The Welsh Rugby Union have insisted they remain committed to their plan that will take the senior men’s team through to the 2023 Rugby World Cup, despite the recent Six Nations disaster.
Wales concluded the 2022 tournament by losing at home to Italy for the first time in history, resigning them to a fifth-placed finish in the table and failing to defend their title. It was a defeat that put head coach Wayne Pivac under significant pressure 18 months out from the World Cup amid calls for his job.
Asked whether he was confident in Pivac’s ability to take Wales through to the World Cup, WRU CEO Steve Phillips said: “We are all in this together. It is a case of plotting the journey, we have looked back at it, it’s a case of making sure the plan is still right.
READ MORE: How to save Welsh rugby - the difficult solutions that need to be explored
“If there are deviations do we deviate now or do we deviate later? My job is more about making sure Wayne, Nigel [Walker] and the team have the right environment to give them the best opportunity for success.
“Clearly everybody is disappointed with the end result. We have debriefed a number of things, I won’t go into the relevant details of it. Wayne and I have sat down, Nigel and I have sat down, Wayne and Nigel have sat down and it’s ongoing. The learnings are important and we are not going to get overly distracted by an unwelcome loss. We track more about the process towards the World Cup, take away the learnings and try to make sure we are still on the right journey.”
Phillips went on to explain that his view was reaching the World Cup quarter-finals was the minimum Wales should be expecting. His comments come after under-fire Pivac insisted everyone would forget about the defeat to Italy if his side made it to the knockout stages of next year’s global gathering.
Phillips said: “I would be of the view that given Wales’ standing, and I realise it is out of our hands with the draw and who we play etc, but the quarter final would be our minimum expectation.”
The defeat to Italy came at a time when the rest of the professional game in Wales was struggling. The pro teams, albeit without their international stars, lost all eight of their matches in South Africa recently, with a combined scoreline reading 351-106 in favour of the hosts. Domestically, only the Scarlets harbour any real hopes of making the United Rugby Championship play-offs and no region made it to the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup, caveated by the significant Covid challenges Cardiff and the Scarlets faced.
But it all feeds a gloomy sense that a rot has set into the Welsh game, the effects of which are beginning to be felt at national level. That, however, is something WRU Performance Director Nigel Walker refutes as premature.
He said: “I know [Wales lost to Italy] but that doesn’t mean the rot has set in. Any team can lose a game, it can happen. I think there needs to be a sense of perspective. Did we want to lose to Italy? No we bloody didn’t! It’s a low point, there’s no two ways about it but it doesn’t mean everything is wrong within Welsh rugby because we lost to Italy.
“We are in this together. If the national side loses Geraint [John, Community Director] feels it, Steve [Phillips] feels it, and everybody in the organisation feels it.
“We don’t want to lose against Italy. The important thing is are we doing the things day in, day out, week in, week out which will remove the risk of that happening again? That’s what we are working on.
“That’s what my conversations with Wayne are all about. Wayne has been brilliant about it. Wayne is under pressure, of course he is under pressure because we didn’t want to lose to Italy. Yes it hurts, and we want to do everything possible to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“The important thing is that we are putting in place things that we are doing every day, every match week, post match week, everything that we are supposed to do in a performance environment to make sure you reduce the chances of it happening again.”
Typically, in successful sporting nations there is the presence of a thriving domestic game and even a strong semi-pro tier. Having stronger regions would likely improve the performance of the national side, which is something the WRU admit they recognise.
Much of the discourse in the wake of the Italy defeat has been dominated by a plan to put the pro game in Wales back on the right track. Regional bosses have insisted they haven’t heard of one that has been drawn up, however the WRU say that conversations are taking place with the Professional Rugby Board – which all four pro teams have a representative on – to find the sort of alignment that would give teams a better chance of success at all levels.
With talks ongoing, though, details remain thin on the ground.
When it was put to Walker that having strong regions would help prevent defeats to the likes of Italy, he said: “You aren’t going to get me arguing against that, of course it is. Conversations are taking place. They haven’t been publicised but they have been taking place because the Union and the regions need to work together collaboratively on this to find a solution which guarantees Welsh success but also gives the regions a chance to be successful.
“The Union can’t decide that on their own. We can’t talk about those conversations because it would be a silly thing to do, but we are confident we will find a solution which will guarantee success for Wales at all levels.”
Pressed for details on what the plan looks like, Phillips said: “That falls under the remit of PRB. We have just appointed Malcolm Wall and he is going to be a very good appointment and very engaged already.
“We meet regularly. It would be inappropriate to give you the details of that until the conversations are concluded. What I can say is the conversations are wide reaching and covering all the major things you want to ask me and are done in the right spirit It’s all about doing the best for Welsh rugby. We want the national team and regional teams to do well but we are not there at this point.
“It is about trying to raise all the boats to get back on track. It would be inappropriate to share [plans] with you until they are further advanced. Once the PRB concludes those discussions they are shared with the WRU board. Once we have something to share we will be more than happy.
“Is there a recognition we need to get better, how do we avoid losing to Italy again, can we get more wins for the regions? We are looking at all that.”
Phillips went on to suggest that the length of the strategic plan, the level of funding it would involve and whether it would be published were all subject to PRB discussions. This comes against the backdrop of claims from the likes of Cardiff Director of Rugby Dai Young and Dragons boss Dean Ryan that feedback which they were asked for by the WRU but said they didn’t hear anything back.
They have also complained that they are as yet unaware of their budgets for next season. Phillips pointed to the figure of £23.5 million which was outlined last year as the payment that will be divided up among the four regions ahead of next season and explained it was unlikely to change unless there were more government lockdowns or crowd restrictions.
“We said this a year ago, we are committed to spending £23.5 million for next year. and the PRB are aware of that,” he insisted. “The way it works is there is conditional language in there and that’s more to deal with whether we get government lockdowns.”
There appears to be a synergy between the noises being made by the WRU and what regional sources have indicated to WalesOnline. Broadly speaking, there seems to be like-minded thinking on what needs to happen, which is encouraging. But history tells us that putting plans into action is usually where stumbling blocks appear, when the semantics are hammered out.
Even still, there was a word of caution that any strategic plan that is implemented would not produce short term results and that a longer-term approach to success will have to be stomached.
“On the basis that we haven’t landed on something yet – I’ve got to caveat it that way – but I think we probably need to be patient for it to come through and deliver,” Phillips said.
“Are we going to come up with a magic wand and hey presto we’re going to become the All Blacks? Probably not. Wherever we end up, I think there will be a burn on it. We’re always mindful of World Cup cycles, like everybody else.”
Walker added: “What I would say from a performance point of view is that you can make changes today but it doesn’t guarantee success tomorrow or next month. It takes a while. Nobody has linear progress.
“You make the right changes, you pull the right lever which you think will bring the right outcome and then you measure the outcome. Anybody who thinks you can get success or improve performance in three months, six months or nine months doesn’t know anything about performance. It’s going to take a while.”
One potential stumbling block is the governance structure of the WRU. Any decision made would have to be passed by the WRU board, which is dominated by representatives of the community clubs. Though, in truth, they are unlikely to oppose things which do not directly impact them in the pro game.
Phillips insisted he would ‘never have governance getting in the way of success’, adding: "If we can align in PRB what we think is a good structure or a good strategy, I don’t really see which bit of our governance is going to get in the way."
Concluding, Community Director Geraint John said: “Right now we know the direction but it would be wrong to go into the details of where we are. Bringing the people along on the journey right now – I’m talking about those tough decisions – is what is taking place, whichever way it is.”
So it seems there is plenty of talk taking place behind the scenes but action is what will soon be required. Getting this plan right is crucial and Welsh rugby can ill-afford for it to go wrong with the game already teetering on the verge of a crisis.
There is a delicate balance to be struck between giving it the appropriate amount of attention and taking too long.
