Llanybydder Rugby Club Fights to Survive After 52 Years
Llanybydder Rugby Club in Carmarthenshire is struggling to survive after 52 years because it lacks players. The club has just one team left and has had trouble finding enough people to field a side each week.
Club manager Nia Evans said people there were "devastated". She put the shortage down partly to Covid. Many players did not return, she said, or moved to bigger clubs in higher divisions. On a normal week she can gather about 12 "faithful players".
Player Wyn Davies, 30, is in his 12th season. He called the situation "quite difficult to take in" and said training numbers have shrunk a great deal since he arrived. Dan Jones, 33, called it "heartbreaking". Cai Hamer, 24, said the club is on a "lifeline" and has hardly played any games this season.
Short-handed on the pitch
Chairman Michael Wilson said small squads raise the risk of injury. When Llanybydder is short, opponents sometimes offer to lend two players. But on several occasions those players have not turned up, so the club starts with two fewer than the other side. Its players tire after about an hour, he said, and two or three then get hurt trying to do too much.
At the latest training session 17 players came, thanks to a social media appeal. Three of them were new. Getting them to commit to weekend matches is the bigger challenge.
Calls for Welsh Rugby Union help
Evans wants the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) to back grassroots clubs, which she said are "where all the rugby players come from". She accepts that finding players is the clubs' own job, but wants the union to guide and advise them. In her view the clubs are more likely to be penalised than supported.
She said the club has had many cup walkovers because it could not field a team, and each brought a £250 fine. A season or so ago, after it failed to fulfil one fixture, it lost a £4,000 grant.
The WRU said it employs club development officers who offer help to every club, and that Llanybydder has been offered it twice recently. It said fines are a last resort, used when attempts to rearrange fixtures have failed.
The club is now asking the public for ideas and support. Evans said the response to its social media post was "overwhelming" and that many players have been in touch. She hopes it is the start of a turnaround.
Source: BBC News