Posted by Since it’s inauguration in 2016 the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Super Rugby competition has continued to go from strength-to-strength as a product and a pathway to professional rugby across Great Britain.
Starting at eight teams and increasing to ten by 2018 it has developed a niche for itself with midweek rugby on a Wednesday, with at least one game streamed live on YouTube each round attracting thousands of viewers, while major games at big venues have seen thousands in attendance. 4,000 people bought a ticket for each of the Cardiff Clash derbies last season, for example.
Perhaps it’s best adverts have been it’s graduates though, as BUCS Super Rugby alumni take the word of the competition around Europe’s top leagues and even into the international arena. Dafydd Jenkins, Christ Tshiunza, Aaron Wainwright, Max Llewellyn, Tom Pearson and Alex Dombrandt all appeared for their respective nations in recent Rugby World Cup warm-ups.
There will be former BUCS Super Rugby players in the French Top14, Gallagher Premiership, United Rugby Championship, English Championship and Scottish Super Series in the upcoming season, and the Indigo Premiership in Wales will also boast plenty including a quartet of new Cardiff signings made over the summer.
Former Cardiff University students Freddie Barnes, Ethan Phillips, Dai Jones and Luke Pollock have all joined the semi-professional ranks at the Arms Park ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, looking to help the Rags maintain their spot at the top of the league, and possibly earn themselves an opportunity to make the step up to the professional ranks.
Barnes will be the most well known to the Blue and Blacks faithful having played 15 times at tighthead prop last season as part of the Academy, but now takes up a semi-pro contract for the new season. While it is technically a step back, it would not be the first time someone has left the full-time set up at Cardiff but impressed enough to return, especially in a position as attritional as prop.
Second row Phillips will also be a somewhat familiar face having featured five times on permit for the Rags last season, most notably starting the league semi-final and final at the Arms Park. The former Dragons age grade player has been training full-time with the first team over the summer and, as we know, talented locks are a commodity in Wales.
Jones was the Chairman of Cardiff Uni RFC last season which means, like any good scrum-half, he doesn’t stop talking and ordering everyone around. A former Scarlets age grade player, who spent time interning with the Cardiff Rugby commercial department last year, there’s a possibility of first team minutes in the nine jersey with Tomos Williams away with Wales for the majority of the upcoming campaign.
Finally, Pollock is an outside centre who hails from Northern Ireland and came through the Ulster Academy before heading for the Welsh capital. Another who has been training full-time with the first team squad, a close eye will be kept with the Blue and Blacks looking short in midfield, but he would have to choose to go down the professional rugby path rather than work in the Welsh NHS and claim back his tuition fees having graduated with a degree in physiotherapy.
Individually they will no doubt be looking to advance their own personal causes, but as a group they could well form the spine of the Rags starting XV in the early part of the season where some huge fixtures may define the campaign as a whole.
In the bigger picture with financial belts tightened, a battle for prospective talent with the likes of Bath, Bristol and Gloucester, and three Welsh University sides being part of the competition, BUCS Super Rugby should take on an even more crucial part of the pathway in Wales, both as a proving ground for late developers and a stepping stone for those already identified.
Innovation is key, and getting a step ahead on University rugby seems a very easy and cost effective step for the Welsh pro sides.
Cardiff Rugby Life 