all of us here on CWM wish all Welsh teams, whether club or national, the best success on and off the pitch. So i thought I'd start a thread where we can discuss the minor sports that don't really get much coverage in the spotlight. first up this!!!

thoughts on whether Wales have a chance of progressing? After all, it is a sport that Wales don't really excel in whereas both Australia and England have won the trophy previously and do take the game a lot more seriously than we do here in Wales. So it is a tough group. It is not all doom and gloom - Wales have the chance of pulling off a World Cup win against Oceania. I'm not sure this is a real country - you get the impression they were short of competitors so just bundled a few random places off the map together just to make up the numbers.

Good luck Wales (you are going to need it)

Mate, don't joke Wales have been drawn in the Group of Death. I mean it is an actual, real life Group of Death. This means clearly that it is dangerous and not safe. It could as dangerous as being a Columbian goalkeeper.

And for what it is worth, I think Wales can almost certainly beat a nightclub. I have seem who Oceania are going to select from, some lovely little movers but hardly any real class.

I like Rugby enjoy watching it prefer football tbh I grew up prefering rugby had no interest in football at all. What really gets me about Rugby in Wales is not the actual sport but the bloody cultural myth surrounding the whole thing the idea that coming up to an international there are "3 million selectors in Wales" and that the Welsh "eat,sleep and live rugby"( these are things i've heard people say on TV) when in fact more people go watch the bluebirds on one saturday afternoon then watch all four regions put together in one week. Theres this saying that the millenium stadium has a "cauldron atmosphere" when Wales play rugby there but I went to Wales v Italy this year and it was like a bloody library in there they only sing when their winning unlike football. Most of the fans only come down for a day out and dont know anything about the players or the rules they are just there for a piss up and I dont need to say much about the sparkly cowboy and daffodil hats do I? I dont want the world to think we are all a bunch of fatties from the valleys I went into a bar on grayfriars road this year to watch Wales V France and see what the atmosphere in town on a grand slam day ( are we bored of winning that now? ) never again.

I played football and rugby at an amateur level in my youth and early adulthood. I pay to watch City and the Wales football and rugby teams and miss very few home games. This bitter thread is an insult to the large minority of Welsh people who do love rugby, a sport which adds a lot to Welsh culture and enriches our Nation. I cannot stand football hooliganism yet that doesn't stop me from loving and enjoying Ccfc,;it does make me happy when skies are grey.
I feel sorry for people who disparage either code, Cardiff is a special place to participate in the matchday experience, whoever is playing.

I stayed home (with a couple of cans!!) to watch the rugby on Saturday and was absolutely gutted at the end when we pretty much blew an overdue victory over Australia. I was pretty fed up with that and the fact that we could end up with a tricky world cup draw (which was indeed the case). So my Cardiff/Welsh sporting head had to focus on something to make things better ie CCFC (blimey relying on the bluebirds to save the day - scarey!!) and thank god they delivered (not massively convincing but what the heck!! - we are still on course to be in the BIG league with football giants.. man utd, chelsea, arsenal, and uuhhmm.. swansea!! ). I'm sure that me and Dickie aren't the only ones that are capable of enjoying and caring about our international rugby team and our local footy team! That said I do understand why some can be turned off by the hype about rugby - but the skill and ferocity of these games makes me ignore that - mind you I have a particular hatred for those daffodil head things, reckon they should be banned for bringing our nation into disrepute!! But lets face it the Cardiff City stadium attracts it's fair share of 'colourful characters'!! OK if I made a choice it would be success for Cardiff City first - but I don't have to make a choice and there's room in my heart for both (doesn't half make for a stressful life though )

thats my point really the hype is a turn off and the bloody daffodil hats ,as for football hooliganism ok there isn't fighting between fans in rugby but they can match football for drunken loutish behaviour any day after the matches. Nobody is disparaging rugby on this thread its certainly is a minority sport in terms of weekly attendance and participation you can tell the real rugby haters are the ones who call it the egg.

To be fair to the egg chasers , any Welsh football team club or country would struggle to fill a quarter of the.milennium stadium at the prices they were charging for a friendly. Against any opposition you can name.

My mate paid £85 a ticket and it was heaving.

I think at club level welsh rugby has lost some of it's fan base, and while being in a recession may have something to do with it i think the changes in structure haven't helped. The idea was to increase the quality of competition but clubs like pontypridd who developed alot of international players I think have suffered.

Not sure which thread to put this in, so here it is.

Wales Rally GB could leave Cardiff for Wrexham:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21062090

"Qatar M-Sport team principal Malcolm Wilson tell the newspaper's readers: "We never got the right atmosphere with Cardiff. We never seemed to get the right feeling - maybe it was too far away from the stages." "

worth £2.7m pa to the city apparently.

Not really surprised. The base in the bay has always seemed a bit of a non-event and completely disjointed from the actual rally context.

Fiji qualified for the 2015 Rugby World Cup today and are in the same pool as Wales. Fiji knocked Wales out of the 2007 tournament so this is a tough draw - especially with games for Wales against England and Australia at Twickenham. The 5th and final place in Wales' pool could go to a number of teams including Russia, Madagascar, Kenya, Zimbabwe or Namibia.

Is this thread for real. If it is, it hurts my head. Rugby is the number 1 sport in Wales. More people watch or partipate in rugby than football. The fact you thought oceana was a country is stupid beyond means.
Wales are in a tough group, however we have the coach and players to beat almost anyone on our day.

Jantra - I don't think teams like Madagascar, Kenya etc. pose a real threat to Wales ... but then again Wales did lose 23-8 to Japan this time last year so have to be careful.

Andy - Wales do have talented players, quite right. But a record of 10 wins from the last 25 test matches looks poor though.

Is football or rugby the #1 sport in Wales? Always a big topic! As I said on a different thread, Wales are doing great in other sports (Gareth Bale, Glamorgan cricket, Becky James, Non Stanford) so maybe the rugby can achieve something too?

More people watch/play football than rugby in Wales.
Oceania is a nightclub.
Wales cannot beat almost anyone on 'our day' or anyone else's

The media in Wales is awful and the way it perpetuates certain narratives is shocking. WM bar one or two writers is akin to a 6th form newspaper. My biggest gripe us that it sells itself as National Newspaper of Wales, so visitors and the twp amongst us swallow their stuff whole and thus perpetuating certain myths. Just look at total lack of scrutiny of WRU and it's management style. 50 pages about what the world thinks of George North is not rugby journalism. I am a rugby supporter, football holds no appeal for me as a sport but it is played and watched by more, always has, always will.

In terms of Autumn it wouldn't surprise me if we go 1 and 3 as the gameplan hasn't evolved and whilst effective against NH is pretty ineffective against SH, what is now 1 in 26 against the big 3? Wales are not as good as everyone claims, the coaches regularly get out thought and as often stated we have plan b.

Rhodri, that's a fair point about Wales' record against southern hemisphere teams. Wales haven't beaten New Zealand since 1953, only ever beaten South Africa once, and last win against Australia was in 2008. As Jantra pointed out, Wales play all 3 in the autumn so a chance put a dent in those records.

I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Welsh rugby team on being 6th in the world... In which only 10 countries give a reasonable toss about, with that Top 10 including tiny Pacific islands and of the top 3 of this global giant of a sport, only the private school chaps in Oz (where it is the 4th biggest football code) and whites in South Africa care whilst New Zealand is too busy kidnapping/raping the aforementioned Pacific Islands of their young talent get a team together. Rah rah rah. Rugby 'WORLD' Cup, you having a laugh or are eggchasers shite at geography?

Welsh rugby culture is the scourge of our society it has completely gobbled up Welsh people's expression of national identity and their attention to their own country if only they would pay a 10th as much attention to our levels of poverty, terrible education system and our the corrupt clique of Labour boyos who run Wales.