Bottom line is Warren needs Rhys in his side
WHAT a week it has been for Welsh rugby and what a horrible mess we find ourselves in at the end of it.
In all my time involved in the game I’m not sure I can remember seven days like it. Now the dust is beginning to settle it looks like we’re in a truly dire situation where some of the nation’s top players will have to be cut from national selection. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Before we go into detail on Rhys Webb, I must say I can see why the Welsh Rugby Union have gone the way of the Wallabies and introduced the new 60-cap rule on those internationals playing their rugby abroad.
The Union have admitted they needed to change their policy on overseas players and generally, I think it’s a good move. In the future it will help keep the best young talent in Wales – so long as they retain international ambitions – and for that I take my hat off to those involved in the process. That’s only one part of the story though – which brings us to Rhys.
We all know by now that for the start of next season – when he’s playing with Toulon – Rhys won’t be available to turn out for Wales. In my book, that’s simply not right.
I’m very, very friendly with Rhys. I’ve seen him a fair bit recently and we’ve been on a few trips with our respective families. All he wants is to play for Wales and his move to Toulon was made with good intentions at heart. Rhys has had a lot of injuries and he sees a contract in France as a way of guaranteeing the long-term financial security of his family.
At the end of the day, rugby players are like any other people. They have jobs and if you were offered more money at a top company with the potential to look after your wife and children for life, you’d probably take it too. That’s just a fact of life, whatever you do as a profession.
I don’t think anyone can blame Rhys in that regard because he’s been a superb servant to Welsh rugby and the Ospreys. Now comes the nitty-gritty.
I can’t believe Rhys would have signed for Toulon without knowing the full details of the WRU’s new selection policy. If he was fully aware moving to France would have ended his Wales career, I’m almost certain Rhys wouldn’t have done it. So, who’s to blame?
This is the crux of the matter. Rhys says the implications of his Toulon move weren’t made totally explicit to him by the WRU and the Union seem to be insinuating the exact opposite.
It’s all a bit of a shambles and someone, somewhere is to blame. Time will tell and I’m sure it will all come out in the wash, but it will be interesting to see who made the mistake because it’s clear one has happened somewhere along the line. It’s Welsh rugby at it’s best that on one of the biggest decisions to have been made in years, the communication has been about as clear as mud.
Rhys, of course, is the man to pay the price. A lot of people have asked me what happens now, and the honest answer to that is we now find ourselves in a very tricky situation.
It’s all a massive shame and I hope it can get sorted one way or another because the timing between the two announcements has just been absolutely awful. It makes the whole system of Welsh rugby look very amateurish.
It’s vitally important to stress this point: I’m convinced Rhys wouldn’t have put his Wales place in jeopardy by joining Toulon if he’d known the full consequences of signing such a deal. There was only a week or so between the announcements of Rhys’ move and the change in WRU policy. I know for a fact that the situation could have been handled a lot better.
I’ve been inundated with messages from people asking for my thoughts on the subject and on something like this, I always look at things from the players’ perspective. As a former international, I think that’s all I can do.
I played for Wales for more than a decade and that has given me a good indication of how things like this work. Now I’m retired, it’s slightly different but the brutal truth is that as a nation, we simply can’t do without a player of Rhys’ ability moving forwards.
Policies like the one introduced by the WRU have worked in places like New Zealand. The All Blacks have allowed Ma’a Nonu, Conrad Smith and Dan Carter to go and play in France and have continued to have success without them at the highest level. In Wales, it’s different.
We simply don’t have the strength in depth to cope with the best talent leaving and not being available for selection by Warren Gatland. On the face of it, we’re now in a position where fans will not see him for the Ospreys or Wales next season.
The phrase cutting your nose off to spite your face springs to mind.
All of this has happened very, very quickly and I do still hold out some hope the situation can change. I haven’t spoken to Rhys this week, but I did message him when he signed for Toulon.
I told him that I had the option to join them a few years back but never took it and that he should be proud of making the move to such a huge club.
At the time I truly believed it wouldn’t influence his chances of playing for Wales. Oh, how wrong I was!
I know some people are saying Rhys should go back on his Toulon deal, but I think that would be very tough for him to do and he’s said as much.
What needs to happen now is for all the parties to get around the table and talk this out. Warren, the WRU and the Ospreys need to sit down with Rhys and his representatives to discuss things and see what happens. Ultimately, there might be no change but at the very least all the parties involved can move forward with a sense of clarity. Right now, that doesn’t exist.
Warren announces his squad for the November Tests this week and I’ve seen some people questioning whether Rhys should be involved if he isn’t going to be available for Wales long term. What nonsense. As a coach you pick the best players available to you at the time and Warren will know that. Rhys will start November as Wales’ firstchoice scrum-half and on the back of all this, it really wouldn’t surprise me if he produces the goods this autumn against the Southern Hemisphere giants.
He’s always been a man to deliver on the big occasion and Rhys will step up to the plate once again when it matters most. It could be one of the last chances he gets to play for his country and knowing how much that means to him, Rhys will want to go out with a bang if that proves to be the case.
Deep down, though, I’m still hoping common sense will prevail and Rhys can have a future with Wales. It’s a complex situation, but the bottom line is we simply can’t do without him.
“I’m still hoping common sense will prevail and that Webb can still have a future with Wales”