I can"t see the relevance of population statistics to this, other than stating that the regions are broadly comparable in population size. The most relevant factor is the number of active APAT players (or potential players likely to brought in by current players) clustered in an area. Any area of 100,000? (prob a lot less) could support a team if the player concentration is right. Comparing the winning potential of such large areas on the basis that one has a population of Xm and another has 2Xm is completely spurious.
Not at all. As valid as anything else
eg...
London is a huge region. It happens to be grossly under-represented in terms of Active APAT players. for that captain, and teammates, therein lies the opportunityto get competitive by serious recruitment
Scotland is smaller in terms of catchment area than some other teams. However it has an established group of motivated players who bask in very cleverly seeded notions of national pride that are invoked such that everyone signs up, including those who once watched Braveheart or an Old Firm Derby on TV and dream at night of the smell of deep fried mars bars and decided they hailed from Glasgow. Admirable stuff
I would hope that head start would not persist, as others catch up on numbers