The famous Welsh rugby club that unleashed Mike Ruddock onto the top-level rugby scene are under threat amid a player shortage that led to their opening game of the season being called off.
Tredegar RFC, the ex-Merit Table outfit, had only 10 playing personnel available for last weekend’s scheduled Division 6 East encounter against Old Tylerian, meaning the game had to be postponed.
And chairman Anthony Preece didn’t shy away from stating the perilous position in which one of Welsh rugby’s most well known old clubs now find themselves.
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He claims cash payments to players elsewhere had left Tredegar struggling to raise a side.
“There’s a big threat to the club,” admitted Preece. “We called off our game last weekend because we didn’t have enough players, with the problem being that people are being tempted to play for other clubs because of money.
“It’s cruel and heartbreaking when I think of Tredegar’s history. But that is where we are at.
“I’ve put out on a WhatsApp group that we are training on Thursday evening and if anyone wants to help save the club by coming along and joining in, then do so. We just need players. Afterwards I have to make an announcement over whether we are going forward or not.
“If we are lucky enough to get a side together, hopefully we’ll be able to keep going. But it’s hard. I’m 66 now and still desperate for us to carry on. If I said next week I was going to pay people 70 quid a game, we’d have a side, but I’m not going there. I shouldn’t have to do that at our level.
“You wonder what’s happening to the game. I can work it out but I’ve reached the stage where I don’t want to work it out.
“I’m old fashioned enough to believe that if you love rugby at our level then you play for the game itself and not for the money. Of course, players will always want to get ahead and get noticed so they can go further, but it should never be just about money.
“I joined Tredegar on the same day as Mike Ruddock back in the day, both of us as flankers. I was linked with Cardiff and Newport, but because I’m from Tredegar I wanted to play for my home town. Unfortunately, I broke my neck in training.
“I know attitudes change and everything else, but unless players want to play for the club for the love of it, then it's hard to see a way forward.”
Tredegar can count Wales internationals Mark Jones and Glyn Davidge among their former players, as well as firebrand scrum-half Paul Woods, who went north to rugby league.
Future Wales coach Ruddock joined from Blaina, scoring 13 tries in a season before heading for Swansea, from where he looked on course for a full Wales cap before an accident at work finished his playing career prematurely.
Tredegar were renowned for playing uncompromising rugby, but to say they have endured a turbulent few years is to deal in serious understatement. You can read more about the club's ups and downs here.
In 2015 this proud old club lost 182-7 to Brynmawr as they battled to raise sides and fulfil their fixture list. There was a real danger they could fold along the way but resilience is in their DNA and they have fought back even if problems stubbornly refuse to go away.
Preece believes the Welsh Rugby Union should take action not just for them but for the wider good of the game.
“The WRU needs to look at themselves and look at grassroots rugby,” he said. “They need to look at how certain clubs are attracting players and others are not.
“Clubs are going to end up folding. In 10 years’ time I don’t know where the Welsh game will be. Where are the WRU going to get players from? You look at the Valleys. People tell me there are not as many junior sections as there used to be, or youth sides.
“It’s hard to see where it’s all going. We hear about the regional game struggling but so is the club game and that is where so many good players have started.
“I’ve spent £80,000 on Tredegar rugby club, doing the place up, with next to no help from anyone. The WRU stopped us playing rugby a few years ago because of an old debt which I’ve had to do a deal over to pay back, but they didn’t really want to know. I spoke with someone and I’m not sure he even knew where Tredegar was. I was going to walk out of there.
“If you have sponsors in the club and they have money then the club will have the players. I guess that’s the way of the world, but the WRU need to take a good look at it, because Welsh rugby can’t go on like this.”
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