Posted by It may surprise some readers to learn that this season’s Judgement Day will come 11 years after the inaugural “regional double header” hosted at the Principality Stadium in March 2013.
After the missing covid years, 2024 will be the ninth occasion the event has been held in front of supporters as Scarlets “host” Dragons while Cardiff are the home side against Ospreys in the final game of the regular United Rugby Championship campaign.
Judgement Day has long been a divisive event among supporters and administrators of the game here in Wales. In my experience it is not particularly popular among the week-in, week-out supporters due to the loss of a home game at the club’s own ground, and the catering more towards casual “event-goers” rather than the loyal hardcore.
For those event-goers and the blazers running the game it has been a mixed bag with the event being successful at it’s peak and a long-term deal signed as casual supporters flocked to the stadium in their thousands, before those supporters have tailed off and senior management at the clubs have begun to question the ongoing viability of the day.
Ultimately the success or otherwise of Judgement Day pretty much tracks with the ongoing fiasco that is the Welsh Rugby Union’s management; from it’s start in 2013 the growth was marked to the point where 2016, 2017 and 2018 all drew crowds of over 60,000.
Then as cracks started to show, the professional game saw severe financial restrictions hit and on-field performances of the four clubs naturally began to struggle, the event began to see decline to the point that last year’s 41,139 was the lowest attendance since 2014.
Alongside that there is also correlation with the date of Judgement Day; up to and including 2017 it was fixtured early enough in the season that there was enough of the campaign still-to-go that the derbies retained some jeopardy in the context of the wider United Rugby Championship, whether that be playing for league play-offs or Investec Champions Cup qualification.
By 2019 though the fixture list had the showcase event on the final day of the season so that as on-field performances have dipped there is nothing left to play for and interest is naturally difficult to whip up.
It all leads to the sorry state that Judgement Day will find itself in next weekend as the event has been shifted to the Cardiff City Stadium due to the WRU gaining more revenue from hosting concerts at the Principality Stadium, it’s possible that by kick-off none of the four sides will have a shot at the URC play-offs and, by association, Champions Cup qualification, and that fewer than 20,000 supporters will make the trip to Leckwith.
On a personal level I’ve never been a fan of the occasion, and in an ultimate act of pettiness tend to go into town purely to sit and watch the game in the Arms Park clubhouse rather than walk 100 yards to attend in-person. However, when at it’s peak I did understand it from a financial point-of-view.
What I’ve never quite understood though was the scheduling. Even when slightly earlier in the season run-in, Judgement Day still struck me as placed incorrectly in the calendar. Putting it in mid-late October, when the season is still new and everything is to play for, internationals are back from their extended post-summer tour break and the Autumn Internationals are around the corner, seems to be a no-brainer.
Of course, the main benefit to that is any casual supporters who attend and enjoy the rugby, and want to go and watch one of the clubs again, have plenty of fixture choices over the rest of the season. European games are just the other side of the international window, festive derbies are on the horizon and clubs tend to start advertising half-season tickets not long after that.
If Judgement Day is going to survive and thrive beyond next season then the Professional Rugby Board need to go back to the drawing board and totally refresh it, because as things stand it is dying on it’s feet.
While they’re there maybe the WRU can also totally refresh how it manages the professional game in Wales. That’s probably a step too far though.
In the meantime we will have to endure what are set to be some depressing scenes at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday. Only a Cardiff win over the Ospreys can save us all!
Cardiff Rugby Life 