Admittedly, I’m a foreigner in Wales myself and so I’m probably not in a position to criticise, but I’m also a die-hard Welsh rugby fan. To my mind there is no other nation with the calliper of players that consistently come out of Wales. And to be quite frank, with the next Six Nations rapidly approaching, I can’t help but wonder about the direction Welsh rugby appears to be taking.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not an absolute purist. I don’t agree that every player on Welsh squads should speak Welsh. That’s unrealistic. Not every Welsh native speaks Welsh and so it’s not realistic to expect that of your players. However, I do think every player should be Welsh.

First, let me be clear, this is no reflection on the excellent men who have travelled great distance, uprooted and relocated families and acclimated to a new culture in order to play for/coach Wales. Yet I wonder at what point the importation of talent will stop, if indeed it does. Or will we continue to import new blood, so to speak ,and eventually wind up with teams that are no longer predominantly Welsh? Further, how will this transition affect the next generation of Welsh players.

I guess what I don’t understand is the psychology behind this. Well, that’s not entirely true, the psychology, of course is winning and winning is money. Bottom line. But Welsh rugby is so much more than the profit motive. It’s national pride and the native Welshmen who play for Wales have that extra edge that pride of country brings with it. That is part of what makes them so valuable to Welsh rugby, and Welsh rugby so valuable to its nation.

Yet it seems at times that management has chosen to undermine that pride and, indeed the success, of the Welsh squads. Take the situation with Mike Ruddock. I still have no idea what happened there and I’m sure very few people do. But coming off the Grand Slam as they were, the Welsh squad was more than ready to take on all comers. Indeed, the season had been shaping up to be another incredible one for them and Wales. Then suddenly, the coach who’d pulled it all together is sent packing (author’s opinion) and the whole team falls apart. The remainder of the games were a disaster, the team in chaos and, it seemed, the very spirit was yanked from our lads and sent down the road with their coach. In my opinion, they are still struggling back from that. So what was management thinking?

What all this brings me to ask is this: At a time when there is discussion after discussion about the youth of Wales leaving to take jobs elsewhere, why are they creating a climate that’s going to spread that exodus into the very heart of Welsh sport. A climate that could well discourage future James Hooks, Stephen Jones’ and Gavin Hensons from putting in the time, dedication, sheer effort and determination required to reach the pinnacle of their sport and play professionally for their country?

If there is no future for Welsh players in their own leagues then will we lose the nationality of the sport altogether and find our lads going elsewhere to play for someone else? So I say to the powers-that-be in Welsh rugby: Do we really want that?

This entry was posted by Arwen on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 10:52 am and is filed under Life in Wales, Ospreys, Wales, Wales in Sport, Welsh Culture, Welsh Rugby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.