Wales forced to delay announcement of squad

Wales were due to name their squad for next month's five-match tour of South Africa yesterday but committee-room wrangles have forced the Welsh Rugby Union to delay an announcement until next week.

Wales have two small problems: they do not have a national coach following Kevin Bowring's departure last week and few players are showing any enthusiasm for the three-week tour which will conclude with a Test against the Springboks in Pretoria on June 27th.

They were due to be led by a caretaker coach in South Africa while the WRU looked for a full-time replacement for Bowring, but Mike Ruddock, the Leinster director of rugby who was part of Wales's coaching staff in the 1995 World Cup when he was with Swansea, has emerged as the favourite to succeed Bowring.

The squad which was due to be announced was largely the one which had been picked by Bowring before he and the WRU parted company by mutual consent. The union's technical committee was last night considering a call to appoint the 37-year-old Ruddock on a full-time contract after days of negotiations.

If appointed, he would be allowed to choose his own squad, but the WRU needs to agree a compensation package with Leinster who would not stand in his way.

Any Welsh squad is likely to be tinged with the white of Swansea who tomorrow will be crowned the Welsh Premier Division champions. Ruddock coached the side for six seasons from 1991, winning the league twice and the Welsh Cup once.

Ruddock's assistant in South Africa would probably be the Pontypridd coach Dennis John, though his long-term deputy is likely to be a New Zealander, with the WRU considering the pedigree of a number of Super 12 and provincial coaches there.

It was only a week ago that the WRU said it was prepared to pay a world record salary for a coach to secure the best available successor to Bowring, but a number of the union's general committee believe that the position should be filled by a Welshman and Ruddock has the best qualifications by a long way.

Next weekend's Swalec Cup final between Llanelli and Ebbw Vale at Ashton Gate looks like being a 20,000 sell-out. More than 16,000 of the tickets have already been sold.

Meanwhile, The Australia coach Rod Macqueen yesterday called for an end to criticism of England's decision to send a weakened team on their forthcoming tour of the Southern Hemisphere.

Macqueen said in Sydney that he feared the attack by the Australian Rugby Union was likely to rebound on his players when they meet England in Brisbane on June 6th. "I hope we don't say too much more," Macqueen said. "The more we denigrate them the harder they're going to be."

Officials of the ARU were infuriated when England announced a 37-man squad containing 17 uncapped players and missing at least a dozen leading names.

Macqueen said he expected the furore would serve to motivate the tourists for the one-off Test and added: "I'm always scared of a lot of hungry young kids coming out who have great motivation to win."

The Bristol half-backs Robert Jones and Paul Burke will return for the first leg of the Premiership play-off against London Scottish at Richmond on Sunday.