This is a time of year when there is plenty of goodwill off the field and huge rivalry on it. It is a great time to be playing and watching rugby and I hope that everyone who gets involved with a game over the next week enjoys the experience.
I spent many a Boxing Day playing for Llanelli against Swansea. The atmosphere was electric, the rivalry intense and the pleasure from playing in front of packed houses was fantastic. There will be big gates at all the Regional derby matches over the holiday period and I’m sure that when Cardiff travel to Bedwas and Newport go to Cross Keys on Boxing Day for their Principality Premiership clashes there will be huge crowds out to support their teams as well.
While Christmas is a time for enjoyment, by the time life returns to normal in January we will be headlong into one of the biggest years in the history of Welsh rugby. The challenge is to get the Scarlets and Ospreys into the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, the Dragons into the last eight of the European Challenge Cup, provide a winner for the first time of the EDF Energy Cup, enjoy another successful RBS Six Nations Championship campaign and devise a route into the last four at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Those are the goals for the professional game, but we also want to see the rise in standards of our Community Game and Age Grade Teams continue. Long term success can only be built on a solid platform: that platform in Welsh rugby is the club base.
So, when you are standing at the bar in your local rugby club this Christmas raise a glass to our great game. Toast the 125th anniversary of the Welsh Rugby Union and ask yourself what you and your club can do to help Welsh rugby grow.
We are all in this together.
Merry Christmas to you all. Let’s make 2007 a great year for Welsh rugby.
David Pickering
WRU Chairman
