Every rugby nation has a key skill for which they are renowned. The South Africans have their scrum. The French have their handling. And the Fijians have their offloads.
In Wales our key skill is hindsight. Our 20/20 hindsight in recognising administrative mistakes from the past can’t be matched by any team in the world.
A prime example of this was the way in which Dai Rees’ interview was received in recent days.
June saw Rees, below, newly elected as a National Council Member for the Welsh Rugby Union – where he has replaced the outgoing Anthony Buchanan.
Structure
This week whilst talking to the media, Rees made many salient points regarding his role and the future of Welsh rugby – it felt like a very positive article to my, admittedly at times, overly positive eye.
Much of the interview was with regards to the structure of the player pathway and how to avoid losing those players through ‘gaps’ – all very positive stuff.
Yet, if you looked at the social media reaction, much of the positive messaging was largely missed, with everyone seemingly obsessed with his comment about how the damage to Welsh rugby had “been done 15 years ago”.
Rees did of course talk about this damage that took place 15 years ago, however it was amongst a stack of solutions to Welsh rugby ills.
None the less, it was interesting that many in Wales, as always, chose to look for the blame – rather than the solution.
Unlike virtually any other sport or sports team in the world, Welsh rugby seems to have an almost ghoulish fascination with looking backwards for the blame – not forwards for the answers.
Future
But this week the WRU have made the future of Welsh regional rugby very clear.
From next season, Welsh rugby is going to consist of three teams. It appears that it’ll be the Dragons, Cardiff and one other – be it the Ospreys, the Scarlets or a merger.
Cutting down to three regions, even two, is undoubtedly the right thing to do.
Even if you ignore the last five years of Welsh regional rugby’s failures (all of which are largely understandable given the restricted finances), you need only look at the recruitment of the four regions this summer to see where the long-term future of four teams has led and would continue to lead.
The Welsh regions are no longer in the game of recruiting to get stronger, but merely retaining in order to not get weaker.
Below is a broad snapshot of the Welsh regions’ comings and goings this summer. If there’s anyone missing, then please don’t scratch my car or burn my house down.
Welsh regions ins and outs
Cardiff Rugby
Recruited: Scott Sio, Le Roux Malan, Semisi Paea, Jarrod Evans.
Retained: Liam Belcher, Dan Thomas, Josh McNally, Josh Adams, Alex Mann, James Botham, Mason Grady, Keiron Assiratti, Taulupe Faletau, Callum Sheedy, Evan Lloyd, Ellis Bevan, Johan Mulder, Rory Thorton, Jacob Beetham, Steff Emanuel and Tom Bowen.
Dragons RFC
Recruited: Anzelo Tuitavuki, Caio Parry, Terrell Peita and Ere Enari.
Retained: Rio Dyer, Shane Lewis-Hughes and Che Hope.
Ospreys
Recruited: Tom Rogers, Lalakai Foketi, Dan John, Lawson Creighton, Liam Wright and Harri Wilde (loan).
Retained: Dan Edwards, Luke Morgan, Morgan Morse, Harri Deaves, Kieran Hardy, Keelan Giles, Sam Parry, Huw Sutton, Evardi Boshoff, Tom Botha, Garyn Phillips, Lewis Lloyd, Steffan Thomas, Ethan Lewis, and Huw Gwilym Evans.
Scarlets
Recruited: Corey Domachowski, John McKee, George Roberts, Tom Allen, Cullen Grace, Harvey Cuckson, Isaac Murray-Macgregor and Gareth Anscombe.
Retained: Henry Thomas, Josh Macleod, Gareth Davies, Dan Davis, Sam Lousi, Harri O’Connor, Jac Davies, Will Evans, and Carwyn Leggatt-Jones.
Winning
Now, don’t get me wrong. There are some solid players being retained by the Welsh regions, a few dependable overseas signings and the pathway is delivering youth.
But in pure recruitment terms, it’s like people pretending that Mars bars haven’t become smaller, and that your hands have instead become bigger since you were a child.
In 1985 a Mars bar weighed nearly 68g, they now weigh approximately 40g. It’s the same type of thing – Xavier Rush, Filo Titia and Regan King were 68g Mars bars.
But perhaps the most irritating aspect of Welsh rugby’s reluctance to accept future change, and instead reminisce, is its obsession with team names and colours from the past – there are nursery school children who aren’t as obsessed with colours as some in Welsh rugby.
I doubt even Shakespeare, who apocryphally created over a thousand words in his lifetime, would have spent so much time worrying about the names of rugby teams.
Professional rugby doesn’t care what your name is, or what colour you play in, pro rugby is all about winning.
When you win, people come to watch. It’s why a lot of soccer fans from Wales, particularly from my age group (48+) support Liverpool and Everton – even though many of them have probably only been to those cities perhaps five times in their lives.
Obsession with the past
The future of Welsh rugby can no longer be obsessed with the past.
It can’t be concerned with what teams are/were called.
If ‘new product development’ in other sectors followed this pattern then it would be impossible to create anything fresh.
If every new product had to look a bit, sound a bit, or be a bit, like something that came prior then we wouldn’t have anything new.
It’s genuinely amazing that some in Welsh rugby aren’t still strolling around with a Sony Walkman.
In short, it doesn’t matter what the new Welsh regions are called, or what colours they play in.
It’s also not about the next 18 months, but the next 18 years. If the new teams are competitive and win, people will come.
It’s how pro sport works.
Hopefully, in 30 years, Welsh rugby fans will once again look back and reminisce. Reminiscing on a major restructuring that was needed and succeeded.
READ MORE: Paul Williams: I, for one, am glad South African teams are in the URC
The best betting sites
