A summer of sorrow over Llanelli draws towards a close, leaving the Scarlets to prepare for their 150th anniversary season without the most revered of rugby presidents.
After long weeks mourning Phil Bennett’s death, supporters of Britain’s most westerly club have been asking a question which at face value sounds too trivial for words:
“Please sir, is there any chance we might get one home match at 2.30 or three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon like we always used to?”
Shooting the midweek breeze with aficionados in the Scarlets’ heartland around Carmarthen, they all raised the same point: surely just one wouldn’t be asking too much?
As they waited for an answer more in hope than expectation, some of those travelling from afar to attend the late Saturday night matches had already made up their minds, that they wouldn’t be renewing their season tickets in protest at the antisocial kick-off times.
Those who dared cling to one of the last vestiges of the game as it used to be knew that if the broadcasters deigned to give them a solitary 3pm Saturday start for old time’s sake, it would be one more than last season.
All nine home matches for the Scarlets in what started out as the Welsh-Scottish League but now goes under the banner of the United Rugby Championship kicked off at different times at the behest of different television companies concerned far more about viewing figures than match attendances.
Shortly before close of business on Friday, the URC finally got round to announcing who would play where and when. The detail will not have made the hard sell of season tickets for all four Welsh regions any easier.
Six of Scarlets’ nine championship home matches will be played on a Saturday but none at 3pm. They have one two hours earlier, three two and a quarter hours later (5.15) and the remaining two starting later still at 7.35pm.
Two other fixtures kick-off at the same time on Friday nights leaving one Sunday match, Dragons on New Year’s Day at 3.15pm. The nearest Scarlets’ fans got to the traditional afternoon start last season was at 5.10 against the Stormers.
The Champions Cup schedule proved equally anti-social: a 1pm Sunday kick-off against Bordeaux for a tie which fell to Covid and a 5.30pm Saturday evening start in late January against Bristol.
Now that their worst fears for the coming season have been confirmed, the traditional 3pm start has been wiped out to such an extent that only two survive, both in Swansea:
Ospreys against Glasgow in October and Dragons in late March.
Apologists will shrug their shoulders and cite it as another example of professional sport dancing to television’s tune. Well, the English Premiership dances to much the same tune and they have succeeded in keeping Saturday 3pm sacrosanct.
Their 26 weekends are based on a proven formula: one Friday night match at 7.45pm, one at 3pm on Sunday afternoon and the rest 24 hours earlier. In other words up to two-thirds of the entire Premiership schedule takes place at a time which suits the vast majority of fans.
The same time probably suits the vast majority in Wales. Rather than change what in many cases has been the habit of a lifetime, they vote with their feet in a part of the country where too many have been falling out of love with the game.
Ten years ago, in what was then the PRO12, Scarlets were playing to average crowds of almost 10,000. Last season’s figure dipped below 7,500 and anecdotal evidence leaves no doubt that live TV coverage has had a deterrent effect on attendances.
“A lot of us have told the club that if there’s another glut of Saturday night matches in the coming season, we won’t be there,” one season-ticket holder of long standing tells me.
“There are five of us who sit in the same row but the other four say they won’t be going back.”
Scarlets’ devotees come from far beyond Llanelli, from London as well as all points westward through Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and farther afield. A late Saturday kick-off means they often don’t get home much before midnight.
But even making full allowance for the logistical issues inherent in an inter-continental competition, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the paying customers are the last to be considered. Any suggestion to the contrary would fall on deaf ears among those of a Scarlet persuasion.
Cardiff also have cause for concern over their fixture list. They finish the URC with three away matches which means they run the risk of their home season ending almost two months earlier than usual.
Unless they reach the play-offs or the knock-out stage of the Challenge Cup, a task beyond them last season, Cardiff ‘s campaign at the Arms Park will end with Ulster‘s visit there on the first weekend of March.
