If you want to meet the cracach and get some idea of what the they are like. Then only look at the hierarchy of the WRU. Who invite William Windsor to be something called "Welsh Rugby Union’s Vice Royal Patron" despite the fact that he and his brother spent his youth in an England shirt correctly supporting his own country.
So I can't wear an official shirt. There are some rugby shirts with a Welsh identity but I feel we need a bolder statement.
Perhaps what we need is to form something called The Welsh Republican Rugby Union (WRRU)and produce Rugby jerseys which are more in keeping. I’ve produced a crude example below using the leek as an emblem but perhaps readers of this Blog can come up with a better badge.
Of course if someone did do this those forelock pullers at the WRU would probably try to sue for copyright. But there is no monopoly on Red or Cymru so there only contention would be the sponsors name (which I don’t care about) and the attempt to use WRRU.
5 comments:
The logo is symptomatic of the whole Welsh rugby establishment though.
Rugby Football, to give it the full name was invented in an English 'Public' (i.e. private) school.
It's a game devised for the upper classes, almost certainly to distinguish themselves from the lower classes who played association/soccer football.
Later it split into Rugby union (gentlemen amateurs) and Rugby league (working class professional players), tellingly the WRU plays the former.
It was introduced into Wales via the anglicised 'Public' schools, and promoted a way of anglicising the country by displacing popular Welsh sports like Baseball.
The Welsh Rugby establishment is also inherently sexist and discriminates against women – much like the wider sporting establishment here and elsewhere.
Wales has 2 national Rugby teams – a Men's Team and a Women's Team. The men's team are treated with respect, highly paid and the players are household names, they play in publicly funded stadia.
The Women's team have to run street collections to enable them to attend matches. Can you actually name the captain of the Welsh Rugby Team? (the Women's one).
Rather than simply re-designing the Rugby kit, I think we should show the WRU and Rugby in general the red card.
Rubbish idea. Silly too. The WRU do not encourage loyalism, they simply follow the mainstream.
If you want to foster republicanism in Wales, then make sound political arguments. Make them well enough and move forward in real political terms, then in time the likes of the the WRU will fall in line
Someone did produce an interesting shirt, with the three feathers torn out by the claws of a dragon, leaving three slashes printed on the jersey....
Anonymous
"The WRU do not encourage loyalism, they simply follow the mainstream".
If making William "Welsh Rugby Union’s Vice Royal Patron" and naming a cup after him is not encouraging loyalism I don't know what is.
Even if you were right and I don’t thinks so.Why should I and people like me (even if we are a minority) do so?
What is wrong with those of us who do not want to wear the Three feathers of a foreign prince and a symbol of the establishment that controls Wales wear something showing our support for our side.
Cribwr
I would argue against the myth that Rugby was invented in public schools (though it was established there), and I accept much of your comment. I stopped going to my local club house where I used to serve on the committee partly because of the sexism there. I argued that women should become full members and serve on the committee.
But I love the game will always watch it
2012 Alternate National Shirt without 3 Feather's now available on Ebay......see glyndwr.cym page on Facebook for contact info.
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