MICHAEL PEARLMAN SAYS: Why would anyone bother with rugby?

As mentioned before in these pages, the peanut hugging does leave me cold and isn’t my sport at all, but as an outsider looking in, I couldn’t be more confused with talk of nothing else in our office. It seems to me that genuine rugby supporters are being insulted left, right and centre.

Firstly, next Saturday, Wales play New Zealand at the Millennium Stadium.

Now I am no expert, but I believe this is one of rugby’s most historic battles, a tussle between two of the proudest rugby nations on earth. Quite a spectacle. The big one. Insert your own cliché.

So why, on earth, does the average Gwent rugby fan have to contend with two of our Premier Division sides playing on the same day, with another one, plus the Dragons, in action on the Friday night?

How can Wales v New Zealand be considered a marquee fixture if supporters have to turn their backs on their club sides just to watch it?

The Dragons continue to play throughout the autumn internationals.

I can’t pretend I understand why. Can you imagine the football Premier League continuing throughout the World Cup and Manchester United just being expected to do without all their international players?

Isn’t the idea to boost attendances with both the Dragons and the Premier Division sides, not put people in a position of having to pay for two or three games in a weekend?

We’re in a recession. How many games are people expected to pay for?

And come to think of it, what about the expression too much of a good thing is a bad thing? How special is the Wales versus New Zealand fixture really, bearing in mind that it is now little more than an annual event?

It’s like the same two sides playing in the FA Cup Final year-on-year with only one winner.

Indeed, it’s now such a run of the mill game that Wales aren’t even bothered about it. That’s what I conclude from the fact they aren’t bothering to pick players in their right positions.

No specialist full back in the squad, Eddie Butler told our enthralled sports desk on Scrum V. How on earth can a country that is supposedly rugby mad not have a single player in that position worthy of international selection?

Can you imagine the England football manager not taking any left backs to a major tournament, in order to accommodate talented players elsewhere?

He’d be annihilated. If every rugby writer in Wales isn’t writing the phrase ‘square pegs in round holes’ in their match reports I’ll be astonished.

But to be honest, it’s about time the question was asked of whether rugby is still the national sport of Wales. And if it is, is it working in its current guise?

There were less than 7,000 people at a local derby between two of the Welsh regions – the Scarlets and the Dragons – last week.

That’s an atrocious attendance. Three times that amount of people regularly turn out to see Cardiff City play football every single home game. The Swans get well in excess of that appalling figure as well.

But then, who can blame people if they’ve turned against the Magners League?

I appreciate that in this region we live in a world where the name of the side is a hot potato indeed, but away from the ‘is it Newport’ or ‘is it Gwent’ issue, there are just so many problems with the Magners League.

Speaking as a sports fan looking in, how can there be interest in a league where: I) Relegation and promotion don’t exist.

II) A team that finishes near the bottom still qualifies for Europe’s biggest competition, the Heineken Cup.

III) A region backed financially by the WRU, can only muster TWO players for the Welsh squad.

IV) Supporters of every side in the competition will have to pay to watch numerous games featuring no international players whatsoever.

V) Of the five Welsh regions, one has already been allowed to vanish off the face of the earth (that’s right, I am up with the times!).

Add in the fact that seemingly a day doesn’t go by without some sort of political spat between the WRU and the regions. Not to mention that ticket prices for Wales games are beginning to resemble prices for a Madonna gig and I am utterly convinced that Welsh rugby fans are getting an extremely raw deal at the moment.

Soon enough Wales rugby fixtures will be just like football cup finals, excluding real supporters and rewarding the rich and the corporate drones who understand the game about as well as I do.

Tell me honestly, am I wrong?

Back to cliché corner and all good things must come to an end, nothing lasts forever but we shouldn’t be sick as parrots. Stop the clocks, Newport County have lost.

After seven months and 20 games, the Exiles have been beaten in the Blue Square Conference South.

My advice would be not to panic Mr Mainwaring.

It was fun while it lasted, but the truth is County will lose again this season and can afford to do so and still win the league.

Consistency is key and the Exiles have it. You need a deep squad and County have that also.

Newport County have a good squad, a good manager and a superb set-up off the field and those things are going to shine through as the season unfolds.

For every action there is a reaction and County must show resiliency and bounce back with a win against Basingstoke Town on Saturday and with the huge trip to second-placed Dover next weekend.

They’ve given us no reason to doubt they’ll do exactly that.

The run may be over, but there is no room for panic stations just yet.

It’s also been suggested to me that the loss came about because County have been given too much press attention, having become the highest unbeaten side in the top seven divisions, for a couple of days at least.

My response to that is that the idea is garbage. Newport County can’t get enough attention, they’ve been neglected by the Welsh media away from this paper for too long and the higher the profile of the club is raised for the right reasons; the better.

It’s the price of success and one I don’t doubt all involved with the Exiles are willing to pay.