Dan Croft

@SwansOfficial Better than Ant @EllisJMeade

Our Junior Jack Commentators 🎙🤗 Listen to our Junior Jacks try their hand at commentary for Swans TV Live with a full match playback of yesterday's match 🆚 Middlesbrough. 📺👉 swanseacity.club/4sRSlFf

@SkyFootball Disgusting fairplay! Send them to non league!

Cardiff City have been charged by the FA after the club's fans allegedly aimed homophobic chants at Chelsea during their Carabao Cup fixture on December 16th.

@tweetsfromben @calgas21 @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys You could argue the same with ponty for the Rhondda Valleys etc, I don’t think this discussion is going any further, club rugby in wales is on its arse, change again needs to happen, can’t it be revived to a healthy state? I’m not sure it can after the last 20 years

@DanCroft9 @calgas21 @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys My rebuttal to this is Cardiff and Llanelli especially were like ‘regional teams’ before the term existed. Both drew a chunk of support - and player recruitment - from well outside the area. Neil Jenkins grew up a Cardiff fan! Similar but smaller scale for Swansea and Newport

Is there not a single rugby union fan in #Wales, the UK, Europe and maybe the world, who is not appalled by the plans to kill the @Ospreys? I live in Cardiff, watch regularly at the Arms Park - because I love rugby. But rugby in Wales is unthinkable without the #Ospreys!

@tweetsfromben @calgas21 @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys I never said Ebbw Vale should be the home of a professional regional team, that isn’t the argument, the argument is that the current clubs only ever cared about themselves and was never interested in being inclusive to outer areas, that they claimed they would represent

@DanCroft9 @calgas21 @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys The “lie that was sold to the clubs outside” only existed in their own imaginations. To take Ebbw Vale as an example, that’s a town of 20,000 people. How can somewhere like that support pro sport without having Llanelli’s advantage of being THE club in that area?

@calgas21 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys They never tried 👍 like I said, Ospreys today, someone else tomorrow, just hope you regional supporters go back to supporting the SRC and proper rugby

@DanCroft9 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys You’re not going to please everyone. Money talks in the end.

@calgas21 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Well 2008, 2011 wc and 2012 was a similar crop of players. If you want to take the success of those international outcomes in the regional era, you must now take the current state of our international team

@DanCroft9 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Even if that was the case, what about the other successes that followed, during a 14yr period? You’re really clutching here, Dan!

@tweetsfromben @calgas21 @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys I watch the swans football regularly and I’m from ebbw vale, I travel there because swansea never alienated me, you’re not understanding the lie that was sold to the clubs outside and why we as supporters are so against them.

@DanCroft9 @calgas21 @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Wales is full of people who get in minibuses to watch Liverpool, Man Utd etc, ignoring their football local teams - and then moan that they can’t possibly travel 7 miles to watch pro rugby because their town isn’t “included”

@calgas21 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys They was alienated, end of. Never inclusive and that’s a fact.

@DanCroft9 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys They weren’t ditched. They couldn’t afford pro rugby, ffs! They still exist now. Going to compass point teams would’ve meant the WRU having to fund the entire project - something they couldn’t afford and didn’t want to do.

@tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys You can’t claim the 2005 grand slam came from regional rugby, those players developed in the old welsh league

@DanCroft9 @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys They weren’t ditched as such, just couldn’t stand in a world of pro rugby. Do you remember what happened to the national team in the years after moving to 4 pro teams? They got good again after decades of failure. Grand Slams arrived. The plan worked at that time

@tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys But the identity of clubs like ponty, Bridgend, Neath, ebbw were all ok to ditch? 😂 it never worked, won’t work, bye bye ospreys today, wonder which of the “superior traditionally” clubs are next?

@DanCroft9 @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Because it threw out all the tradition. Many fans of the biggest clubs would’ve walked away. Cardiff and Llanelli are/were such famous clubs that to ditch them for made up names would be suicide. Plus North Wales is/was a desert

@tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys What was wrong with 4 new separate identities like east west central and north with feeder teams, keeping their identities playing in the SRC on a different day?

@DanCroft9 @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys I think they were already alienated because it was always going to be Newport focused due to population and money. Tom Brady and I have 7 Super Bowl rings between us but no one thinks it’s an equal partnership

@PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys You clearly don’t understand the rivalries involved at the time and the hatred of the idea anywhere north of the m4, hasn’t worked, will never work

@calgas21 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys They done it from the first preseason game, alienating gwent rugby fans, so they had no idea on attendances. Should of created 4 professional teams with new identities, east west central and north, then kept a welsh league to feed into those teams like the SRC now

@DanCroft9 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Ebbw pulled out, as they couldn’t afford pro rugby. The crowds the Dragons were getting were so poor, they added the Newport name back in to try to appease the Newport fans that they’d pissed off!

@tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys The way in which it was done alienated so many rugby fans in wales, those sides didn’t care at the time, the WRU didn’t care, bums on seats brings you revenue, those 4 clubs can reap what they sowed 👍

@DanCroft9 @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Sadly the population and financial situation of Wales meant the chances of taking 10+ teams into the professional era was slim to none. In effect the WRU wanted Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and Llanelli with a Valleys team. But the Valleys team just caused arguments

@calgas21 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Ebbw never dropped out of the dragons, the name change was forced apon the whole of gwent, never inclusive and now those four clubs are suffering, I couldn’t care less 👍

@DanCroft9 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys The clubs that could afford pro rugby, survived. It’s why Ebbw dropped out of the Gwent Dragons, it’s why Neath & Swansea merged, it’s why Cardiff & Llanelli fought to stand alone, which Newport should also have done. It’s why Ponty had to merge & it’s why Warriors liquidated.

@calgas21 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Well they did that first pre season game, I grew up watching ebbw vale, i went with my family, none of us went again, many similar stories throughout wales no doubt

@DanCroft9 @tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys And why did they change from Gwent Dragons to NGD, Dan?

@calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys I’m suggesting regional rugby was a stupid idea from the start, welsh club rugby has been and is badly managed. Turning down a tv deal with sky in the late 90s to stick with the bbc is one of these stupid decisions

@DanCroft9 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Are you suggesting Wales should’ve stuck to a Welsh league? Remember, Ponty were skint!

@tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Well this is the issue, it’s been dressed up as one big tent to care about all the clubs involved, but it never was, forced arched rivals to combine, daft

@DanCroft9 @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys You said why should Ponty fans care about the Warriors when Ponty is a famous club. Why doesn’t the same apply to Llanelli, Newport or Cardiff? The three most successful and well attended clubs through Welsh rugby’s history

@tweetsfromben @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys Don’t make it out to be all about a region when it’s only been about certain clubs. I went to the first ever dragons game against Leeds tykes at Pontypool park, turned up, they changed the name to Newport gwent dragons, played in black and amber and only cared about Newport

@DanCroft9 @PhilRugby @calgas21 @Lewypayne @Si66T @ospreys So the Ponty fans who didn't want to support anyone but Ponty are in the right but for example, Cardiff fans who didn't want to support anyone but Cardiff are in the wrong? Make it make sense