I’D like to reply to Tony Colyer’s article last Saturday ( 'South Wales Failure' ) where he comments on the attendance at South Wales Scorpions v Barrow Raiders.

I quote “180 supporters – and 40 of those were from Barrow! The South Wales experiment has failed miserably. Is it time for the RFL to rethink their expansionist strategy?”

Correct that it was the club’s lowest crowd of the season by some way and the biggest away support of the season by some way. We lost nearly 100 home fans for one reason or another that week, which is worrying but that’s not the point I’m going to make here.

Your correspondent said that: “The structure beneath Super League needs a thorough review and I’m afraid any team that can’t muster at least 500 supporters (and that’s being generous), should have its RFL funding reviewed.”

Well, that will then need to include York City Knights (430) and Swinton Lions (477), as the figures in brackets were the averages for these sides last year, with York challenging for promotion and Swinton getting promoted.

North Wales Crusaders outdid them with an average of 641. This season, Hunslet Hawks have struggled to reach 400 and Keighley and Rochdale have both been below 500.

But the headline of the article was that “The South Wales experiment is a failure” and here I’m going to prove it’s not and that crowds are not the be all and end all.

I’m writing this on the day that former South Wales Scorpions under-16s and under-18s player Calvin Wellington makes his Super League debut for St Helens.

Injury kept Calvin out of the Wales training squad for our European Championship win last year, but his team-mate Regan Grace did make it and played in two of the games, including the win over France, who fielded a number of Catalans Dragons players.

Without a strong international game, which we still don’t have, rugby league will never progress. The debate of how international rugby league is run in regards to eligibility, fixtures, those in charge etc, is for another debate, but without Wales, and indeed South Wales, producing quality players, there wouldn’t be a proper European Championship.

In the 2000 World Cup, not one single Wales player who turned out in the group stages was born in Wales, but much has changed since then thanks to over a decade worth of development at all levels in South Wales.

Last year, the Wales side that beat France fielded Dalton Grant, Joe Burke (both Barrow players a couple of years ago of course), Ollie Olds, Courtney Davies, Steve Parry, Rhodri Lloyd, Lewis Reece, Connor Farrer and Grace, all of whom have gone through the youth ranks in South Wales to progress to play first team and now international rugby league. Kear, Grant, Lloyd and Burke all have Super League appearances under their belt too.

In total, including those who came through community and student ranks, 13 of last year’s squad have turned out for South Wales Scorpions.

Plus there are those in Super League who didn’t play for Wales last year, such as South Wales junior products in the Evans twins at Warrington Wolves, Ben Flower (Wigan Warriors), Lloyd White and Gil Dudson (both Widnes Vikings).

Cardiff-born Dave Clark, who I know has done a lot in Cumbria, spent two years down in his native South Wales and helped enormously with all this development.

The numbers are there in South Wales, in the development of players.

The Scorpions have an active under 20s/reserves side who are feeding players to the first team, plus Embed the Pathway has just been launched in South Wales and will be run by the Scorpions from September in schools from ages 14 upwards.

The club also now has RFL level three academy status in conjunction with a local college, Coleg y Cymoedd. Links are also being set up with other local councils and colleges in South Wales to develop new rugby league players.

The first team attendances will fluctuate as they do in all areas. Last year more than 1,000 people watched South Wales Scorpions v North Wales Crusaders in Cardiff. This year it’ll probably go close to achieving the same.

However, South Wales’ contribution to the UK player base will continue to grow, as they continue to start playing from 11 years old.

Take the Cardiff-based Glantaf school, who started rugby league last year. Their Year 8 side have never lost a game. Last year, they beat St Bernard's, of Barrow, in the national Year 7 semi-final before beating Wade Deacon 40-6 at Wembley.

Last week, they beat Saddleworth School 50-12 to qualify for this year’s national Year 8 Final.

I think now I’ve proved why the South Wales “experiment” is not failing and, given time, with no extra money being pumped in by the RFL to those in Barrow, Hunslet, York etc, it’ll continue to grow in every aspect.

IAN GOLDEN

South Wales