To another... how a good very quickly turned bad!
happens to be one of Wales’ best players.
But the WRU were just naive if they did not expect a significant backlash over this. The Webb angle was always going to dominate the narrative around their announcement. Did Webb know this new rule was coming in before he committed to Toulon? Here’s where, on Monday, there were two different versions.
Gatland said Webb and his agent ‘were aware this policy may be introduced’.
Webb’s agent Derwyn Jones countered that, having agreed to join Toulon on September 25 he was told in a meeting on October 5 with Gatland and the WRU about a separate issue that a new selection policy ‘may’ be in the pipeline.
So, Jones’ timeline indicates that he and Webb weren’t armed with the detail they needed at a time when the scrum-half could have made a more informed, and potentially different, choice. The Union clearly dispute this. Would Webb have gone if he’d known categorically it would mean the end of his Wales career? Only he can answer that. And even he may not be able to!
Webb’s head must be in a right old spin at present, but foregoing the chance to represent your country is a massive thing for any player.
He is right at the peak of his powers right now and, while he is no youngster with his 29th birthday coming up in December, he could have had four more years at least in Wales colours.
That said, the salary he could earn at Toulon could make a real difference to his and his family’s security and that has to be a major consideration. That and all the other obvious attractions of joining a club of that stature. What does this mean in terms of Webb playing for Wales for the rest of this season? A massive judgement call will have to made by Gatland here.
Does he utilise a great player right up until the deadline or does he take the view that, as Webb cannot play at the next World Cup, there is no point involving him from now on?
Does Gatland now make the Scarlets’ Gareth Davies his first choice and hand opportunities to the likes of Aled Davies and Tomos Williams?
Put it this way, if Webb is frozen out and Wales produce their usual autumn series rubbish then we will have another PR disaster on our hands.
Frankly it would be a sad and unprecedented situation and you can see Webb being made something of a martyr in the eyes of the Welsh public.
Then again, what is the point of picking someone who in a few months’ time will be unavailable for three years?
If that stance prevails then, leaving aside all the politics, Wales are losing one of their talismen, someone who has lifted them so often by quickening the tempo, spearing through a gap or claiming a vital try. They can ill afford it. How will the Webb situation go down with the rest of the Wales squad? Privately, you wouldn’t be surprised if there was a fair bit of resentment about Webb’s circumstances.
Players are a protective and loyal bunch and Webb’s teammates will feel deeply for him if his Test career is over through little more than unfortunate timing.
They are professional enough to keep calm and carry on, but if discontent simmers under the surface it will soon reveal itself in the standard of displays on the pitch. It always does. What does this mean for other players, in particular Ross Moriarty? Moriarty was mentioned in dispatches on Monday as someone who is out of contract at Gloucester at the end of this season and who could potentially fall foul of the new policy in the same way Webb has done, with only 17 caps to his name.
The equation is now simple for one of the most promising forwards in the world game: either come back to Wales or don’t play for Wales.
You can either see that as good for the Welsh game or unfair on Moriarty, but from now on it is what it is.
Others will be affected in due course, people like Thomas Young at Wasps, Owen Williams at Gloucester and Exeter prop Tomos Francis.
They will all soon enough be faced with a choice – play for a region or don’t play for Wales. And home-based players with Wales aspirations may now have second thoughts about heading for foreign fields. What about the potentially farcical situation surrounding Dan Biggar? The Wales fly-half is off to Northampton for next season. His current cap tally is 56. Now assuming everything goes to plan Biggar will be over the 60 threshold with room to spare by the time he heads to the Saints.
But, heaven forbid, what if he were to pick up a nasty injury in the coming weeks that ruled him out for most of the rest of the season?
Gatland said yesterday, after being directly asked by WalesOnline, that it would simply be tough luck on the player, that there would be no room for manoeuvre.
So, how about this for a scenario for the start of next season .... Wales unable to pick Rhys Webb and Dan Biggar! Never mind, this is for the greater good after all. And finally, is this new policy in essence good for the Welsh game? From a long-term perspective, yes.
It does make the situation far more straightforward, even though the case of Webb heaped a temporary dollop of complexity on everything.
Crucially it strikes a far better balance between protecting the interests of the Welsh regional game and allowing players to pursue the financial and lifestyle rewards of moves elsewhere.
It’s right, too, that players will need to have a track record of lengthy service domestically and internationally before earning the right to step away from Wales yet still wear the red jersey.
Wales cannot be strong unless the four regions are also strong, and this policy should mean more of our top players playing here for longer.
There will be those hard-liners who argue this should have gone further with the introduction of an English and Irish-style ‘stay in Wales to play for Wales’ policy.
But there simply isn’t the money in the Welsh game to make that feasible. End of. So, this is the next best thing. And let’s face it, anything’s better than the Dead Sea Scrolls which passed for the old arrangement.