How do the regions actually work?

Excuse my ignorance, but how do the regions actually work?

Do players come up through their local clubs...be it local or larger clubs like neath, llanelli, jedforrest, melrose, etc etc?? And then if they perform, do they get selected to represent "the region"?

or

Have these clubs all been disbanded and players are just recruited straight into the region from local youth teams etc?

Think it's a bit of both, the region do select players from the Clubs in their region, but they also have acadamies to train the most promising young players, and these get sent out to clubs (don't know how they select with club each player goes to in the Welsh Prem, is it local team or team they came from, or main feeder club, ie llanalli, Newport, Cardiff, Swansea).

It means that the Clubs can provide a safety net, to produce players that may mature late and be missed by acamady scouts. " way to make it to regional team, 1 get selected for the acadamy, 2 play well for the club in th eregion to get noticed.

Ah i see...cheers Kingshu.

At under 16 level players get called up from local clubs to the region.
They don't do younger teams anymore because a lot of children went to trials didn't get picked and became dis-heartend and didn't want to play rugby anymore.
Other issues is you have no idea how big someone will grow when their 10 years old, so waiting till 16 will give you a better idea to gauge their potential size and suitibility for professional rugby.

Every club in Wales is given a region based on geographical location, those clubs then try and produce players to potentially play for the region. The region in turn tries to help the club develop, though a lot of clubs aren't to bothered about working with their region sadly.
Unless the region is going to hand over money to the club, their not interested, which is sad.
Porthcawl is a good example of a club who has embraced it's region and is starting to get players through for the Ospreys. Ryan Bevington and Tom Prydie are both from Porthcawl, and they have quite a few players in the various age group set ups, which is very encouraging.

So Alyn,

Once a player is signed / contracted to the region, the club team have lost them..ie they dont play for that club if theres a regional competition break etc...

How much money do the local clubs get for a player who makes the regions teams?

And finally...do the regions work better than if it was just a Wales league with all the old clubs like Newport, Pontypridd etc...would more players get more exposure to top flight rugby if this was the case?

Once a player is signed / contracted to the region, the club team have lost them..ie they dont play for that club if theres a regional competition break etc...

No all the players have a regional club, however they would only play for them if not needed for their region. the Ospreys players for example have their clubs name on their shorts.

How much money do the local clubs get for a player who makes the regions teams?

None I would think.

And finally...do the regions work better than if it was just a Wales league with all the old clubs like Newport, Pontypridd etc...would more players get more exposure to top flight rugby if this was the case?

Yes the regions are a lot better in my opinion. Because there was only about 6 or so top Welsh clubs, the rest were normally stuffed out of sight most weeks. Now our best players only get to play against the best Irish teams, there are still easy games in the RaboDirect, the 2 Scottish teams, the 2 Italian teams and to an extent Connacht are very beatable home and away, but by nothing like the scores you used to see between the strongest and weakest Welsh club sides.

If you are of the view point that the regions being there to develope better quality international players then I would say looking at the players who are involved in the Welsh Squad at the moment regions are certainly working as bar a handful of players the decent number of the players have come through the regional accademies.

AlynDavies wrote:

Once a player is signed / contracted to the region, the club team have lost them..ie they dont play for that club if theres a regional competition break etc...

No all the players have a regional club, however they would only play for them if not needed for their region. the Ospreys players for example have their clubs name on their shorts.

Actually it is the club they started out in, so for example Mefin Davies has 'Carmarthen Quins' on his shorts, and Barry Davies (i believe) has Llanelli RFC on his shorts. But it is a step in the right direction, as the majority of the lads there are from within the region. But maybe with the outsides (like those two and Bearman etc) it may make more sense to put their 'regional' club on the shorts.

well said Alyn. I'd also add that its increased the competition level at Regional levels to get into the teams regularly. Under the old system good players would likely turn out for their club sides without being really challenged for the shirt. I still dont think we are all the way to where the system needs to be but I've no doubt this format will shape the success of rugby in Wales for generations to come.