David Rischke
Bombshell plans by WRU to cut regions down to two is only tip of the iceberg, as a closer look at underage level proves.
Welsh rugby is in dire straits. Even casual observers of the game around the globe became only too aware of the serious difficulties in 2024, when the Welsh players threatened to go on a strike ahead of their Six Nations clash with England in a fight over pay cuts.
The most striking incarnation of the current crisis was the losing streak of the Welsh national team. 18 straight defeats. Not a single win for nearly two years. But this is only the symptom of much deeper issues.
They became slightly clearer in April this year. Fans were ‘shocked’ and ‘gutted’ that Cardiff Rugby had to go into administration and the Welsh Rugby Union had to take over. A prelude for more drama, which finally came to a climax a week ago.
The stage was the cathedral of Wales’ national religion. The Principality Stadium in Cardiff towers over everything, the Castle, the buildings on adjacent Mary Street and is clearly visible from afar. On matchdays, the flock of rugby faithfuls would descend in thousands from the Valleys, spill out from the trains, arriving from Llanelli, Swansea, Aberystwyth or Newport.
But on this Wednesday afternoon, no one was belting out Mae hen Wlad fy nhadau, no dragon roared. Instead, the media corps was funnelled into a board room, in the belly of the stadium.
PLANS TO SHRINK REGIONS
The Welsh Rugby Union presented radical plans: To cull two out of four professional teams was described as ‘the best option’. Nothing is decided yet, they maintain. This nuclear option is only one out of four different scenarios.
A six week consultation period is meant to lead to a definite decision.
But everyone can read between the lines. Trimming down the professional layer of Welsh rugby to two teams constitues a seismic change.
Alas, change is badly needed as the Welsh regional teams lack success, a URC title has become unattainable. Since 2019, no Welsh team has made it to a semi-final.
“I think everyone realises that we need to make changes,” acknowledges Mike Phillips, former Wales international and British and Irish Lions player: “We’ve fallen down the rankings significantly, and you look at last week Argentina beating New Zealand again. I mean, everybody else in the world is improving and we’re not improving. So, you can’t just do the same thing all the time and expect things to get better.”
Drastic changes are indeed needed, as the overall state of the game in Wales is terrible. And the situation of the professional regions is only the tip of the iceberg, as Phillips explains:
“Whenever I’m back in Wales, it’s sad because all you hear is the difficulties of starting off with grassroots clubs and filling teams. And you just feel that the the passion for the game doesn’t seem to be there as much, and obviously you need a successful national team to drive that.”
The big prize question then is: How to make the national team successful again?
The WRU seems to think, that shrinking the player pool and concentrating the resources into fewer teams and one national academy will increase the competitiveness of the teams.
If such a raises the quality level, then Phillips would support it: “You need to be good in Europe, before you can ever think about contemplating winning an international rugby game. There’s tiers to it and you can’t just go from losing constantly to then asking young players to step up to international rugby and win. We need to create that elite.”
PEOPLE HAVE LOST FAITH
Another concern is the constant brain and muscle drain across the bridge over to their biggest rival. There are talents in Welsh rugby, but some just prefer to play in English schools, because they get a better rugby education over there. A predicament, that is particularly painful to stomach for Welsh supporters.
Something had to happen, acknowledges Simon Norris, a rugby analyst from Porthcawl in South Wales: “The general feeling is a lack of leadership from the Union. For two years we’ve been waiting for direction; it’s just got worse. I do agree we need to reduce regions—financially there isn’t enough money in rugby. But people have lost faith in how long the WRU takes to make decisions. We want leadership—the WRU at the top, leading the way. The Welsh won’t like change at the start, but they’ll back it eventually; we just take a while to get our heads around it.”
It’s hard to believe, that only six years ago, Wales won the Grand Slam, and made it to the World Cup semi-final, only losing to eventual champions South Africa by a late penalty kick. Wales used to be a powerhouse for fifteen years. But in their most successful span ever, mistakes were made, that would have severe consequences.
To a degree, the current prioblems could have been avoided, points out Norris, who has worked as analyst for Exeter Chiefs, the Welsh U-16 teams, for exmaple.
“Wales had a core squad under Warren Gatland that played right through to retirement; in some positions youth wasn’t blooded. When Wayne Pivac came in as manager, he let youngsters in, but it takes time for them to gel. When you look at South Africa on the other hand, they’re good at slowly bringing people in and gaining experience, but in Wales it didn’t feel like a long-term plan. Someone has to step up to be the next Jamie Roberts, Alyn Wyn Jones or Justin Tipuric. Jac Morgan is stepping up and doing really well. It will take time. It’s sad because it could have been stopped earlier; maybe we wouldn’t be here,” Norris surmises, adding “but we are in this situation, so let’s get on with it.” Apart from reducing the number of regional teams, the WRU also proposed to create one National Academy for the two planned teams. One building and institution, shared by two sets of teams. An idea, that Simon Norris find it hard to find positives for: “I can’t get my head around fan identity. Fans want a sense of place and connection. Regions have struggled to build a fan base; how would that change with two teams? I don’t see how that works. And two teams under the same roof, have we ever heard of that in football or rugby? No. It doesn’t tend to happen. And what happens to young players, “if there is a 16 year old who is on the border line of making the national academy where will he go to develop if the regional academies have gone”
It’s for everyone to see: The WRU struggles to bridge the gap from U18 to U20 to senior regions. A discipline that especially a region like Leinster is very good at, helped by a powerful underbelly of rugby schools that foster talents from a young age.
For Phillips, who has 94 caps for Wales and played on two tours with the British and Irish Lions, it’s annoying to see clips of schools in South Africa, everyone’s out watching rugby, whatever game it is, and it’s like everyone’s going crazy: “I mean, there’s none of that, you know, in Wales, it’s not supported, obviously.”
And it all seems to come down on how young talent is treated by the association.
As Phillipps proposes, why not have Welsh schools cup finals held in the Principality Stadium? He asks the question, why not make these young players feel special? Why not give them a goal to aspire to at a young age?
And ironically, at the other end, quite a few players are currently elevated to elite status too easily. There are four regions and they need to fill their ranks. But unfortunately, these academy players then basically are not available for their clubs any more. Crucial game time is denied to them. Mike Phillips remembers a story that is symptomatic, for many things that go wrong in Welsh rugby:
“I went to watch my nephew play on a Sunday, and then there was a youth player, and I spoke to the coaches, and he said, ‘oh, we can’t pick our four best teams today, because Scarlet’s Academy has their training session on Wednesday’, and this was a Sunday. I thought it was just absolutely ridiculous.”
If one were to make an assessment, there are many problems, and they don’t end with the number of regional teams. It does seem though, that many issues could be remedied with a culture change, the concentration of talent will help.
The WRU need to develop a plausible vision for the future that finally sets a healthy grassroots game at the centre, feeding only their absolute best talent to the elite level. Success breeds success.
Welsh rugby hs quickly spiralled downwards, as many observers from outside the country might have been surprised at the sudden collapse, the ground started to shift many years ago and no on e at the top seemed to have taken any heed until it was too late.
And gone are the days when Welsh kids in Pontypool, Carmarthen or Bangor didn’t have much else to be doing than playing rugby. There are fierce competitiors out there, not just other rugby unions, but global sports like soccer for example, in a fast-paced social media world. If Welsh rugby doesn’t turn the development around quickly, the stream of rugby supporters into Principality Stadium on Six Nations day might dry up.