The Clowns of the Welsh Rugby Union who nobody laughs with.

The gravy train that has finally come off the tracks.

Photo by Debasish Lenka on Unsplash

The affairs of the Welsh Rugby Union have been challenged and ridiculed for over 35 years with no radical changes to its practices, culture, except for the August 1995 dramatic announcement by its then Chairman ,Vernon Pugh that the sport of rugby football would renounce its amateur roots and become a professional sport where players could be paid to play. And that is when the clowns took over. And not just in Wales.

The clowns came from all over….John Hall in England to juggle with Newcastle, Max Guazinni doing handstands at Stade Francais in Paris, Glanmor Griffiths threw mud pies at Peter Thomas in the botched stadium rebuild. The financial rugby circus continued with its delusions of grandeur as an illusionary serious world sport whilst spiralling into a vortex of mad money chasing that ignored future risks and any sense of jeopardy..Experienced commentators on the state of the sport despaired at the paucity of intellectual clout present in the so called board rooms of clubs and unions. Then came Covid, massive, future concussion liabilities, panic and naked exposure of the financial weaknesses of most clubs and unions.Put simply most rugby operations have useless,pathetic management. And this week the clowns are being exposed, especially in Wales with the overdue sacking of the bean counter Steve Philips from the CEO’s job at the WRU, whilst it’s English equivalent, the RFU said hold my beer……here’s a new tackling edict that will fundamentally change our 150 or so old game. A decision that led to a remarkable U turn in 4 days with administrative carnage as fall out. The clowns have been in charge for too long. The monkeys can no longer be allowed to run the zoo.

During this phoney war pause as the national teams attempt to get their players up to the Olympic levels of fitness and endurance by taking in the grandest places, whether Monaco for the French team or the top of some burg in Switzerland for Wales.Whilst the English team have morphed into the Gentlemen of Verona sweating like star-crossed lovers in the Italian city made legend by Romeo and Juliet. Whilst the players sweat pints in the hot summer the incompetent mismanagement of rugby at all levels continues. France even had to sack their President Bernard Laporte for financial irregularities leading to a suspended prison sentence.

The sport deserves better. World Rugby is run like an old fashioned version of the East India club cabal by the venerable and useless Bill Beaumont( but still a great bloke). Three famous English clubs have evaporated in a puff of hubristic financial mayhem to prove that fortune does not favour idiocy. The four Welsh regions are staggering like survivors from a desperate shipwreck to try and prepare for a season whose first months will be dominated by the monetary demands of the Rugby World Cup. This deprives the hollowed out regions of their best players with diminished support from the WRU which to its credit has undergone a transformation in leadership over recent months. Welsh regions do not have access to funding levels enjoyed by French,Irish or even Scottish clubs.One of the most generous rugby benefactors, Peter Thomas sadly passed earlier this year, The Dragons have finally agreed a deal to put the club into private hands, Y11 and Rob Davies continue to support the most successfu region, The Ospreys, whilst The Scarlets engage in a financial model that resembles a Hall of mirrors but benefit from emotional support from the 3rd rate Welsh media.

The only light at the end of the BrynGlas tunnels is the fast improvement of the Wales under 20 team currently playing some fine rugby at the junior World Cup in SouthAfrica. And the WRU have finally stepped in to create a new 10 team Premiership competition that will allow the talent in the regional academies( a complete catastrophic failure) to play regular competitive rugby for the traditional clubs of Wales whether Cardiff, Swansea, Newport or newcomers like Merthyr. The cupboard is not bare yet.