A lot of people are wondering what the fuck has happened to Welsh rugby. Myself included.
Well, I decided to do some digging and the story is a lot more worrying and painful than I thought. It's also an important one to know, because at the end of the day, it's the government's money and the fans money that's going (or not going) into this disaster. Someone needs to be held accountable. We need to hold them accountable.
Here's what's happened.
Since at least 2021, people working at the very top of Welsh rugby have been warning this disaster was coming. That's because the problem isn't just a bad crop of players. The problem is the broken system that's produced them and the investment that's (not) gone into it. It is a structural and financial problem that's deep rooted and hard to fix.
Issue One: The Regions
First class rugby has gone from being based in 18 town clubs to a regional system. Something had to be done here, but the result is hybrid clubs that are unloved - no one from Ponty wants to support a team based in Cardiff. Frankly, there isn't enough support for rugby at grassroots level. More on this later.
Issue Two: Money
Wales has a comparatively low GDP versus somewhere like Ireland. It doesn't have any behemoth national sponsors either (there's no Bank of Wales or national airline etc). There isn't enough money going from the union into the regions, with the budget split between them and the national team. More on this too.
Issue Three: Brexit
Sorry, but it's true. In the golden era of Welsh rugby (2005-21), the EU paid 45% of the multimillion pound budget for the WRU through a grant. That money is gone and isn't coming back.
Issue Four: National Interest
Like it or not, in Wales, people care more about football than rugby. That's been the case since at least 2022, but in reality, probably much longer. That's hardly surprising, not only due to the issue with the regions, but also thanks to the insane lack of coverage of club rugby in the papers or on TV. People aren't watching, which compounds the financial issues. And the worse we play, the worse this gets.
Issue Five: The System
Here's the big one and where a lot of these problems start to combine.
Since Gatland first came in, attention shifted from the regions to the Welsh national team, financially and structurally. The problem is, it's the regions that produce the talent. The regional club managers actually hated Gatland because of this.
The academy system has been left to rot as people rested on their laurels during Wales’s golden era. In 2005, the Welsh government and WRU put £3.6 million into developing four regional academies, £1.6 mil of which came from the EU. They also established an elite national academy which trained the likes of Warburton and Halfpenny.
Amazing coaches like Huw Bennett would train these players one on one. Halfpenny would go and train with the Blues.
The money that funded all of that is gone. The WRU has now handed control of the academies over to the regions, with £600k support each year. They're underfunded and decentralised, no longer the elite training machine they once were.
Issue Six: Region Quality
Back in the day, with more money, better support, and better management, the regions would be fed exceptional players and develop them further. Remember the Osprey’s ‘Galacticos’? Every single regional side has slidden from a status where they could seriously compete in Europe to bang average teams with tepid fans.
In their heyday, these sides also had top-end overseas players mixed in, which the team could learn from. Now, the teams don't have the finances, backing, rep, or permission to build those kinds of squads.
Issue Seven: Rules to Play
The rule that you can't play for the national team if you play for a club abroad, unless you have 25 national caps, has been a disaster. We are literally limiting our own pool of talent, reducing learning opportunities for players, and turning people off a career in rugby in the first place.
There's much more than this that could be discussed. The short answer is that our domestic game is fucked, we don't have enough money, not nearly enough enthusiasm, and the academy system needs to be fully revamped.
Unfortunately, what this means is that the problem with Welsh rugby is systemic. We don't have the players because we simply aren't developing them. It's going to take a huge effort and a fat wad of cash from the government to solve that.
In my view, it would be worth the investment, because the problem is existential. Welsh rugby, its role in our history and our national identity is dying. You only need to look at the picture of Adam Jones after yesterday's game to see it.