This is the artice that I am talking about.

Firstly let us look at what has to be the best line of the whole article…

A Western Mail investigation shows average attendance across the regional scene have been poor this season, with the Dragons (5,201), Scarlets (6,718) and the Ospreys (7,084) below the 8,000 mark.

Wow, what an investigation.  Bet it took them all of a few minutes to compile an average attendance.  Hell they are roughly the same as you get in a nice little drop down menu here – though that is just for the Magners League.

Consideration of Facts

But my main issue isn’t their claims of investigation, but that they fail to consider certain aspects and are just trying to create a story.  I am using the Ospreys here as I know their fixtures better than anyone else’s.

The Ospreys have, according to the Western Mail, an average of 7084.  That fails to take into account a couple of pieces of information

• The Ospreys are yet to play the big ‘crunch’ tie of the Heineken Cup – which is likely to get a bigger crowd than any other match in the cup.
• There are 9 home Magners League games a season, the Ospreys have played 5.  Whilst one of the remaining 4 is Connaught it should be noted that the other 3 are Welsh Derbies, traditionally the biggest home games of the season – and vs the Scarlets is often a sell out.

Now it seems to me that if you are going to make a comparison of average crowds at a mid point of the season you have to accept that there are in fact going to be a large difference between teams based on who has had what home games.

But in a rush to create an ‘expose’ they seem to have forgotten that.

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Why do I say that?  Well the huge amount of complaints people seem to be making following on from the Ospreys (admittedly dire) 9 – 9 draw with Glasgow at the Liberty Stadium on Friday.

Some people, such as Demle Parfitt in the Wales on Sunday, and many others I have spoken to, feel that it is not good enough.  More they feel it shows everything that is wrong with the Magners League.

Or in other words, they want their cake and they want to eat it too.

Make a Choice

Here is some facts for you. The Ospreys were missing 23 players for that game (according to the Evening Post) between injuries and international call ups. If they could put out their first team how different would it be?

Well lets look at that a moment. An Ospreys team below… made up entirely of players they couldn’t play.

1. Duncan Jones
2. Huw Bennett
3. Adam jones
4. Alun Wyn Jones
5. Ian Evans
6. Jonathon Thomas
7. Marty Holah
8. Ryan Jones

9. Mike Phillips
10. Dan Biggar
11. Shane Williams
12. James Hook
13. Tom Isaacs
14. Jamie Nutbrown (with Nikki Walker for just over a half)
15. Lee Byrne

How do you think that would do against the team the Ospreys named? Exactly.

But what has this got to do with cake?

A lot of those players, vital players like Ryan Jones and James Hook, are in the Welsh squad to play New Zealand (and most of those injured would be if they weren’t injured)… they are training to give us the best chance possible of beating the All Blacks in a game we haven’t won in 50 years.

Judging by the public response to tickets we want this game to happen. More fans will be at that game than the 4 average regional gates combined. We want to win that game… but then we moan that the week before the regions weren’t good enough which proves the Magners League is a faulty product.

Sorry, but did I miss a trick? What has the Magners to do with this? The WRU wanted a glamour match vs the kiwis because it looks good and sells tickets, the public love watching us play the best teams in the world, especially the Kiwis, and the regions accepted because of some back room deal which presumably gives them more money.

So everyone wants this AND wants our players playing the week before in the Magners league and so coming into the game with no preparation time – a game that the All Blacks warmed up for by playing Australia?

Genius.

Faulty product

That is not to say that the Magners League is perfect, or even that great at all. There are problems. Outside of the derbies the lack of away fans can lead to a dead atmosphere. The regions aren’t getting the crowds we would have hoped, and frankly i have to say that the whole thing is being marketed very, very poorly.

Teams aren’t sending out their best teams, and there is a lack of intensity compared to the Heineken Cup matches. So yes, it is a faulty product that we should be looking at doing something about. But the standard has raised this season (a bit anyway), in my opinion, and there is hope that the play off system will lead to more interest as the season goes on.

The Guinness Premiership has been poor this season (Gatland said so, didn’t you know), and having been at the opening double header and another game I am inclined to agree with gats on that. So let us not point to the GP and say ‘that’s how you do it’ as can be seen by some fans.

People need to put real thought into how to improve the Magners, but moaning about it in the national press because you didn’t get a good game to watch in the pub when you were having a pint is pathetic, ill thought out and helps no one. If we want to play New Zealand we need to accept that this weekend was going to be a poor one by the Welsh regions.

Or maybe Delme feels like giving his press pass to someone else for that game?

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Want to know what genius they managed to put together? Try this

The best suggestions in life are often the simplest. Many of the finest brains in the world have wrestled with how to improve rugby union as a sport and, as often as not, have ended up making it worse. Fair play, therefore, to Mr Martin McNeill of Richmond, Surrey who penned a short, pithy letter to the Sunday Times last weekend. The last sentence read thus: “I suggest any kick that is cleanly caught by the opposition leads to….a scrum from where the ball was kicked.”

Genius. Well, almost. Mr McNeill missed out six words. If you insert “outside the 22″ after “kick” and “the option of” in place of the dots you suddenly have a potential remedy for the curse of excessive kicking, currently causing players and spectators alike major neckache. Think about it. All those speculative hoists and aimless punts outlawed. Scrum-halves and fly-halves forced to abandon the lazy hit-and-hope option. Heaven forbid, some teams might even opt to run first-phase ball out of their own half. Welcome to the new rugby: much like the old, only with the boring ping-pong taken out.

So what are the flaws? Well, the little lofted chips over the top beloved of modern sides would need to become grubber kicks. Every team would have to be more judicious in the use of “Hail Mary” cross kicks. Anything else? Half-backs will complain that box-kicks suddenly lose currency. Tough. Remember we are only talking about kicks outside the 22. Anyone who resorts to a box-kick on the halfway line as a first option deserves to have possession taken away from him or her.

In this case I think they are right, the best suggestions in life real are simple, and take this simple one – ignore the Guardian if this is what they call rugby journalism.

The only ‘flaw’ they find is less chipping and cross field kicks? OK, I’ll play along, I’ll ONLY focus on those two aspects.

Here in Wales we know, thanks to a certain Mr Sean Edwards, all about the blitz defence now. Wales play it, the Ospreys play it and frankly we are used to it. It works, but it has flaws, ways and means of beating it. What are the two most effective ways of doing so?

The chip and the crossfield kick.

The onrushing blitz defence leaves a big hole behind it. Yes defences utilize a ‘sweeper’ (blind side wing, scrum half, flanker, depends on the position and circumstances) but they can’t cover such a huge gap by themselves and a well placed chip turns the defence and can get your side flooding through the gaps and behind the defenders. Such a threat, when used once or twice, can slow a blitz defence or cut them apart.

Similarly the cross field kick is a great deterrent to the blitz. Most blitz defences use ‘out to in’, where the defenders rush to nail the man inside them rather than the opposite number, looking to smash them before they get the ball away whilst also using the angle to cut down their passing options. This will often leave a wing free, but a long miss pass becomes very dangerous as the players are up so quickly that interceptions are always a threat.

Which is why the cross field kick works, leave a winger as far from the action as possible, let the defence blitz and then punt it over their heads to the forward rushing winger, leaving them one on one with the full back.

These two systems ensure that the blitz isn’t perfect, that it is a choice like any other – where you way up the pro’s and con’s.

But if you change that system, if you allow it so that these two big deterrents to the blitz are removed, you avoid any sensible way of countering it. And marking in midfield, giving a free kick from a caught ball, makes the chip and the cross field kick VERY risky, far too risky to be a viable option very often.

This means that the blitz becomes THE defensive choice, no other option will have the same level of strengths and so few weaknesses. With defences then becoming very same, and with kicking so little and big hits (due to the defenders being in your face almost instantly from the blitz) it becomes even more about power and strength.

Or in other words it becomes rugby league.

So look at that article again. Here is all of it. There is a LOT wrong with the article, much more than I have highlighted here. But I suffer from the same disease they do… I lazy, difference being what I do here is voluntary, what they are doing is being paid for their ill thought through opinions.

Feel free to use the comments to talk about this article and my thoughts on it – or use this thread over on rugby rebels

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So the most obvious place to start was their incessant (and rather contradictory) reporting on the Welsh enigma that is Gavin Henson.

Now, as ever, a lot can be done to twist facts in a certain direction.  Indeed I gave a go to it myself to show how great Gavin Henson has been for the Ospreys.  That post was slightly tongue in cheek as I was looking to counterpoint the rubbish reporting going around about him.

But in the end I haven’t had to.  Not because I am lazy (though I admit I am) but because a poster called Blues-Blues (who you can follow on twitter here) has made a very good job of it over on the excellent Rugby Rebels forum.  She shows, very accurately, just how the Western Mail fail to address key points and that when you read between the lines they tend to only have one fact, two at most.

Anyway get over and read this post.  It is very informative.

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