '"
Swansea and Cardiff draw people from all across Wales and parts of England on home match-day mornings at Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and London Paddington stations you will see plenty of Cardiff/Swansea shirts heading south and west. As for huge number of Welsh fans following english premiership clubs the only place there is any real support is selected parts of north wales if you were talking about Northern Ireland and Rep. of Ireland I would agree but certainly not in Wales.
Quote FamousIn Rugby Union it is only the internationals where fans turn up in big numbers and many of these do so because of the media hype and the social aspect of it being a day out and a place to be seen.'"
Is this not the same Swansea and Cardiff matches ? The same can be said of St Helens/Wigan Hull/HKR matches, the challenge cup and the SL GF. When was the last time a welsh club attracted over 40k in Swansea or Cardiiff? The Blues/OSpreys matches usually attract big crowds also.
To put some perspective on this rugby is part of the welsh character and has been for over 100 hundred years and goes back before that also much more so than football their are historical and social reasons for this but it is part of their character. Ospreys sell more shirts than cardiff do despite the ospreys only being in existence for a handful of years.
