2022 has been an action-packed year for Welsh rugby with the women's game taking giant steps forward and Warren Gatland returning as head coach of the men's team.
With the year drawing to a close, WalesOnline looks forward to what could be in store for Welsh rugby in 2023:
Warren Gatland's backroom team
With the Six Nations fast approaching, Gatland will have to assemble a group of assistant coaches he feels he can work with as a matter of urgency.
Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Steve Phillips has already confirmed money will be made available for Gatland to shape his coaching team the way he wants. The New Zealander will have to decide whether to stick with what he has inherited from Wayne Pivac or bring in his own men. His former righthand man Rob Howley, double Grand Slam winner Jonathan Thomas, Scotland defence guru Steve Tandy, and Leinster forwards coach Robin McBryde have all been linked to various roles with Wales. Planning for the Six Nations has already began so expect this to be the first major announcement of the new year.
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Gatland's Six Nations squad and big omissions
Gatland will announce his Six Nations squad in January and expect the New Zealander to be ruthless. The former Chiefs coach has already said he will have to consider the age profile of the squad with a large chunk of players on the wrong side of 30. Gatland will be aware there is little time to blood new players before next autumn's Rugby World Cup in France but nevertheless some big changes will have to take place if he is to turn around Wales' fortunes. It is not inconceivable Gatland will omit the odd big-name player to put his stamp on the squad while the likes of Ospreys lock Rhys Davies, Cardiff openside Thomas Young and young centre Mason Grady could enter the mix.
More professional contracts for Wales Women
2022 began with the Welsh Rugby Union's performance director Nigel Walker awarding 12 players full-time professional contracts in what was a historic step forward for women's rugby in Wales. Around a dozen more soon became semi-pro and Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham had pretty much a fully professional squad of 30-plus players to work with from July, in preparation for the World Cup in which Wales reached the quarter-finals.
Former Wales wing Walker has done an impressive job in providing the resource to professionalise the women's game, and is hell bent on improving it even further. In January 2023, the WRU are expected to announce that 30-plus players will be on full-time professional contracts, a big uplift on the same time last year. As a result Walker will be keen to see Wales Women improve yet again in the Six Nations, with Ireland Women and Scotland Women also moving to contracts too in a bid to catch up with the likes of England, France and Italy.
A new deal signed - at last
The WRU and its four professional sides have been at each other's throats for well over a year. There is currently a freeze on offering new contracts to players, although there will soon be conditional contracts on the table, meaning some of Wales' star players are in danger of leaving for clubs in England or overseas. Both parties have verbally agreed a six-year funding framework and the hope is a heads of terms agreement can be signed by the end of the year at the latest. But until a deal is fully signed it can fall through, as was the case when the Ospreys' now infamous merger with the Scarlets blew apart at the final moment.
The reality is neither side will be fully happy with the deal but they simply have to come to an agreement for the sake of Welsh rugby as a whole. Expect some form of peace treaty to be signed early in the new year.
A relaxation or amendment of the 60-cap rule
Gatland has a big problem on his hands and faces a very difficult balancing act. In his first in-person press conference since returning as head coach, the Kiwi was adamant he wanted the majority of his squad playing at one of the four regions, citing the extra preparation time and player availability as the main driving factor behind his rationale. But by the same token he will want all of Wales' top talent at his disposal for next autumn's Rugby World Cup.
Star second-row Will Rowlands has signed for Racing 92 while WalesOnline understands other top end Welsh players are in negotiations with English and French clubs. Under the current 60-cap rule, Rowlands and any other player with fewer than 60 caps would be ineligible to represent Wales next year in France if playing club rugby outside Wales. In order for this to change the Professional Rugby Board would have to vote in favour of granting Rowlands special dispensation or lowering the number of caps to say 50 or 40. It's very easy to see Gatland clashing with the PRB over this.
Wales to reach the Rugby World Cup semi-finals
So, they could just as easily get knocked out at the pool stages given their recent troubles but hear me out on this one. Wales might be ranked ninth in the world as it currently stands but when the draw was made in 2020 they were among the top seeds. As a result they have fallen on what most critics would agree is the right side of the draw with Australia, Fiji, Georgia, and Portugal in their pool. Of course, they lost to two of those nations as recently as November but with Gatland now at the helm they will be more confident of scraping through their pool. Should they make the quarter-final, Argentina or England are likely to await them, and while both teams would provide a stern challenge they are also eminently beatable. It will be even tougher for Gatland to turn around Wales this time given the state of the regional game and the age profile of his squad but he has a knack of getting his sides to peak at the right time.
A new Wales head coach?
There is a clause in Gatland's contract that stipulates should Wales get knocked out at the pool stages of the Rugby World Cup, the WRU can part ways with him. But equally the prospect of Gatland taking Wales through to the 2027 World Cup in Australia has been seriously discussed. Should this happen he is likely to assume the role of director of rugby with a young Welsh head coach underneath him. Scotland defence coach Steve Tandy has been mentioned in dispatches as an option, and Gatland is thought to hold the former Ospreys boss in high regard having taken him to South Africa as part of his coaching team for the 2021 British and Irish Lions tour. Whatever happens at next year's World Cup, change may well be afoot at the end of the year.
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