Brendan Gallagher charts the progress of London Welsh's amateur side who maintain the great name
It was Robert Browning, without a drop of Welsh blood in him as far as I'm aware, who once observed that a “man's reach should always exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for” – which in sporting terms translates as you've got no chance of achieving the outstanding unless you aim for the impossible. Shoot for the stars – and risk failure – or keep your powder dry.
That in a nutshell was the London Welsh story for that brief period when they attempted to defy monumental odds – and some might argue common sense and logic – to make a fist of Premiership rugby. Ultimately, they got so badly burned, the wounds were so deep, that even when they retreated to the Championship there could be no recovery.
The last rites were seemingly read last January when the club were first put into liquidation and then ignominiously kicked out of the Championship leaving 35 players and five staff – who had been playing and working without wages for a while – without a job half way through the season.
Grown men cried, an on-line whip round raised £60,000 to at least send the unemployed on their way with a few bob in their pocket, but a melancholy air hung over Old Deer Park.
There was an almost Shakespearian pathos to the Exiles' demise, one of the great standard bearers for amateur rugby from the golden age making a belated, flawed but heroic last ditch attempt to join the professional elite.
Many of us had cheered them from the side-lines while also fearing for their future. It was Dai against Goliath and the former only ever wins in the Bible or in fairytales.
For a short while humiliation, anger and hubris was everywhere but – rather to the surprise of some – salvation was also just around the corner. The far-seeing guardians of the club – wise men on the touchline who had hoped for the best and secretly prepared for the worst – had sensibly had the professional and amateur sections legally separated in 2005. Just in case it all went pearshaped. As it did.
When the dream morphed into a nightmare the amateur club remained inviolate and safe. Their beautiful Old Deer Park ground remained an enticing sporting theatre and their friendly, crowded clubhouse offered a warm welcome to all and sundry. Rugby life went on.
In fact London Welsh are flourishing. The Druids, the Occies and the Griffins – the U23s – are still playing as well as the First XV, the women's section develops apace and there is a 500 strong mini and junior section.
The choir still sings and legends from the past – 43 Lions, 177 Welsh internationals and sundry caps from other nations – still stare down from the walls and honours board in the John Dawes suite. Brains is still supped in industrial quantities in the clubhouse which Richard Burton, a frequent visitor, considered a safe haven, a part of England that was forever Wales. Crisis what crisis?
On this corresponding weekend three years ago Welsh lost 74-19 at Saracens, yesterday they were due to play Bank of England needing a bonus point win to clinch the Herts- Middlesex 1 title.
Alas the weather caused the match to be postponed but, undeterred, 170 Welsh supporters still turned up for their monthly lunch in the Pagoda Room. Venison pie from the St David's company in west Wales took pride of place, spirited out of Wales on Wednesday before the blizzards arrived.
Rather appropriatey the famous Kew gardens landmark which dominated our window panorama is currently undergoing an extensive Spring clean and refurbishment to make it fit for purpose again.
“The pride in the famous Scarlet jersey and its dragon rampant remains”
The climb back up to who knows where is underway, the pride in the famous Scarlet jersey and its dragon rampant remains, the only difference now is that everybody wearing it plays purely for love, not money. Indeed, in the best amateur traditions, match fees and subscriptions are paid for the privilege of representing the Exiles and the odd thing is they have been besieged by new playing members. Tuesday is club night, when all-comers train together while on Thursdays the ‘high performance' group – first and second XV – hunker down together and plan for their Saturday games.
The club employ a director of rugby in former Wales centre Sonny Parker, a head coach in Cai Griffiths and the medical and physiotherapy back up – free treatment to players on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights – is very professional. The players get fed and watered on a Saturday night but that's about the sum of it. Everything else is old school with a full mix of professions and trades represented.
The hiring of Parker, a Wales Grand Slam winner in 2008, and former Ospreys prop Griffiths was, however, a statement that London Welsh have no intention of becoming just a social club. Rugby is meant to be fun, but winning rugby is the best way to ensure that fun.
The members, rather than Parker and Griffiths, have set an initial target of four promotions in five years which would take Welsh back into the National Leagues. Only time will tell if that's achievable, but it feels ball-park.
A budget has been worked out, the Griffins team will be used as a feeder, the club gym has been upgraded so it is of sufficient quality to cope with squads wanting to play at higher levels and the medical and physiotherapy facilities are already up to scratch.
There is also an undertaking to play with a certain style. London Welsh is almost a brand name, insisting on a certain fluid free-running style with the emphasis on skills, pace and wit. Bish-bash-bosh might be the staple Premiership diet but the necessity to play that style of rugby no longer exists. London Welsh can please themselves and entertain others in the process.
They weren't quite sure what to expect at the start of this season but the reassuring presence of club stalwart Colin Bosley on a supporters coach for their first game, away to Watford augured well. It was Bosley's 62 straight year attending the opening game of the season for Welsh, nor has he missed a game since. Some things never change. London Welsh are also undeniably good news for the rest of the league with 100+ supporters accompanying the team for most games, more than enough thirsty Celts to drink the bar dry at most clubs. The word has got out and now most lay in extra supplies.
Mind you Welsh tripped up themselves recently at home against Wasps amateurs when they hadn't anticipated the 700+ crowd and ran out of beer. Burton would surely have turned in his grave although he would undoubtedly have had a small hipflask for emergencies.
According to Burton's mate Dylan Thomas Life always gives you a second chance, its called tomorrow and Welsh are busy rediscovering themselves rebooting and relaunching as a well run, ambitious but realistic amateur club and, despite everything, you sense little regret at their doomed attempt to become one of the Premiership elite
“I watched those years as a fan and a supporter and my conclusion is that we had to give it go”, says Gwyn Williams now club chairman. “Sport is very competitive, rugby extremely so and we were a really good Championship side who put together a fantastic series of play-off games and absolutely earned promotion that first time in 2012. Try telling that group of ambitious, talented players that the club was going to pass on promotion. There would have been a mass exodus
“And despite everything – the very late decision after our appeal for Premiership rugby to let us in, almost no time to recruit, limited finances – we weren't at all a bad team. We won five matches that first season and were competitive in most of them, seven losing bonus points if I remember.
“The players enjoyed that season and the fans loved the experience of supporting Welsh and watching the other great teams. Most of us remember that first season fondly, and the fight to get back up as well but then came that last long season when nothing went right and we were relegated again.
“It was built on straw – very limited finances compared with others, small squad, no academy system, low crowds – but the club and team gave it all, that's what you do in sport.
“If you are part of a league system you buy into the dream of reaching the top and if you earn that opportunity you are going to give it a crack. Other factors come in – finance, sustainability – and that's the harsh reality of sport, but no regrets. This club gave two groups of lads the opportunity of playing at the very top level, something most of them had wanted to do since teenagers
“Nobody at Welsh these days is feeling sorry for themselves. Far from it”
“A lot of those boys were back the other day at a fundraiser we did for Ed Jackson on the day of England v Wales and they all spoke very fondly indeed of that time, the effort they put in and their time together. Listening to them they seemed to love it and London Welsh gave them that.”
From the outside it was painful to see a much respected and popular club suffer so badly and nosedive so spectacularly at the end and the agonising false hope of seemingly phantom Californian investors proved to be the cruellest of mirages.
But nobody at Welsh these days is feeling sorry for themselves. Far from it. If they need any inspiration, barely 400m away in this crowded and historic rugby corner of south west London are their good friends Richmond and London Scottish who have both trodden that rocky path from insolvency and liquidation to rise phoenix-like and climb the leagues again.
Williams adds: “I've been along to a couple of Richmond games recently and they are a hell of a good template to follow. They were, by the way, one of the first clubs to reach out to us and offer support when we came off the rails.
“They have stayed broad-based, they focus on the sustainability of the club, they don't overspend in search of a dream and they play to the best possible standard attainable for a squad consisting of individuals with proper full-time jobs outside of rugby.
“That is what we aspire to but you can only do that by building the foundations steadily, no sprinting before you can walk. London Cornish are another club we know well and admire tremendously simply in how they function as a great club to play for and support. They just build and build.”
One of the consequences of, in effect becoming a junior amateur club again, is that the Exiles have rediscovered their Welshness, or at least it is now more centre stage.
Williams explains: “People have been coming back and re-engaging. I was talking to a couple of recruits this season –Welsh guys up in London, good players – and both said the same thing independently, namely that they hadn't joined before because there would have been no chance of making the first team.
“They were both ambitious in that they needed to know that if, as amateurs with jobs, they trained hard two nights a week and played well they could aspire to first team rugby. The penny rather dropped when I heard them. That has been missing for a while.
“We will always happily straddle two cultures. We are an English rugby club, an open club and proud members of the RFU fully participating in their league structure but we will always have a strong Welsh element and leaning.
“We embrace the values the RFU put on their website– teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline, sportsmanship – but there are also a couple of others on the WRU site which we think are massively important as well, namely family and integrity. That feeling of family is important to anybody who is Welsh and always needs to be part of our club.”
Like most families, Welsh have gone through hard times and, also like most families, the bad luck and bad news seems to come in a rush. But similarly there is always rejuvenation and good times around the corner, a corner Welsh are currently negotiating with a smile.
