I’m confident Blues will move forwards says Dai
DAI YOUNG went from bust to boom at Wasps, seeing the club go from avoiding bankruptcy by minutes to signing some of the world’s leading players.
But, back at Cardiff Blues after a decade in England, the former Lions captain is in the position of having to make more out of less.
Wales may have won more Grand Slams in the Six Nations era than any of their rivals, but success in Europe has been confined to the two Challenge Cup finals won by the Blues, the first during Young’s previous stint as director of rugby, and all four regions made ignominious exits this month at the hands of Premiership opposition.
The Blues, Ospreys and Dragons all blew leads late on to crash out of the Challenge Cup while in the Champions Cup, a couple of weeks after Wales had won their sixth Six Nations title, the Scarlets were overwhelmed at home by Sale.
“I do not think it was a coincidence and it is not the first time it has happened in Europe,” said Young, who left the Blues for Wasps in 2011. “While there are a number of similarities from my first time here, one difference is that then every region had a backbone of four or five high quality non-Welsh players. Now the squads are made up essentially of homegrown players: whether that is a good thing or bad is a matter for debate, but what it means now that if some of your better players get injured, your strength in depth is not what it was.
“The days of the benefactors here have gone, but at least the Welsh Rugby Union are more involved than they were ten years ago and everyone is working hard together to make sure we can all compete at the business end of the season. The Blues have finished seventh in the league for a number of years and that needs to improve, but we have to be realistic.”
Young took a ten-month break after leaving Wasps in February last year and was appointed the Blues’ interim director of rugby in January before signing a two-year contract earlier this month. One of his first tasks was to find a new head coach after Dwayne Peel, who had signed a three-year deal, changed his mind and switched to the Scarlets with Worcester’s
Matt Sherratt replacing him.
“Dwayne had his reasons and you have to respect them,” said Young. “I would have relished working with him, but Matt is an excellent coach and it is a good outcome for us. I am really happy with the coaching group we have and I am thrilled to be back. I came back on an interim basis so I could see things for myself and the Blues could take a look at me. I wanted to make sure that there was a squad here with the appetite to improve and I’m confident we will move forward.
“It may not be at the rate everyone would like, but we have to face facts. Until the regions find extra funding, we are not going to be able to compete with the top teams in Europe on a regular basis. We will not have the same strength in depth on the bench and what we have to do is close the gap by looking at ways of improving what we are doing.”
It is 18 years since the WRU adopted the regional system and the move has still to find favour with supporters. Only the Ospreys can be argued to have embraced the system and from next season the Blues will be known as Cardiff in a bid to capture the allure of one of the game’s greatest club names.
“I came in on the tail-end of that decision,” said Young, who was at Cardiff in his playing days. “It was not one that was made lightly and it was felt it was the best way to move forward after a lot of work with fans and sponsors. It will not change our development pathway or our regional responsibilities.
“Given where we are coming from, it would be foolish for me to start talking about winning things. There will not be much recruitment because of the pandemic and it will be about improving the players as well as the environment.
“It’s about moving things forward and our initial targets have to be qualifying for the Champions Cup and making the play-offs. Reach the top four and you have a good chance of achieving things, although that may be a way off.”