Out-of-date 60-cap rule is holding Wales back
THE time has come for the regions and the WRU to finally make their peace and find a solution that means the players, coaches, back room staff and fans can look forward with a degree of certainty. The hiatus last week about whether or not the Dragons lock Will Rowlands has been made an offer or not to stay in Wales was a mere sideshow – and one that WRU performance director Nigel Walker should have stayed out of.
If Rowlands can more than double his money by moving to Bath or Racing 92, then who can blame him. The bigger question, and one that is going to come more and more into the equation as time moves on, is can you afford to lose your best players to the 60-cap rule just because they want to provide for their family?
I was happy to stay at the Ospreys for the majority of my career before spending a couple of very enjoyable years in Japan. By then I’d achieved almost everything I wanted to do for club and county. Now it is slightly different. Players want to win titles and be involved with successful clubs, as well as play on the international stage.
Ask yourself the question, is there any real likelihood of one of the four Welsh regions winning the United Rugby Championship or Heineken Champions Cup at the moment? And what happens when the World Club Cup comes on stream – will any of the four Welsh regions merit a place in that?
The 60-cap rule may have served a purpose in the past, but it is fast getting past its sell-by date. It has been a mechanism to keep wages down and to keep players in Wales. With further cost cutting to come in the next few years, it would be immoral to stop Welsh players from earning their market value somewhere outside Wales if there is not enough cash to entice them to stay.
It means we will probably see some of our very best players playing their club rugby elsewhere, but then being able to come home to play for Wales. They might not get the same amount of preparation time within the national coaching set-up, but that never stopped the likes of Mike Phillips, Lee Byrne, Jamie Roberts, Dan Biggar, Jonathan Davies, Dan Lydiate, Ross Moriarty, Luke Charteris, Gethin Jenkins and Leigh Halfpenny giving their all for their country.
There were a number of English-based players in the Autumn Nations Series – Nick Tompkins, Tommy Reffell, Louis Rees-Zammit, Christ Tshiunza and Dafydd Jenkins – and the only reason they weren’t available to play Australia was because the game was outside the World Rugby window. Welsh rugby wanted to make the extra cash, along with the Wallabies, and they had to go back to their clubs.
The extra game made a profit for the WRU, but then had a knock-on impact for the regions, who had to travel to South Africa without their biggest players. Swings and roundabouts, give and take? Every time the regions seem to be the ones making the biggest sacrifice and more often than not their fans pay good money to watch sub-standard sides.
There are about 250 professional rugby players in Wales and anything up to 100 of them are out of contract this summer. Many may have to accept shorter-term deals on much reduced wages next year as the financial reality bites hard.
So, the debate around Rowlands, one of Wales’ best players in the past 18 months, is only a small part of a much bigger issue. It needs sorting!
I’m sure it will be one of the hot topics of conversation in a WRU boardroom that is now controlled by the new chairman, Ieuan Evans. No disrespect to his predecessor, who was an honest broker, the position of chair needs a figurehead like Ieuan.
He knows the rugby and cultural stuff inside out, and his reputation as a marvellous player and leader will earn him respect and time. But he will need to deliver on the hard decisions, many of which are currently piling up in his in-tray.
We’re likely to see action this week on the coaching front. I’m not sure Wayne Pivac will have been able to put a convincing enough case to warrant staying on having won only three out of 12 games this year. But who could take over from him is the bigger question.
Will Warren Gatland, right, be wooed by the RFU? Is there a suitable interim candidate to take Wales to the World
Cup? Is there a coach prepared to commit to an ageing Welsh team that seems to be stuck in the mud at present? It seems like everyone wants an immediate decision without considering the knock-on implications. The WRU were already in the proccess of scoping out candidates to take over from Pivac at the end of his contract after next year’s World Cup. Now they potentially have to find two solutions for the same year. The job of coaching Wales on the international stage has been, and I hope will continue to be, one of the most prestigious posts in the world game. My fear at the moment is that anyone looking at the recent record of the Wales U18 and U20 teams, the performances of the regions in their tournaments and this year’s international results, may well say thanks, but no thanks. Over to you...
“New WRU chair Ieuan Evans will need to deliver on the hard decisions which are piling up”