Dan is the man looking to bring on Welsh coaches
Dan is the man solving it:
THERE is no Welsh person currently occupying a head coaching role at any of the regions. That is a statement of fact which, if left in isolation, generally stirs fairly strong emotions in some observers.
But it requires a deeper, more forensic analysis.
First and foremost there is the question over whether that is such a bad thing – surely the best person for the job gets the role regardless of nationality?
What, perhaps, should be the real point is that no Welsh person was deemed qualified enough for those roles.
That’s where Dan Clements, the Welsh Rugby Union’s performance coach manager, comes in.
“It doesn’t frustrate me,” says Clements, the man tasked with developing elite coaches in Wales.
“We want the best coaches operating in Wales. When you go to an open market, that’s what you look for in any walk of life.
“We’ve got some really good coaches in the current system who are not too far off the kind of positions we’re talking about.
“Most of the time it comes down to opportunity.”
In 2018, Clements arrived in his role having filled similar posts at Hockey Wales and Wales Rugby League.
What he found was a system that was ‘rigid’ and, perhaps, was not tailored to the specific needs of individual aspiring elite coaches. It needed updating.
For example, it would send professional rugby players all the way back to being taught the basics of the game, akin to teaching grandma to suck eggs, before they could progress to the upper echelons of coaching.
Clements, though, has now implemented a more sophisticated regime which encompasses three core programmes.
“There’s the player-to-coach programme, the elite coach programme and then some more bespoke stuff we do across the pathway. It looks different for everybody,” he explains.
Professional players – the likes of Leigh Halfpenny, Justin Tipuric and James Hook – are currently on the player-to-coach programme and are not now taught the basics of the game, they are instead learning the finer points of coaching.
“There is always an argument about players moving into coaching: Why is that fair?” says Clements.
“But I’m a firm believer of there being massive advantages to it. They’ve played the game to an extraordinary high level and their knowledge of the sport is huge. They know all the intricate details.
“We then have to help them learn how to teach it.
“In the past, in the old system, they will have gone through a framework where we’d sit them down and try to teach them about the game again.
“There’s no gains in that. There’s no motivation for them to engage in that.
“We spend the majority of our time with those guys teaching them about good coaching principles.”
He adds: “In the past, I think the rigidity of the system put people off.
“Professional players need a different learning experience and the interest is really growing.”
The elite coaching programme works with individuals who are already operating as coaches in senior environments with the intention of enhancing their skills.
Currently enrolled on this course are ex-Wales internationals Richie Rees, Duncan Jones and Rachel Taylor, alongside the likes of Dai Flanagan, Ioan Cunningham, Richard Fussell and Wales Under-20s boss Gareth Williams.
“The elite coach programme is on the job, it’s a reflection on action programme that helps people understand their own strengths and development areas,” explains Clements.
“It also opens up new thinking from alternate worlds. They’ve come through our system and probably already accessed a hell of a lot of knowledge.
“It’s now about providing alternative world class learning experiences. For example, can you go to Google and learn from those guys about creativity and leadership?
“They’re sector-leading so we can go there and apply some of those principles to our world.”
There are currently around 50 coaches in the elite programmes under Clements’ supervision.
He is not set specific targets that state a certain number of coaches must be produced in a certain time frame, which brings us around to the killer question.
The inescapable fact is that there is no Welsh person in charge of a team in Europe’s top three leagues. For a rugby-mad nation such as this, that’s a difficult pill to swallow.
So how long will it be before new Welsh coaches are nurtured and deemed to be of the required standard to start filling these roles?
“How long is a piece of string!” laughs Clements, highlighting the fact that individuals develop at different rates.
“It’s not a case of ‘one size fits all’ and what we’re trying to push is the idea of a more individual approach.
“You can’t fast-track coaching. It takes time because it’s a profession. It’s a craft.
“You learn through your experiences and sometimes you learn through your biggest mistakes.
“We need to afford every coach the opportunity to practice and get better.
“It would be really tough to put specific targets on it.
“There is an unpredictability in performance sports and coaching as a profession.”
So where do we go from here? It’s disingenuous not to recognise that Dai Young had, up until recently, held a head coaching role since 2003, that Phil Davies is in charge of Namibia, Lyn Jones in a post with Russia and Kingsley Jones with Canada.
And there are a plethora of Welshmen in assistant coaching roles all over the world.
But what about the next generation of Welsh head coaches? Where are they?
The conveyor belt has been under construction and, in truth, 18 months is probably not enough time for Clements’ programme to seriously begin baring fruit. A little more patience is likely to be required.
The plan is not to ensure head coaching roles are filled by Welsh coaches, but to ensure that there is a group of qualified Welsh coaches that demand consideration when opportunities arise.
“We want to really highlight the importance of great coaching and then it’s about developing a workforce that is suitably skilled to thrive on the professional scene,” concludes Clements.
“We’re never going to say that we want a full complement of Welsh coaches across the whole game (in Wales) because I don’t think that’s the correct stance to adopt.
“It’s about developing a pipeline of Welsh coaches that are ready to work in the professional game.
“When we started to take coaching a lot more seriously back in the 70s, the world came to Wales to learn how to do it.
“That’s another ambition that we should have. We want to be recognised for doing some sector-leading stuff within coaching.
“That’s what we’re trying to achieve.”