The Welsh rugby headlines that we can all expect to see in a turbulent 2018
LIFE is about never knowing what is around the corner, and that applies to Welsh rugby as much as anything else.
Yet it doesn’t take a genius to predict some of the headlines that will surround our game throughout 2018.
Several issues are simmering away beneath the surface as we head into the new year, others we can say with a fair degree of certainty will erupt before the next 12 months are out.
So, just what can we expect to see splashed across the back pages and home pages by the time 2017 is behind us?
RHYS WEBB INELIGIBILITY MADNESS COMES TO PASS
Throughout the autumn international series there was a sense that some around the Wales squad remain in denial about Webb being unable to play Test rugby when he leaves for Toulon next summer.
But it’s going to happen. The foolishness of the Welsh Rugby Union in allowing their best No.9 to be the fall guy of a new 60-cap selection policy for players based outside our borders will come home to roost before anyone knows it.
When precisely Webb becomes a Toulon employee and whether he will be able to play for Wales in Argentina in June is unclear, but does it matter?
By the end of the Six Nations we’ll have as good as lost him because for the union to offer him an escape route now would ensure a massive loss of face and set an unworkable precedent.
What’s done is done. But if WRU powerbrokers think they’re over the worst of the adverse publicity of this case they can think again.
It’s all going to erupt once more when Webb plays his final match and the ridiculousness of his situation comes into its sharpest focus yet.
Only in Wales... WALES ANNOUNCE NEW COACH The WRU has said it wants to make public who will succeed Warren Gatland after the 2019 World Cup a year in advance of the new man taking up his position.
Kiwis Dave Rennie, Chris Boyd and Wayne Pivac seem to be the accepted three contenders, with Rennie the favourite of many.
If and when white smoke emerges from WRU towers then it’s the effect on the current regime that will be most interesting.
Warren Gatland has stressed he wants to go out with a bang at the 2019 World Cup and his squad will be working themselves up towards that peak rather than winding down during his final months.
But there is also the feeling of a management team in its final throes amid talk of the need for a fresh voice or two to be brought in.
Gatland commands respect and so is not the sort of character players will switch off to. But his task will be to ensure he gets the most out of those who do his bidding right up to the bitter end. WALES GAME-PLAN REMAINS ‘A WORK IN PROGRESS’ There’s nothing that chimes with some of the more woeful periods in the history of the Wales team than talk of being ‘on a steep learning curve’.
We’ve experienced far worse than the current situation, but nevertheless the narrative of switching from so-called Warrenball to a more creative and fluid gameplan already feels like it’s been around this squad for an eternity.
It won’t come overnight, so we are told, and so we can expect all this to be regurgitated come the Six Nations when Wales continue to bomb try-scoring opportunities.
When will we move from trying to master it to actually mastering it? How long is a piece of string? And it may never happen to the degree that some want.
One thing is certain; unless Wales get better at scoring tries, until they start to score more of them, they aren’t serious contenders for the Six Nations.
But the learning curve/work in progress line will be trotted out in February and March. Rest assured of that.
CARDIFF BLUES ANNOUNCE THEIR SAVIOUR
Just when the next coach of Cardiff Blues will be officially revealed is unclear, but if it doesn’t happen over the New Year, then it cannot come quickly enough in 2018.
The capital city region are in a dreadful place at the moment, marking time until the new man is appointed and with current boss Danny Wilson heading to Wasps for the start of next season to be Dai Young’s forwards coach.
The Blues are still capable of the odd good display, but there is a confused and uncertain feeling among the squad for obvious reasons.
Geordan Murphy is the man the Blues board want to oversee the latest attempt at a revival, but how much is Murphy, safe and secure as an assistant at Leicester, up for the job?
We’ll know soon enough, but if Murphy knocks the Blues back where they turn then is anyone’s guess.
Someone has to do it. But that someone also has to be the right man. More than ever he has to be the right man.
The sooner this is signed and sealed and the present state of flux ended the better. DRAGONS SIGN WORLD SUPERSTAR As of yet this world superstar is unknown. Yet nobody will be surprised – well, perhaps they’ll be mildly surprised – if there is a marquee signing at Rodney Parade in the first six months of 2018 the like of which we used to see when Tony Brown ruled the Newport roost.
In the space of a week recently we had Quade Cooper, Taulupe Faletau and Fijian lock Leone Nakarawa all linked with Dragons next season.
That appears to be the calibre of player the region is in the market for these days, and with Just Eat founder David Buttress on board they do have financial muscle over and above that of owners, the WRU.
Just a couple of months ago, their go-ahead coach Bernard Jackman was talking about bringing in 12 new faces!
Let’s be realistic; there WILL be one or two big names joining the Dragons in 2018. It’s great news for them, for the regional game as a whole.
But there is also likely to be suspicion among the other regions about the only WRU-owned outfit suddenly hoovering up stellar talent.
Ross Moriarty is already secured. Will George North follow him? What a story that would be... PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM At some stage of 2018, most likely in and around the summer tour, Sam Warburton will return from nigh on a year out injured.
He’s just announced he will be having surgery on his neck and knee which effectively rules him out for the rest of this season.
Warburton’s return will doubtless be given a fair bit of a fanfare and the Wales and Lions captain could well be embarking on the final chapter of his playing career.
He has suffered more than most of his peers in terms of injuries and has never been the sort of specimen able to churn out games week in, week out.
So Warburton could well view the period from next summer through to the 2019 World Cup as a last hurrah, a year and a bit to empty the tank and then call it quits, hopefully on a high after the World Cup.
We saw him looking accomplished on TV sofas this autumn – a postplaying career in the media surely beckons more such a balanced and articulate role model. GATLAND QUIETENS DOWN For someone who professes to dislike the media side of his job, Gatland hasn’t half done a lot of interviews since the conclusion of the Lions tour to New Zealand. The Kiwi has popped up everywhere, in Londonbased national newspapers, on New Zealand radio stations and in question-and-answer sessions in Ireland.
Of course, the fact he had a book to publicise played a big part in this, but as 2017 draws to a close there’s a sense all the post-Lions fall-out has been aired – good and proper.
Earlier this year, Gatland, so partial to a grenade or two down the years, appeared to lose his media mojo. During the Six Nations he was happy to let motor-mouth England counterpart Eddie Jones fire all the verbal shots.
It might well be that similar occurs in the 2018 tournament. Though don’t hold me to that. CUBBY COMES IN FROM THE COLD It has been a year of players who have previously been frozen out finally being called in from the cold by the Wales management.
As the autumn series ended, Josh Navidi and Owen Williams were both flavour of the month having been ignored for years despite some superb form at club level.
Expect James Davies to be the next beneficiary of this sudden change in the collective mindset of the Wales management.
He was injured during the autumn series, but twice Warren Gatland mentioned his name in media conferences, unprompted. ANOTHER CHANGE TO THE WELSH PREMIERSHIP The WRU is currently undertaking a review of all competitions below regional level to try to find a way out of the current mish-mash it has got itself into. The current mish-mash?
You’ve got the Anglo-Welsh Cup, which the two countries approach in very different ways, with our four regions putting out development teams and getting thumped by strong English sides.
Then you’ve got the muchmaligned British & Irish Cup, where Premiership clubs were controversially replaced by regional select XVs as Wales’ representatives, which led to poor crowds, poor results and the RFU deciding to ditch the tournament.
And then there’s the 16-club ring-fenced Principality Premiership, which has undergone yet another structural change this season.
Much of the focus will be on the semi-professional Premiership, which has already been messed around with no end of times.
Some argue we should go for a Regional A team set up, others feel it would be better to have an elite Premiership made up of fewer clubs, maybe as few as eight, thereby raising standards.
What will we end up with? The mind boggles, but there should be a good headline...