This is a copy of an article from the South Wales Echo by Delme Parfitt. I don't know the chap, but he seems to be the only one in the Welsh media with even the slightist clue.
THE inquest is in full flow, the bitter recriminations have only just begun. Where now for Welsh rugby after the humiliation of the first ever World Cup exit at the pool stage of the professional era?
Well, contrary to some thinking, it does not start and end with the appointment of a successor to Gareth Jenkins as head coach, though that is obviously key. No, there are a whole host of things that the Welsh Rugby Union and the Wales team has to address if we are not to be crying into our Steinlager come New Zealand 2011.
Here’s 10 of the most pressing issues in my book:
1. GO OVERSEAS FOR NEW MAN: No disrespect, but there are simply no suitable candidates among the Welsh regions at present, which in itself says a lot.
There is potential in Phil Davies and Dai Young. Davies would play hard to get at the moment, testing the water to see how the public would take to his appointment, but he would love to do the job. However the chances of the WRU going back to Stradey Park are almost nil. People will scoff at Young, even though he has turned things around at the Blues.
The fact is neither man is the right man at the moment. Gareth Jenkins’ regime was always seen as being infected by West Walian baggage and any Welshman would be at risk of something similar.
This Wales team needs a big-hitting, proven, authoritative, figure who will not suffer fools, someone who will grab hold of the dressing room and lead by example with a rod of iron, someone well in touch with the modern game and the modern player.
In other words, not a Welshman.
2. A WELSH UNDERSTUDY: There’s no point just bringing in an overseas boss if there is no plan for any sort of succession.
The ideal scenario has to be a Welshman coaching Wales and therefore the WRU must insist a Welshman understudies any new appointment with a view to taking charge in four years time having been groomed by his superior during that period.
We cannot be left in the same position we find ourselves in now – with no real idea of where to go for a new leader.
New appointments invariably want their own people by their side. Fair enough to a certain extent, but the union has to put Welsh rugby’s needs first.
3. FOUR-YEAR CONTRACT: When Jenkins was appointed, he was given just a two-year contract which suggested caution on the part of his employers. That caution was eventually proved right because Jenkins wasn’t the right man.
This time the WRU has to be absolutely certain it has the best fellow for the job and that certainty has to be borne out with a contract that runs until the 2011 World Cup.
And if the guy they court won’t commit for that long then they should say “thanks, but no thanks”.
Wales has gone through five different national coaches in the last nine years. The chopping and changing has to stop. The public and the Press will swallow a few disappointing results along the way, so long as there are signs of progress which were so absent under Jenkins.
4. NEW YOUNG CAPTAIN: You could almost write a book on the mess Jenkins made of the captaincy. Quite frankly he couldn’t make up his mind who he wanted to lead the team and because of that the team suffered.
Gareth Thomas won’t play again and so Stephen Jones and Dwayne Peel are the obvious candidates. I’d go for neither, instead plumping for one of the younger members of the side who is clearly going to be a focal point for years. Alun Wyn Jones or Ryan Jones are two that spring to mind.
The team is crying out for a fresh start, and Jones, great guy though he is, wouldn’t represent that. What’s more, you have to wonder how much longer he will be around.
Peel? He’s under too much pressure from Mike Phillips to be certain of his place, and I can’t see that changing for a long while.
Like the coach, the captain has to be appointed with a long term view. One team, one captain.
5. CENTRAL CONTRACTS: This is an unlikely development because of the competing vested interests of the WRU and the regions, but it is the way forward. Not so long ago the relationship between the two parties was being hailed as the envy of England, but more recently there has been squabbling over World Cup compensation for the use of players and other matters.
I wouldn’t advocate going down the Irish route where the very best players barely play at all for their provinces. But the bottom line is whether we in Wales want the game to be geared to the benefit of the national side. If so then central contracts would ensure players are better prepared for Test rugby and also spread the best talent around the regions making more of them competitive in the Magners League.
For example, would the WRU have allowed Mike Phillips to understudy Justin Marshall at the Ospreys?
6. REVIEW OF BACKROOM TEAM: Here’s a question: what was the point of the Wales team’s psychologist John Neal? He was paid hundreds of pounds a day and barely used by any of the players. The point being that the WRU has to look at precisely what it needs surrounding the head coach.
Any new man will have his own ideas of course, and experts in forward play and defence are part and parcel of modern Test rugby management teams. But appointments have to be monitored. Jenkins went out and brought in a clutch of vastly inexperienced guys, placing their loyalty and potential above anything else.
It didn’t work – and the same errors must not be repeated.
7. SORT OUT ELITE PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR: I can’t remember when this post was advertised it was so long ago. And yet still nobody is in place.
Apparently the delay is because the preferred candidate has one or two personal issues to iron out, but we can’t wait forever. This role is going to be one of arch-overseer and is therefore of crucial importance. Before anyone else is appointed, this position has to be filled and to do anything else would be pure folly.
The EPD has to stand at the apex of Wales team command.
8. IMPROVE MAGNERS LEAGUE: Just how you go about this is almost imponderable, but it goes without saying it requires the commitment of the two other Celtic nations as well. In many ways it’s a double-edged sword because if you commit to the Magners League it is bound to be at times to the detriment of the national cause. But it could all start with greater co-operation between the WRU and its Irish and Scottish counterparts about taking the competition more seriously.
Particularly Ireland, whose disdain of the league up to now did their national team little good at the World Cup.
9. REVIEW THE WELSH PREMIERSHIP: We always get James Hook thrown at us whenever the usefulness of this league is questioned, but we have to look deeper than him. The Premiership is supposed to be a feeder for the regional game and thus the national team, but is it functioning properly in that respect?
Some sides are young and developing, others throw more money at it and value success far more. There has to be more uniformity and clarity of purpose.
And if that means bringing in stricter rules on the use of players with the criteria being age or experience then so be it. When it was first established the WRU wanted the Premiership to go on rival New Zealand’s NPC.
It’s nowhere near it at the moment.
10. BETTER COMMUNICATION BETWEEN REGIONS AND WRU: If players spend 70 per cent of the season playing in a certain position or style and are then asked to change when they link up with the national team, how are we ever going to succeed? Yet in too many instances that is the case, with the examples of Hook and Henson at the Ospreys arguably the most glaring. It’s up to the national set-up – for that is what must come first – to spell out how it would like individuals and regional teams as a whole to play and then for the regions to buy into it.
That way they can hit the ground running when Test match preparation comes around. You can only get to that situation through better communication
As I suspected, there were no great fireworks in the Rugby World Cup final last Saturday. England huffed and puffed, but couldn’t blow South Africa’s house down. In a game of kicks, they lost 15-6. Many England fans and commentators have been lobbying for tries to be allowed whilst one foot is in touch; but the rule hasn’t been changed yet. They could always move the line out a bit though.
