New North WalesCup format sees mixed reactions
Nov 19 2009 by Rob Griffiths, Daily Post
A NEW format to the North Wales Cup has been introduced this season, and has brought with it a mixed bag of reaction from coaches.
For the first time the first round of the cup will be played with home and away matches, with the winners of the tie being decided by an aggregate scoreline.
Clubs have until November 28 to fit the first round of the cup into their schedule, and are able to use the autumn international series as free weekends from league action to accommodate the ties.
However, Caernarfon head coach Ieuan Jones has greeted the competition with scepticism.
“We’ve spoken about the physicality of the game,” said Jones.
“While I’m not in favour of having a whole month off in November, I think all the clubs were looking forward to a break.
“I saw Elwyn (Williams Nant Conwy head coach) saying they were missing a lot of players, and we are in the same position, we’ve got five or six out at the moment.
“Having a break would have been nice to just be able to regroup and be able to bring a few players back in.”
Caernarfon travelled to Llandudno for their first leg tie at the end of October only three weeks after putting 81 points on the same opponents in the league.
And Jones added: “We played Llandudno only a few weeks earlier and won 81 something.
“I felt for their coach John Davies at the time because they had no front-row and finished with only 13 players, so I am sure this is a game they don’t need either.
“You have to have a cup competition, but I’m not sure if this home and away is the best way forward.”
Instead, Jones suggested Division One teams should be drawn away at Division Two sides.
He said: “Why not? It is only one game then and gives the Division Two sides the advantage.
“You play against sides you haven’t done for a long time, or if at all, and just changes things up a little bit.”
Llangefni coach Dewi Redvers Jones admits it is not ideal. But having seen his side knocked out in the first round of the Swalec Plate, admits they won’t be overly affected by the new format.
“I think it’s been done this way to make up for the fact that there’s only 10 teams in Division One this season,” said Redvers Jones.
“We went out of the Swalec Plate in the first round, so without the North Wales Cup we would be without a fixture for virtually the whole of November, and that would make it harder for us going back into league action next month.
“It’s difficult for us to organise games in November anyway, and we are often short on numbers because players think we haven’t got a game there’s not point training – and it can affect our selection.
“But the North Wales Cup is an important competition, and I think it is going to affect those teams that are pushing for the league and are also in the Plate as well.”
For Bethesda it could ensure a fixture pile up, but coach Will Sanderson is relishing a shot at silverware on three fronts.
Bethesda are looking odds on to finish top of Division Two North (Northern) and qualify for the secondary league after Christmas, whereby the winners will gain automatic promotion to Division One North.
They are also in the last 32 of the Swalec Bowl (third tier national competition) and hold a three point first leg advantage over Rhyl in the North Wales Cup.
Sanderson said: “I’m a great believer that success breeds success. It’s swings and roundabouts really.
“I can see why some clubs would not favour it, because it is another game you have to play, but for our part we want to play these games and we want to win these games and indeed win every game we play in.”
North Wales Rugby Council competition secretary Dai Davies defended the new format saying it has been put out to consultation with the clubs before the season began.
He said: “The WRU last season had the Cup, Plate and Bowl and if you dropped out of the Cup then you went into the Plate and if you dropped out of that then you went into the Bowl, so there was more chance of playing more games last season.
“We had meetings with club representatives and a lot of them suggested because of a lack of fixtures that we could come up with something, so we decided on making the competition home and away.
“This was one idea which we came up with, we put to the clubs and was approved. It is not set in stone that we have to stay with it next year. As I’ve always said, if people at the clubs are not happy with it then at the end of the season we’ll look at it again and may make some alterations.”
Davies added: “The other reason we did this was because the treasurers of the clubs were complaining during the international breaks that there was nothing coming in to the clubs, for example over the bars. This is another fixture and gives clubs the chance to make a bit of money from it as well.”
