What give WALES the RIGHT to take part in the "6-NATIONS Rugby Tournament?

Question

(any death threats please email the Welsh Assembly - http://www.rfu.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/RFUHome.Simple_Detail/StoryTypeId/26/SectionId/46 ;-)

Before you do that though, check out previous questions of mine relating to this background research..

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjsNw_05Jzz7YfuhzOFsTy0hBgx.?qid=20070328013118AANWbld

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApgR.DtcLn9FuMlMKoyQZn8hBgx.?qid=20070421132857AATHQ2i

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ah44ce8Ss3QsT5Bt0l1_LvMhBgx.?qid=20070420155422AA4mmXZ

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Avb46Q6H8kBv29D2sYe303AhBgx.?qid=20070422054856AA8Rafu

We live in a Politically Correct LaLa Land today and if I have to abide by the PC rulers, surely it follows that Wales should be upgraded from a principality to a Country in its own right to qualify for this Tournament?

Answer 1

Wales is a competative Nation as such within the IRB. And as such Wales has every right to compete in the 6 Nations as an Invitation Side by the English and Scottish Rugby Boards (That set up the Home Nations Games to begin with).

As for the rest of your question, what has that got to do with Rugby?

Answer 2

Mate, I suggest that you don't go shouting your mouth off in future unless you really want to pi$$ people off (even though I'm pretty sure that was your initial plan) and have people laugh at you!!!! What gives you the right to call yourself a Rugby fan?! Surely if you were you would support the expansion and evolution of your sport?!

And being an England Rugby Union fan is absolutely nothing to be proud of...they rank alongside the England Cricket team at the moment!!!

Anyway...aside from all that why do you think that England, Ireland, Scotland and WALES are called the "Home NATIONS"....oh right, yes, it's because Wales are a NATION, therefore qualify under the title of the 6 NATIONS.

Answer 3

I thought Wales was a country in it's own right. As far as i'm concered they are, and I'm English.

Answer 4

Have to laugh at some of these answers, they seem to take on board you are not Welsh...........I get the feeling you are Welsh!

Please feel free to correct me!

I think you are correct-have not clicked on any of the links-but we are a Principality, not a country in it's own right!

Still, we should play in the 6N, as we are a nation-I think-oh my, this is a contradiction in itself!

Never mind, we are in the 6N, so there!

Answer 5

The "6-nations" is not the offical name of the competition, in fact it isn't a competition at all, it is the result of the Calcutta Cup between England and Scotland being expanded.

Fist England play Scotland annually for the Calcutta cup, then Ireland and Wales join in and played for the triple Crown

Answer 6

Firstly Hello,

I need to address Northenlads comments.. What sort of appalling behaviour? I`m pretty fortunate to have been to every Home International this season and most of lasts, and I have never seen anything other than the usual rivalry and P1ss taking from any of the fans, visitors and home alike. I`ve toured the pubs and stood in the same lines as everybody else and still not seen anything! What are you talking about?

I was at the last game , you know the one; with 2 English mates who both said (first visit to the mil) that it was fantastic (except the score of course).. Sorry if you`ve had a hard time from somebody but don't tar all supporters with the same brush. Some people can give it out but can`t take it!

Now then, What are you blithering on about man... Wales is and always will be a Nation by it`s very definition, it is also a country by the same.

Politically we have provided 2 Welsh Prime Ministers and we are able to vote on English matters, which is more than they can on ours.. as for representation on the Union Flag... Why? What will it represent? We have a Flag and I for one am proud of it.

Northernlad,

Firstly let me appologise for the Morons that you`ve come across, dont let that put you off what should be and in my opinion is the greatest sporting theater in the world. In fact I would be happy to stand you a few beers on any match day. Idiots are idiots no matter where they come from.

Hello,

Mate, I did read your threads, but dont seem to understand where you feel that they justify your question?  must be missing something. As for accepting Wales as a stand alone country I think thats la la land. Culturaly yes, Politicly maybe but moniterily never. As for Rugby we have given the world some of the greatest players ever & introduced the modern concept of proper training and nutrition in the 70`s, whilst everybody else still trained on beer & f**s (still do myself).

We simply have the right because we are by definition a Nation.

Still enjoy your questions though.. keep on asking because someone will know the answers I`m sure. You may just get somewhere and we may need our passport to cross the Bridge!

Answer 7

Man you have had a tough time with this question eh? You are right; either Wales becomes a Nation in its own right or shouldnt take part in the 6-Nations Tourament.

However after thier performance this year i dont know if they actually should take part again.....

Answer 8

For games such as soccer and rugby, Wales has always been classified as a nation.  This usually means that in UK and Ireland, we have four treams; England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Wales is only a principality in the eyes of royalists and such who seem mostly to call themselves the English aristocracy.

Every one knows that the Welsh are a race separate from the English as are the Irish and Scots.  In effect, since the majority of the Welsh are classified as Celts, this alone should be enough to give them nation status and not just for sport and games.

When it comes to Cricket, for some reason or other, Wales is joined together with England, so there is no Welsh Cricket team.  It means however, that Welshmen are sometimes selected to play for England at the Cricket.  Am not sure the reason for this.

For all legal purposes, Wales is tied to England and English Law etc.

Am not sure that the Welsh want to be a 'separate nation' as it were, except for purposes of games and sports.  You see the Welsh for England translates into English to read "lost land".  Now that may seem strange, but what it means in effect is that the Welsh for the most part see England as another part of their own country.  A part of Britain, the Welsh are the British and have been living on the island of Britain for about ten thousand years.

It gets even worse.  The Arch Druid is not merely the Arch Druid of Wales but in fact the Arch Druid of the Island of Britain and as such out ranks everyone else, yes, even HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Worse to come I'm afraid.  This year the National Eistedfodd of Wales will be held in the Northern Capital of Wales, Liverpool.

We Welsh do not think of Britain in perhaps quite the same way as the English.  In any event, the English have all of the money and therefore they decide most issues, usually these are simply accepted by the Welsh as a matter of course and for plain good manners.  Can't see anything wrong with that.

Historically the English and the Welsh made an absolute fortune from the wool trade back in the Middle Ages.  Until that is the less king of Frogs decided to put and end to the lucrative business of selling English wool to the weavers in France and returning the cloth to be sold in England at monster raving profits for all concerned.

The Welsh were having none of this, nor yet the English.  The Welsh King of England, Henry V set off for France, taking with him one thousand Welsh archers.  At the Battle of Agincourt, the King said "loose arrows".  The Welsh archers had between 8 to 9 arrows each in the air in the first minute of the battle.  Lets just call is 9000 arrows for cash.  Most of the Frogs were either dead or wounded.  The English infantry then slaughtered the rest.  Any frog knight daft enough to get close enough to the Welsh archers, was simply dragged from his mount and smashed up in his armour by the heavy sledge hammers carried by the Welsh.

Do I hear that sad word chivalry?  What chivalry?  The French tried to ban the long bow but the English would have none of it and took it up right away as a sporting weapon so that English boys from age nine were taught the long bow.  It is a dirt cheap weapon to make and effin' dangerous and you require no skill what so ever to kill some one with it.

The Welsh flag with it's red dragon is the Battle Standard of the Prince of Wales - who ever he may be.

Why does Prince Harry have the name Wales printed on his uniform?  Still puzzling over that.

Answer 9

They compete in the World Cup and against other countries (Wales is the other team on the ticket to the rugby international I am going to in June), so why wouldn't they compete in the 6 Nations, they are a nation afterall.

Answer 10

I realy don't know why anybody would care about the use of nations in the title of this rugby tournament. Why single out Wales? If you don't think Wales is a nation, then why would England, Scotland and Ireland be? Would you realy prefer the tournament to be called the two countries, two ex-kingdoms, a principality and a combined nation tournament? It doesn't realy have the same ring to it.

I have checked your research and most people there are saying that Wales is a nation anyway.

Answer 11

The end of your last addition was: "what people believe Wales is... and what they think it SHOULD be today...."

My answer would be totally unpolitically correct given the appalling behaviour of so called Welsh Rugby Fans towards English Fans in Cardiff over the last few years!

That said, I love the way Wales play rugby and although I always support whoever is playing them they are a great team to watch!

"Reply to martdfrogman below"

You are right and I did not mean to imply All Welsh, etc, indeed my Godparents are both Welsh and the nicest people you could want to meet.

We didn't manage to get tickets for the game but wanted to enjoy the atmosphere in Cardiff. However we felt physically threatened by both male and female supporters during the game, getting right in our faces, finger-pointing and viciously singing, "Stick your F***ing Chariots Up your ****!" (This was not one or two people, but a large percentage of the bar we were in.) Yes we could have gone to a different bar, but we were determined not to be intimidated out, which was the probably the idea I feel.

To compound this, later that evening, a central taxi firm kept us waiting for over an hour for a taxi before telling us that we were f***ing English so we would have to wait if we wanted a taxi!

I know the English are referred to as being arrogant when it comes to rugby, which I hope I am not, but I accept there are many that can be. Hence my comments, they were not a condemnation of the Welsh as a whole, although I see it could have been interpreted as that! However, I will never return to Cardiff to watch rugby.

Answer 12

CYMRU AM BYTH - YMA O HYD (DAFYDD IWAN)

Answer 13

Wales has the RIGHT to play in the 6 Nations Championship because they were one of the founding members of that competition and rugby administrators regard Wales as a nation in at least that respect. Any other reasoning is pure semantics.

The question of whether Wales is constitutionally a nation is another matter entirely.

Answer 14

Well that deep - you must have something similar to what my brother suffers from only his special topic is Iraq & USA.  But good point all the same!

Answer 15

They beat England...that's enough for me..twll tîn pob Sais..Cymru am byth.

Nid yw eich Cymraeg yn ddealladwy iawn...beth yw 'main beth?'

Answer 16

Wales = nation

6 NATIONS

there, sorted

Answer 17

I'm Scottish and Wales have every right, like us they are a nation,

Answer 18

you've got to much time on your hands  chief

you need to get off the computer move out of your mums house

and go and get laid

Answer 19

Wales IS a nation, as are Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. NONE of them are Countries.

If you can be bothered, follow the link below, an interesting read.

Answer 20

wales are a principality and the EU map wales are not on it so they must not be part of England of the EU.

Answer 21

Wales=Nation.  Whether England acknowlege, like it, or despise it.

Answer 22

come visit wales, museums and check out the people and cultures then tell us why we`re not a nation

Answer 23

The nations and dominions of  the United Kingdom have a unique place in global geopolitical  terms. Whilst Wales and Scotland are countries and indeed nations, they are not sovereign STATES in their own right.

NATION def;A self-identifying people who share a common history, often language, a common culture and a homeland. A nation is the most persistent and resistant organization of people-culture- territory. There are between 7,000 and 10,000 nations

Answer 24

Dude!

Does it matter?  Like it's not as if they are ever going to win!

Answer 25

I have read what you wrote and find to be your information to be true Wales isn't a country by definition but Prince Charles doesn't make political decisions in Wales in fact I believe that he is going to stop the Prince of Wales title with him and we will never have another prince so where does that leave Wales. Possibily a province but we have our own language our own culutre and were once a free land and I think that being able to state that you are Welsh and not british makes it a country. You could ask the same sort of question about the USA. each state could be thought of as a country as it has it's own capital city and it's own Laws and the USA means united States. Wales has the right to be in this Tournament because we oppose the English at every step and are still our own country even though we are until English rule Hong Kong was under British rule until a few months ago was it not and it has country status and was governed by a foreign queen.

Answer 26

firstly can I point out that your links are simply questions and answers from other people and they are not actually facts. Secondly Wales has become a country in its own right for several years now, We were a part of England and thats why were are not on the flag its not becasue were not a country. We are a very proud and stong country.

Cymru am byth

Answer 27

I hear what you are saying regarding the intricacies of the definition of nation and have to confess that I am no expert regarding this area.

However I do like my rugby and can emphatically say that on rugby merit alone they deserve to be there without doubt. How boring would the five nations in the late 70's and early 80's have been without them.

They may have struggled this year but they still strive try to play with flair and the passion never lacks. They are a team that are not far away from being very good, if they could just all click together they could prove to be a powerful force.

AND I say all this as I sit here with my Red rose proudly displayed on my chest but facts are facts.