• Culture

    Hundreds of Scarlets fans march through town to protest WRU’s radical plans

    AnyFans Posted on

    By Ben James

    Copyright walesonline

    Hundreds of Scarlets fans march through town to protest WRU's radical plans

    Scarlets fans marched through Llanelli on Saturday afternoon to protest the Welsh Rugby Union’s controversial plans to cut the number of regions

    Ahead of their team’s opening United Rugby Championship game against Munster on Saturday, supporters made their way from the old Stradey Park posts to Parc y Scarlets to send a clear message to the WRU. Welsh rugby’s governing body has proposed halving the number of professional regions from four to two.

    The march was started personal message from former Llanelli and Wales scrum-half Rupert Moon.

    “This is a fantastic opportunity for Scarlets fans to come and show how much the club means to them, and we are expecting a large number of people to attend from across the region as a whole, not just Llanelli,” said one of the march organisers, Helen Davies, ahead of the march.

    “The message has been for fans to wear their colours, bring their flags and banners, and to turn up in our numbers to show the WRU what this wonderful club means to us.”

    Another of the march organisers, Andrew Gough, said earlier in the week: “Of the four regions, the Scarlets are the only one which has Welsh culture and language in the forefront of its identity, from the number of Welsh-speaking fans to the number of Welsh language songs heard on the terraces on matchdays. It is vitally important that this is protected in the future of Welsh rugby.” Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.

    Catherine Davies, another organiser, said: “Rugby means more to the fans than raw data, which is something that I don’t think the WRU have understood in their consultation. After all, what is the point of sport without fans? Hopefully, the WRU will see the response from the supporters and start to understand how much the clubs and identities mean to the people and their communities.”

    Club captain Josh Macleod had shown his support for the protest this week, saying: “It’s showing the real community spirit here in west Wales and it’s great to be part of.

    “There’s a lot of love shown from fans. They turn out in numbers and it shows the club means something to them.”

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