Player flight could slam door on Welsh regions

ON RUGBY:The success of Wales at the World Cup and in winning the Grand Slam masks a provincial system that looks to be falling apart as the players take flight

PERCEPTION IS everything, or is it? Replenished by a new wave of exceptional young players, Wales have just won a third Grand Slam in eight years on foot of reaching the World Cup semi-finals, whereas an older Irish team won just two of five in the Six Nations after again failing to go beyond the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

Yet, scratch beneath the surface and Irish rugby is infinitely healthier. The provinces are vibrant, filling out their refurbished stadia and three of the four are competing strongly in both Europe and the league, while virtually all the frontline players are centrally contracted and based at home.

By contrast, the haemorrhaging of Welsh players to France and England is, if anything, gathering momentum as the regions struggle financially, in part after unsuccessful moves away from their traditional homes to new grounds Parc y Scarlets, Cardiff Stadium and the Liberty Stadium. The last remaining vestige of a Welsh citadel is, ironically, the Dragons’ decaying home at Rodney Parade.

Rugby may be the national sport in Wales but even in the midst of another Grand Slam campaign it was apparently quite a struggle to sell tickets for the Wales-Scotland match in the Millennium Stadium and the crowd figure for the Italy match looked incorrect – as it appeared there were about 60,000 there.

Even the scrum mangling Ireland suffered in Twickenham could happen to Wales too. The nightmare vista of an Irish team without Mike Ross was brutally underlined by the scrum carnage in Twickenham. But in Wales Adam Jones has long since been referred to as Mr Irreplaceable.

While Wales are well covered in most positions, no less than Ross with Ireland, tighthead remains one position where Wales are dependant on one man. Jones has been the cornerstone upon which their scrum is built, so much so that he has played in all but one of the 15 matches during the Slams of 2005, 2008 and 2012.

Jones’s recent decision to sign a new two-year deal with the Ospreys is a timely shaft of good news after the pain which the Ospreys have been through in the last 18 months. The one-time Galacticos have bid farewell to Mike Phillips, James Hook, Jerry Collins, Gavin Henson, Lee Byrne and Marty Holah, with Tommy Bowe, Huw Bennett and Nikki Walker set to follow through the exit door at the Liberty Stadium at the end of this season, while Shane Williams is retiring.

The region has also recently parted company with director of coaching Scott Johnson and long-serving coach Sean Holley amid a significant cost-cutting exercise.

The Cardiff Blues are now trimming their cloth to suit their measure, with Gethin Jenkins, Casey Laulala, Dan Parks, Rhys Thomas, Richie Rees and John Yapp all moving on at the end of the season, while Martyn Williams is expected to retire. It was also confirmed yesterday that Ben Blair is on his way to Agen next season.

Henson, of course, won’t even make it that far after being given the heave-ho yesterday for his antics on the flight home from Glasgow on Saturday morning.

Cardiff have a case of the Blues for far more profound reasons than the latest Henson sideshow, the disastrous 20-year deal to move to the City Stadium bringing in less revenue and less fans than the Arms Park, and with a £4 million debt their budget is reputedly being slashed next season.

The real worry for Cardiff is that the exodus might not stop there. The brilliant Alex Cuthbert, the latest jewel in their crown, is apparently being coveted by Toulon, with Toulouse also reportedly interested in Six Nations player of the championship Dan Lydiate, whose region, the Dragons, are already resigned to losing Luke Charteris and the Gloucester-bound Martyn Thomas.

If they should leave, there are also genuine concerns that captain Sam Warburton, Toby Faletau, Leigh Halfpenny, George North, Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies might follow in the next year or two. To lose virtually an entire generation of high quality international players for the prime of their careers would be a grievous blow to Welsh regional rugby.

Coupled with the double edged sword of Warren Gatland’s imminent appointment as Lions coach, which would mean his absence for a season, and the likelihood that the Welsh will backbone the Lions squad to Australia, then clearly the strain on Welsh rugby is going to be severe.

The Welsh Rugby Union are awaiting the imminent findings of an investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers into the finances of the Welsh game, which will lead to further discussions with the regions as to the best way forward. On foot of that, it is believed the WRU are considering whether to help the cash-strapped regions by subsidising what would in effect be dual contracts, and thereby giving them and the Welsh management more control of their leading players.

In defeats to the Dragons, Scarlets and Glasgow in recent weeks, the Blues have looked shapeless at times, undermined by errors, lacking in confidence and perhaps even commitment. They wouldn’t be human if they weren’t affected by the player drain and diminished financial clout of their employers.

But Leinster will be mindful of all that, for even without the injured Warburton, as their core of Welsh internationals reminded us in their Six Nations, they have a host of big game players and any team with Halfpenny, Cuthbert, Roberts (if fit), Laulala, Lloyd Williams, Jenkins, Bradley Davies, Xavier Rush and Martyn Williams is well capable of producing one last hurrah in a packed Aviva Stadium, where Halfpenny, Cuthbert, Roberts, Jenkins and Davies won in the first leg of their Grand Slam.

And they will assuredly view Saturday night’s game as a last hurrah, possibly not just for this vintage of Cardiff Blues, but – as many Welsh pundits fear – possibly for any Welsh region in the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup in the immediate future.

However, this is not good, not good at all. A Welsh flight of wild geese proportions to France and England, and with it the regions’ diminished powers, is not good for the European game and potentially, even less so for the RaboDirect Pro12.

To have a league dominated by three Irish provinces despite their frontliners not even playing half the games is not healthy from an Irish perspective either.

In any event, now out of league contention and drinking at the last chance saloon makes the Blues’ a dangerous animal for their trek to the Aviva on Saturday evening. It could also represent something of a watershed for Welsh regional rugby.