It’s scandalous WRU won’t hire anyone who disagrees with their fratricide

The latest World Rugby rankings show Wales in a disastrous 11th place, below Japan and Fiji, who were both feeble in the recent Nations Championship. It could become even worse. In the documentation for that new event, World Rugby and the competing teams have signed an agreement that at the end of the second season there will be relegation from the top tier and promotion from the second. Wales will need a significant improvement to avoid a catastrophic demotion.

In effect, the professional players of Wales, and those aspiring to the sacred red jersey, have been deserted by their own union. Dragons are still led by donkeys. It is becoming ever more terrifying to see how professional rugby in Wales is being run. It is normal for lovers of sport to be critical of governing bodies. The glorious savaging by my colleagues at The Sunday Times of Gianni Infantino of Fifa is just one case in point.

But in Wales the administration has sunk without a trace, infuriating the rugby public. There are elements in the secrecy of the WRU, its refusal to acknowledge the enraged nature of the opposition to its self-defeating plan to scrap a great club (Ospreys or Scarlets), and there is failure of individual board members to make public the reservations they definitely hold. It is almost like Infantino, but with hair.

Last week Dave Reddin, the director of rugby, confirmed that the union will kill off one club, leaving the nation with just three pro teams. Three. This perversion of what any governing body should be chills the soul. Reddin appears not to grasp that the union should be nurturing, sympathetic, expansive. He could not do the sport in Wales more harm than if he were secretly hired to kill rugby off. Understandably, a player exodus is in full swing.

Anyone on the board have the guts to speak out? No. Any bright ideas to harness new investors at home and abroad, to market the sport better, to bring the union into the new age, to tap into the diaspora? None. Just chop a club for ever. Good on the two threatened teams who are said to be consulting their solicitors.

The reaction? Mass fury. The Welsh parliament is severely unamused, has called the union in twice to explain themselves, something they have clearly failed to do. The players are up in arms.

And the effect is all too predictable. Promising young players are now terrified of even dreaming of a rugby career. There are limited places for them to go as it is, and there is a flood of biblical proportions across the Severn Bridge. A staggering 31 Welsh players are signed up this season at the four West Country clubs alone — Bath, Gloucester, Bristol Bears and Exeter Chiefs. Two greats, Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan, played for Gloucester this weekend. Still more promising youngsters have in effect emigrated to Hartpury University. Great coaches at youth and schools level are tearing out their hair.

Reddin proposed a gleaming development system, then admitted that the union could not afford it. The union had to hand over some cash so that the pro clubs could pick up some of the slack. He is also silent on the obvious improvements made by the four regional teams, despite the dark pall under which they have played due to WRU criticism.

Ospreys are rebuilding on their grand old St Helens ground; Scarlets are signing players to entertain; Dragons are buzzing, with an away draw in Italy on Friday. Their community schemes are top class. Originally the WRU was only granting playing rights to the regions if the union itself selected players and coaches. Preposterous. It was like hiring a blacksmith to play a piano concerto. At least the WRU relented and regions can now hire their own men.

And the resistance out in the country is growing. The forceful and engaging businesswoman Hayley Parsons, with experience of rugby and after a stratospheric business career, would be one alternative for a driven chairperson. Jonathan Davies, the great fly half, has been vociferous in saying that the board must go. He is so right — we have hardly had a single peep out of them since they arrived.

The greats are rallying. Alun Wyn Jones has joined Ospreys’ board; it will be worth watching if and when the WRU goes to Swansea to tell Alun Wyn face to face that his club is dead. And there is the other Jonathan Davies, the great Scarlets and Lions centre. Those of us who heard him speak at a Wooden Spoon charity lunch some months ago were vastly impressed by the passion, clarity and wisdom of his speech in favour of retaining four professional clubs. I have this suspicion that Gareth Edwards may just favour the retention of all four pro teams too.

The opposition still needs to grow. The four regions have made a shocking error by peeling off to fight as individuals. They should have stuck together, spoken as one. The WRU can move nowhere without them; unless the union has about 150 players no one knows about.

Recently the post of chairman of the union was advertised. One applicant was Mark Rhydderch-Roberts, a highly successful businessman, approachable, clever, and someone who knows his rugby through connections at the famous Pontypridd club. He is chairman of Glamorgan Cricket, for a long time a dying duck but a club who now stand in Division One and have a share of a franchise in the Hundred. A shoo-in?

Further good news. Another Mark. This time Mark Evans, a real talent, inch-perfect for WRU purpose. He was said to have applied for chairmanship of the Professional Game Board after a stellar career of success at Saracens, Harlequins, Fijian Drua — you name them, he has galvanised them.

The two Marks would have been wonderful. But it is said that Rhydderch-Roberts barely managed to get home in time from his interview to take the call that he had been unsuccessful. Evans, we understand, never even made the second round.

Suddenly, it dawned. The WRU was perfectly prepared, in its hour of need, to pass up on great candidates who did not share the blind faith in the blind strategy of axing a major team. Two great appointments were not made because the WRU would have found them inconvenient. This is bordering on scandalous.

We asked the WRU to explain. “These are vitally important roles for Welsh Rugby and we are taking our time to find the right individuals to help safeguard the future of our game. Further details of the recruitment process . . . will remain confidential out of respect for the individuals involved and the process.” My other investigations have made me 100 per cent certain that anyone taken on by the WRU must first support the slashing of a club. No matter how brilliant the candidate. Appalling.

The Wales team made a few initial strides in their most recent games, although the gates were well down and major thrashings have occurred. Steve Tandy, the head coach, is respected but his group is short of the grizzled giants that frequent the team rooms of almost every other national side.

And finally, the union has no apparent grasp of the world of rugby. Club and regional rugby is not a financial success anywhere. It is always dominated by the Test game, has its momentum and finance sucked away too often. Be it the Gallagher Prem in England, the URC in which Wales play, the European Champions Cup, Super Rugby down under — none of them make profits and in some, losses are highly significant, in the millions. It is vital that the sport stays with them all. And encourages them royally. Live with it.

Relegation is no longer an impossibility for Wales. The fewer the players that Wales employ as professionals, the more disastrous the results. The less aspiration for their young men and women, and boys and girls. There are a score of other ways to raise money that do not involve fratricidal murder of a great club.

And the WRU board and Mr Reddin. You have completely lost the right to speak on behalf of Welsh rugby. The two true rugby grafters on the board representing the grand small clubs should stay. The rest of you should walk away, before the horrible disaster you are creating becomes impossible to reverse.

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