Wales' 5th Region

For the past few years I have maintained that Wales's 5th Region should actually be a strong London Welsh in the english Premiership. This IMO would give us a great asset with welsh players (in the main) getting a different exposure week in week out. How realistic is this now?

If they get promotion -I would say very.

Also worth noting that London Welsh's chairman, Bleddyn Phillips, has also recently joined the board of Directors at the Scarlets. Could see stronger links forming perhaps? (then again he might want to keep them very seperate, who knows!)

I can't see it Dreamer, remember the Ospreys were going to send players to London Welsh a few years ago and the WRU blocked it and said to send their players to the Premiership instead.

Wouldnt the RFU have a problem with this? And dosnt there have to be a certain amount of English players in the team?

AlynDavies wrote:I can't see it Dreamer, remember the Ospreys were going to send players to London Welsh a few years ago and the WRU blocked it and said to send their players to the Premiership instead.

Yes but London Welsh weren't playing in the top english league then (and to be fair, they still might not)

rugbydreamer wrote:

AlynDavies wrote:I can't see it Dreamer, remember the Ospreys were going to send players to London Welsh a few years ago and the WRU blocked it and said to send their players to the Premiership instead.

Yes but London Welsh weren't playing in the top english league then (and to be fair, they still might not)

True of course, but can the Scarlets really spare any players, and any players they do spare could they step up to the Aviva if their not first choice Scarlets players?
With the risk of relegation the Aviva is not the place for blooding players.

Would be kinda funny if London Welsh ended up being the best supported Welsh 'region'.

lovely insightful input there SnS.

Alyn - I wouldn't think it would be many if there was an exchange, perhaps just 3 month loans or something like that?

We signed Aled Thomas on a loan from them last season and he's been fairly solid for us, so it could work. And the academy players at the Scarlets generally make the step up to the Pro12, don't see why they wouldn't be able to in the Aviva, it's not like it's any better in terms of talent/quality.

rugbydreamer wrote:lovely insightful input there SnS.

Alyn - I wouldn't think it would be many if there was an exchange, perhaps just 3 month loans or something like that?

We signed Aled Thomas on a loan from them last season and he's been fairly solid for us, so it could work. And the academy players at the Scarlets generally make the step up to the Pro12, don't see why they wouldn't be able to in the Aviva, it's not like it's any better in terms of talent/quality.

Well if the Scarlets are in a generous / lending mood, can you give us Lee Rees from your academy?

rugbydreamer wrote:lovely insightful input there SnS.

Eh? That's a bit rude. I was recently informed there is a huge Welsh community in London and a large part of the problem with attendances in Wales was due to the economy. Stands to reason that a successful LW might be well-supported. Don't forget, there's none so patriotic as those away from their own country too.

sugarNspikes wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:lovely insightful input there SnS.

Eh? That's a bit rude. I was recently informed there is a huge Welsh community in London and a large part of the problem with attendances in Wales was due to the economy. Stands to reason that a successful LW might be well-supported.

Quite right there is a massive Welsh community in soho, sadly their more there for the night life than the rugby!
Their the kind of people that can't make do with a sheep tied to a lamp post like the rest of us, they need something a bit more um... stiff.

sugarNspikes wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:lovely insightful input there SnS.

Eh? That's a bit rude. I was recently informed there is a huge Welsh community in London and a large part of the problem with attendances in Wales was due to the economy. Stands to reason that a successful LW might be well-supported. Don't forget, there's none so patriotic as those away from their own country too.

Your comment came across a bit snide to me sNs, apologies if you didn't mean it that way

AlynDavies wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:lovely insightful input there SnS.

Alyn - I wouldn't think it would be many if there was an exchange, perhaps just 3 month loans or something like that?

We signed Aled Thomas on a loan from them last season and he's been fairly solid for us, so it could work. And the academy players at the Scarlets generally make the step up to the Pro12, don't see why they wouldn't be able to in the Aviva, it's not like it's any better in terms of talent/quality.

Well if the Scarlets are in a generous / lending mood, can you give us Lee Rees from your academy?

Only if you give us Ianto

rugbydreamer wrote:Only if you give us Ianto

You know I could never part with Ianto, he's my favorite Osprey.

How about Barry Davies and Cai Griffiths

Barry's best years are gone (coincidently they were with us ) and Cai.....well seeing as we're so short of props we might take him, word is he's signed for us anyways. So how bought lending us Bevington instead? (I figure Adam would be too much of an ask!)

rugbydreamer wrote:Barry's best years are gone (coincidently they were with us ) and Cai.....well seeing as we're so short of props we might take him, word is he's signed for us anyways. So how bought lending us Bevington instead? (I figure Adam would be too much of an ask!)

Sounds fair, but your taking me to Nandos for lunch while we get the contracts signed!

RubyGuby wrote:For the past few years I have maintained that Wales's 5th Region should actually be a strong London Welsh in the english Premiership. This IMO would give us a great asset with welsh players (in the main) getting a different exposure week in week out. How realistic is this now?

This is idiocy. What would an English team in an English premiership do for the Wales national team? Not to mention any release issues should they even get a player moving towards international honours. They are not a Welsh region or Welsh team and never will be.

London Welsh is a fantastic club with a great history at the top of English rugby. They have produced some of Wales greatest players, it would be fantastic to see them do so again.

The memories of John Taylor, Gerald, John Dawes, Merv, JPR live long at the club.

Isn't there a requirement on Premiership teams to send players to the English academies or some such?

Morgannwg - I think you're a bit out of order there unless you are reading everything literally - There is a reasonable chance of LW becoming the "5th Region", of course not in the truest sense but in an idiosyncratic way - It is a Club with huge allegiances to Wales and hence I am wondering if it could really give us an opportunity to have a "5th Region" per se'

Stone Motif wrote:Isn't there a requirement on Premiership teams to send players to the English academies or some such?

Only if they are born in South Africa