Tandy’s new deal may raise eyebrows but he merits chance to shine

THERE is a page on the Ospreys website devoted to explaining the organisation’s vision. Nothing contained in it suggests anyone at the Liberty Stadium is trying to reinvent the wheel.

Sustainable success on and off the field is held up as the prime goal, and you’d imagine the Ospreys are joined in their pursuit of that by every other rugby set-up in the UK, from Saracens to the Rose and Crown.

Interestingly though, there is then listed a set of behaviours expected of everybody, from the chairman to the match-day programme sellers.

‘Pursue excellence’ is one exhortation. ‘No bulls**t’, rather amusingly, is another. Again, these are presumably things their rivals aspire to as well, but the fact the Ospreys have taken the trouble to spell it all out online is an indication of how important culture and legacy building has always been to their day-to-day operation.

It is this section of ospreysrugby. com that probably provides the biggest clue as to why, last week, chairman Roger Blyth saw fit to announce the retention of Steve Tandy as head coach, not until the end of this coming campaign but until 2020.

By any standards – to publicly confirm that degree of confidence in the head coach of a team was extraordinary. It’s nothing new to hear of people being handed three-year contracts, but the Ospreys appeared to be indicating Tandy will be in charge until the start of the next decade come what may.

Is this blind faith or 2020 vision on the part of his paymasters?

Well, Tandy is a Welsh rugby figure who deserves respect. He also comes across as a perfectly clubbable sort of fellow who reciprocates that respect to everyone he works with unless they give him a reason to do otherwise.

But the former Neath flanker was supposed to be entering the start of the new Guinness PRO14 next month as a boss under pressure after the Ospreys’ almost inexplicable loss of form when it mattered most last season.

They looked a great bet to go all the way in the European Challenge Cup after finishing their pool with a maximum points haul from six wins out of six. But then they were mugged at home to Stade Francais in the quarter-final.

And what looked like being a stroll to the PRO12 play-offs became a fraught quest to cling onto fourth place before they were brushed aside by Munster at Thomond Park in their semi-final.

The reaction from the boardroom? You’ve got another three years. Guaranteed.

In football we all know what tends to follow the dreaded vote of confidence. In rugby, particularly Welsh rugby, it often seems far harder to lose a coaching job than to get one in the first place.

Critics of the Ospreys’ decision have claimed, not without justification, that it’s all a bit too comfortable. Unaccountable even. But go back to that vision statement on the Region’s website and one of the first sentences you will see is about ‘development from within’.

From day one of their existence the Ospreys have backed up those words with deeds when it comes to coaching personnel, showing loyalty and patience when others have demanded change.

Lyn Jones was there for their first five seasons after the 2003 formation, his assistant Sean Holley stayed almost a decade.

Jonathan Humphreys enjoyed a seven-season stint as forwards coach and now Tandy, who took charge in February 2012, will have been in the hotseat for seven and a half seasons if he does indeed go through to 2020.

The Ospreys’ detractors insist they’ve underachieved in the context of their 14-year history. If there is any substance in that it’s not been down to chopping and changing those in charge of team affairs.

Has Tandy been a success thus far? It’s a subjective issue.

The Ospreys won the Guinness PRO12 in 2012 just two and a half months into his tenure. But while opinion will therefore be divided as to how responsible he was for the success, it is worth noting that Tandy engineered eight wins from his team’s last 10 games that term, including the memorable 31-30 victory against Leinster in Dublin in the Grand Final.

Nothing since though. The package Tandy offers has not spawned the prizes the Ospreys hoped for yet, but he bleeds the Region and those in charge believe he has earned the leeway he has been offered. The Ospreys hierarchy believe that, in the next three years, he will only grow as a leader and possibly wrestle back from the Scarlets the unofficial tag of being Wales’ No.1. We’ll see.