From one tangled Webb news day for Welsh rugby
THE scrapping of a player selection policy so convoluted it could have provided the basis for a university law module should have meant a good news day to start off the week for the Welsh Rugby Union. But it didn’t take long to turn bad. On the face of it, the announcement of a much-needed and well overdue simplification of tangled legislation, some of which remained under wraps, promised much.
Attempts at simplification in Welsh rugby have, however, often led to increased complication. This was a prime example.
The detail of the new criteria – the most relevant of which is that players can now play wherever they like and still represent Wales so long as they have 60 caps – was drowned by the furore over Rhys Webb.
The scrum-half, having committed to Toulon just weeks ago, can’t now play for Wales from next season assuming his move to French rugby goes through as planned.
It’s an extraordinary situation, and there remain several unanswered questions .... Why exactly can’t Webb play for Wales after this season? It’s because he has just agreed a deal to move to Toulon and, with only 28 caps to his name, he is well short of the threshold required to qualify under the terms of the new selection policy. He’s basically between a rock and a hard place because the status of players in all this is based upon their current playing circumstances rather than upon contracts already signed for next season. It depends who you believe. One of the reasons Monday was such a PR disaster for the WRU was that you had Warren Gatland saying one thing, and Webb and his agent Derwyn Jones another. Gatland insisted Webb has only signed a ‘letter of agreement’ and not a contract, implying in the process that he could still opt to stay in Wales if he wished.
But the message from Jones was categoric – my man’s already signed.
What precisely the Ospreys player has actually signed only he knows, but the Webb camp clearly believe there is now no turning back.
Outspoken Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal has made his club’s position clear as well; Webb has a contract with the former European champions and to release him from it will require a fee. Presumably a hefty one.
Whatever, all this is bound up in legal and documentary detail, something that is impossible to decipher from the outside. It appears, judging especially by Boudjellal’s comments, that if Webb really wanted to do a U-turn then he could. But then again his stance may now harden. Webb, understandably, feels aggrieved that his loyalty to the Welsh game since he was a teenager hasn’t counted for more. Nobody could blame him for feeling victimised. To back out of moving to Toulon now could cost him around £750,000 over three years when you consider what he is believed to be set to earn there (£600,000) and what he would likely pull in from a national dual contract plus Wales match fees if he stayed (£350,000 approx).
But he would also lose the opportunity of a great life experience and the chance of glory at the highest level of club rugby, namely the Champions Cup.
Yes, as things stand, he will miss the 2019 World Cup, but he sat out the 2015 tournament because of injury and who’s to stay that wouldn’t happen again?
Webb is a great player who could easily get well over 50 caps, but he’s had some good times on the international scene already and become a Test Lion as well.
So, he may consider the international box ticked. Why didn’t the WRU protect players who had already committed to new deals from this new restriction, thus taking the Webb problem out of the equation? The WRU’s stance is that for too long the old selection policy lacked any kind of bite and offered players too many outs via small print.
Therefore, the governing body did not want to introduce new legislation which immediately appeared to be offering extended leeway to a partiicular individual.
As much as Gatland does not want to lose Webb’s services, the WRU are prepared to see him sacrificed for the greater good.
This 60-cap policy, they say, is for the good of the players, the Wales team as a whole and the regions, and a balance must be struck.
And as WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips said, there’s always someone in these situations who falls the wrong side of the line. Unfortunately, that