As Wayne Pivac starts out with Wales – joining the four non-Welsh coaches in charge of the regions – former Wales head analyst, ex-international and one-time Pontypool and Newport flanker Alun Carter believes the game is missing a trick and guilty of shameful oversight and neglect.
The great history of Welsh rugby, it would appear, is locked away in a metal container at Robert Price’s builders’ yard close to Rodney Parade.
The memorabilia of a club that defeated Australia, New Zealand and South Africa has been removed and put in storage out of the way.
Is this what rugby has come to in Wales? The symbolic Springbok head, awarded to Newport RFC for defeating the 1912 South African tourists, abandoned in a damp container?
Is this symptomatic of how Welsh rugby is being managed by the WRU? Does it reflect a lack of leadership from the governing body?
Is the relative success of Wales, in winning a Grand Slam and finishing fourth at the World Cup, distorting the truth?
We lack identity in the regional game.
Newport RFC defeated the Springboks twice before Wales managed this feat for the first time in 1999. Victories for the club side came in 1912 and 1969.
Reflecting on the Black and Amber team that achieved victory most recently provides an interesting insight. Many of the 1969 team were men of Gwent, their families and friends were local.
Of the 15 players that took the field for their 11-6 win, three were from West Wales, four from Newport and eight from the Gwent Valleys.
The valleys’ players carried a responsibility on their shoulders when they made the journey to Rodney Parade.
This local connection brought with it huge support, uniting the Gwent region. There was a pride and passion in the black and amber jersey – by 1963 Newport RFC had already defeated the three major southern hemisphere rugby nations.
Why would any organisation want to alter this format?
Since the game went professional in 1995 club rugby has struggled in Wales.
The financial backers that are all too apparent in the English club game are like rocking horse shit in Wales.
The professional game relies heavily on the support of the WRU and in 2003 they decided to form regional teams.
Whilst the academy structure has produced many quality internationals, the regions are mediocre at best.
Last weekend, only the Ospreys were competing in the main European Cup competition. As for the club structure below the regions, the WRU continue to change its structure at will, causing huge frustration.
Arguably, in the Welsh professional game, pride and passion in the jersey is now only evident in the national team.
Donncha O’Callaghan talking to Mike Ruddock recently in the ‘Game On’, RTE radio show, stated: “What I always found amazing about the Welsh lads is that when you played with them in your regions they would never hit the performance they do when they put on a Welsh jersey.”
Ruddock explained that prior to the diluting process of regional rugby, clubs were brought up on local rivalries where there was a huge passion and following for your team to defeat your neighbours.
Wherever you lived, there would be a local derby. The tribal nature of our towns and villages was a positive to be used and respected – not discarded like the memorabilia at Newport RFC.
Look at the play-off game last season between Pontypool and Llanelli, former heavyweights, with Terry Cobner and Gareth Jenkins getting behind their respective teams.
The emotions were there for all to see and it made great viewing. On RTE, Ruddock also praised Warren Gatland for bringing together a group of players who fail at regional level and then turning them into a ‘club’ team that can beat the best opposition in the world.
O’Callaghan’s Munster have been hugely successful – winning the European Cup twice in the noughties.
Their travelling support is renowned and their model has until recently resembled closely the one of Newport back in the 60’s – a large percentage of their playing squad coming from the towns and cities that form Munster.
The big difference being that Munster always was a province and that generated the identity.
In Wales, until 2003, the form club team generated this identity – Llanelli in the 70’s, Pontypool and Neath in the 80’s, Cardiff, Swansea and Pontypridd in the 90’s
The identity of Welsh rugby has been driven through the national team by a New Zealander, Warren Gatland.
As belies the talent of a country richly blessed with quality coaches, this man has led his team to three Grand Slams in 11 years.
Although not always on the training field, he was the man in charge and gave leadership to Wales. His coaching team were predominantly Welsh – Neil Jenkins, Rob Howley, Robin McBryde and Stephen Jones, together with the Englishman Shaun Edwards.
In the 2019 World Cup there were 10 other Welsh coaches involved – three with Russia (Lyn Jones, Shaun Connor and Mark Bennett); three with Canada (Kinglsey Jones, Gruff Rees and Huw Wiltshire); and four with Namibia (Phil Davies, Mark Jones, Dale McIntosh and Wayne Proctor).
And yet still the WRU and the Welsh regions employ outsiders to head up the regional teams.
An Irishman, an Englishman, an Australian and a Kiwi walk into a club. It sounds like the intro to a Rhod Gilbert joke.
Allen Clarke, Dean Ryan, John Mullvihill and Brad Mooar are the coaches in charge of Ospreys, Dragons, Cardiff Blues and Scarlets, respectively.
Do they provide the identity and leadership that the regions need to start succeeding in the Pro14 and European competitions? Will they galvanise the support in these regions?
Let’s go back to Rodney Parade and look at the Dragons. They were taken over by the WRU in May 2017 having fallen into financial trouble.
A local businessman David Buttress was brought in by WRU chief executive Martin Phillips to be chairman of the Dragons and to run the board of directors.
In his opening statement, Buttress indicated that he was a big fan of Exeter Chiefs, an English Premiership team run on a small budget who attract many local players and have a great following.
If he hoped to follow the example set by Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter then he has certainly been mistaken in appointing new director of rugby, Dean Ryan.
Firstly, Baxter played 300 times for Exeter RFC and has been at the club in his current position for the last 10 years.
Ryan is not from Gwent and has remained in his previous posts at the RFU and Worcester Warriors for just three years in each role.
Baxter runs a tight budget and manages to produce teams that excel consistently.
In his three years at Worcester Warriors, Dean Ryan spent close to £27million on his rugby budget. In his first season, he nearly doubled the expenditure of the previous coach Richard Hill, but still managed to get the club relegated.
After Ryan’s departure in 2016 it wasn’t long before one of the main benefactors at the Warriors, Greg Allen, finished on the board and withdrew his considerable financial support.
Greg is son of David Allen, co-founder of DHL logistics. The loss of the financial support from the Allen family to Worcester Warriors was a huge blow.
There are plenty of Welsh coaches who could lead the regions back to some form of competency.
More importantly, they would be aware of the identity these regions need.
Coaches like Mike Ruddock (Blaina), Lyn Jones (Cwmavon), Lynn Howells (Maerdy) and Phil Davies (Seven Sisters) would bring their own identity with them.
They are better coaches now than they ever have been. Steve Hansen admitted at the World Cup he is a far better coach and far better person now then he was 10 years ago.
The WRU needs to unlock the container at Robert Price’s builder yard and put the artefacts on display, be proud of its history, embrace it, and start to show greater leadership within the professional game in Wales.