Cardiff Arms Park playing host to a Swalec Cup semi-final earlier this season
Good, if unsurprising, news was announced today by the Cardiff Blues as the regional side revealed it will make a permanent return to the Arms Park next season.
In sharp contrast to the international game, regional rugby in Wales is currently in dire straits. A player exodus has hindered any attempt to bounce back after a season in which only one Welsh side made it to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, where the Blues were thrashed 34-3 by Irish province Leinster in April (incidentally, in front of more than 50,000 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin).
The Blues’ home matches at Cardiff City Stadium – like with the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea – were played out in front of dire crowds, conveying a depressing sense that the Welsh public were simply disinterested in regional sides, which are often seen (usually justifiably) as soulless and artificially created.
An Early Bath 