The community game, impressive Howley and why the power of four is vital for future
Gareth Davies is now well into his third year as chairman of the Welsh Rugby Union and it’s a job that remains as challenging as ever. Rugby correspondent met up with him this week to talk Wales, Rob Howley, Warren Gatland, the regions, the Pro12, change
Q: When you reflect on your time as chairman, how satisfied are you with how it’s gone in terms of the things you wanted to achieve? A: When I came in, the two things I knew we had to look at was the executive and the governance.
The first part was the change of the executive in terms of managing things in a more transparent and open way internally. We have developed those qualities externally as well in the way we deal with people.
In terms of the governance, Sport Wales did a review for us, examining the diversity and skill sets available within the Board, to see how we compared and marked against other sports. It didn’t make great reading and that was the trigger for the Board to say we need to look at things.
So we have tried to modernise and have created four new sub-boards, covering Commercial, Financial, Professional/Performance and the Community Game.
The big one for me is the community board. The main beneficiary of these changes will hopefully be the community game as more focus will be directed at this crucial part of our business in a forum dedicated only to the grassroots game. My experience to date is there has been little discussion around the community game at the main Board as there are always strategic issues on the agenda.
There’s going to be a clear focus now. This is a proper Board to look at the Community game and what we need to do with it.
It’s not a case of separation, but greater focus on certain areas. What we are trying to do is get more meaningful structures below, as opposed to just having the old committees.
So we have made progress, but there a lot of issues are still there. I would be fooling myself if I though otherwise. Q: Which issues are you thinking of primarily? A: The situation with the regions is tough. Not the relationship. Thankfully that’s good. But financially it’s a huge challenge. There is only so much money.
You read stuff on social media about there should be two regions or whatever. To be perfectly honest, we do pretty well, despite all the adverse criticism. We’ve got two teams in the top four of the Pro12 at present, which is very creditable. Q: What have you made of Wales’ Six Nations campaign? A: Look, first of all, I think it’s been the best Six Nations ever, in terms of the quality of games and the standard of play. That’s unquestionable, I think. The England game we should have won. We played good rugby. The first half in Scotland we weren’t in trouble. Then I thought it was a huge Test match against Ireland last Friday. So the guys have done pretty well in face of all the adversity and criticism.
There’s the old question about could we have developed a few more players, but we’ve got the summer to do that in a couple of Test matches.
Rob has coped really well with it. You wondered how he would fare against all the expectations, the scrutiny, the criticism but to be fair to him he’s been consistent. He is really hard working, he’s diligent, he’s organised, structured, all those qualities you need. I wondered beforehand if he would struggle under the scrutiny and the attention, but I must admit he has demonstrated firmness and confidence in what he’s doing and that’s come over to the players as well. So fair play to him, despite what’s been going on, he’s really come through. Q: There has been some criticism of the decision to allow Warren Gatland to spend a year away on Lions duty. Just to clarify the situation, did you have to let him go? A: Contractually I suppose we didn’t have to, but we had done it once anyway in 2013; that was the agreement. Martyn Phillips and I could have come in and said sorry, no compromises, you are with us. But if any job in world rugby came up tomorrow, Warren would be in the top three, so why would you want to endanger that relationship?
Plus, we have to start developing our own coaches, which is something we haven’t really paid much focus to. If not, when a coach leaves you will always end up against a wall, scouring the world, looking to pay big bucks for a coach, as opposed to is there a possibility of developing their own. We are trying to address that. Q: Are you fully expecting Warren Gatland to return to the Wales coaching job after the Lions tour? A: Yes. There is no suggestion otherwise whatsoever.
While he is engaged with the Lions now and not involved directly with preparing the Welsh team, he is still in touch with what’s going on elsewhere in the game with a view to post-Lions. Q: There has been plenty of speculation about the future of the Dragons and a potential WRU takeover. You’re a former chief executive of the region yourself, so what’s your view on rugby in Gwent moving forwards? A: It’s a quarter of our clubs, it’s got a great track record for producing players. Look at the U20s in recent years. So it’s a great breeding ground. We need to really strongly fight for professional rugby in Gwent. Q: What role does the Union have to play in ensuring that future? A: Well, you’ll have to wait and see!
We need four. Even with four, we struggle to bring players through
Q: You mentioned social media talk about possibly going down to two professional sides. Is the WRU committed to the four existing teams continuing? A: We need four. Even with four we sometimes struggle to bring players through. Look at some of