Wales v England 11th February

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

The WRU have announced that they're not longer going to host Friday night matches in Cardiff, citing (amongst other factors) the inability of transport services to cope.

[chrisr_75]

My take on what the WRU said was that it was just difficult for people to get into Cardiff on a Friday evening (i.e. having to take some time off work or finish early etc) rather than the transport system struggling - within the region it actually performs ok with events at the stadia in Cardiff - the worst of the problems occur with getting England supporters along the M4 corridor when they're in town.

[IndustryInsider]

Sounds like a bad idea in principle to add many thousands of rugby fans into a bustling city centre on an already busy weekend night.  Most places would struggle with that, let alone Cardiff Central which is not fit for purpose dealing with those crowds anyway.

[phile]

Have also suggested that 7 out of 8 of the Friday evening matches have been hosted by Wales so time it got shared out.

[TaplowGreen]

Have also suggested that 7 out of 8 of the Friday evening matches have been hosted by Wales so time it got shared out.

They shouldn't have any 6 nations matches on Friday evenings, there's plenty of time on Saturdays & Sundays.....theres no way it'd happen at Twickenham, residents would object like mad & they're very influential!

[John R]

There are numerous reasons why it is a bad idea but part of the transport problem is that there is no gradual dispersal over a period of hours but everyone has to descend on the station at once given its a 10pm finish. I bet the pubs don't like the loss of revenue either, but that's a secondary consideration.

I agree with the WRU view that if the pain isn't shared around then there's no good reason why their fans should suffer.

[chrisr_75]

Have also suggested that 7 out of 8 of the Friday evening matches have been hosted by Wales so time it got shared out.

They shouldn't have any 6 nations matches on Friday evenings, there's plenty of time on Saturdays & Sundays.....theres no way it'd happen at Twickenham, residents would object like mad & they're very influential!

RFU have already said no on grounds of transport issues anyway.

I think it's a pretty silly idea too, although WRU have said the Friday matches have been very successful for them, I'm sure weekend matches bring a lot more business in to the wider area as people will often make a weekend of it or just stay a bit longer in general.