Gatland gone

[Weldit]

It's a shame to see Gatland go, but it's been on the cards for a while. No, he didn't walk in at the best of times for Wales, but he really has made some strange choices in his second go at the job...I wonder if it's simple too big a job for him and not what Wales needed at the time. It also makes me wonder if Shaun Edwards played a bigger role there then we realised.

Regardless, I think and hope people will remember Gatland for the terrific success he helped bring Wales years ago.

 

[ShropshireAllBlack]

Typically Welsh! They're at 6's & 7's for a couple of years, and they decide to get their act together a week before they are due to play us….

 

[AlRums]

Scarlets director Ron Jones has 'no faith in WRU' and says a region should be cut

Scarlets director Ron Jones says Welsh rugby cannot afford to run four regional sides and that at least one must go.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Welsh Exile]

Get rid of Scarlets and bring back Neath.

 

[Weldit]

I'm not sure removing a club would actually solve anything. The problems in welsh rugby are a result of mismanagement in the WRU. No system will work if they don't plan it accordingly, act consistently and carefully.

 

[dirty harry]

Matt Sherratt in.

I wonder if he will, or can even, call up Jarrod Evans. He's signed Ioan Lloyd for Cardiff as well. Max Llewelyn is surely coming in if he can make changes. Bring those in and we're winning the triple crown.

Matt Sheratt is a decent coach, but a poor manager...

No chance he had any say in Ioan Lloyd coming.

My issue with Sheratt is he's a total rugby kind of guy, regardless of how bad results get, and how bad Cardiff get beaten...

It's noble, but it doesn't work at club level, it sure as **** will gey us pumped at international level

 

[dirty harry]

I agree with the sentiment that the WRU shoulders most of the blame for the current performance, but Warren Gatland's last few years revealed a deep character flaw: His deference to authority figures.

When he returned to Wales, he commented that he wouldn't have returned if he knew the extent of the Welsh regions and overall WRU dysfunction. As if his decade-plus tenure didn't offer him a front-row seat to the slow collapse. Was Warren the CEO/Board of WRU? No. Could Warren at the peak of his popularity drastically influence the direction of rugby in Wales? Yes.

His deference to the WRU CEO/Board helped sow the seeds for the current crisis. This was confirmed during the player's strike when he got a raw @ss from sitting so hard on the fence.

Can't agree with this, the WRU have been really poor at being transparent, with its members, let alone Gatland.

When he stated he wouldn't have returned if he knew the state of welsh rugby I felt that, and it was a damning indictment of welsh rugby

 

[dirty harry]

Losing a region would kill any ambition of Wales returning to 6N competitors...

I fully expect the WRU to retire the Dragons, and tell the fans to support Cardiff lol.

Gatland returned to a horror show, the issues with everything welsh rugby can be laid squarely at the foot of the morons who run the sport nationally, who have made every decision they can to kill off rugby in Wales.

I said it before and I'll say it again, there isn't a coach on the planet who wins any of our last 14 games with our squad, when you lose every contact, and every kicking battle you are destined to lose, and when the players coming through are 10kg+ per player lighter than theirnoppositon, and your governing body is closing academies and centres of excellence you have to accept they want to be tier 2 over making less profit.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Matt Sheratt is a decent coach, but a poor manager...

No chance he had any say in Ioan Lloyd coming.

My issue with Sheratt is he's a total rugby kind of guy, regardless of how bad results get, and how bad Cardiff get beaten...

It's noble, but it doesn't work at club level, it sure as **** will gey us pumped at international level

He's only got the gig for 3 matches mate. If he can get us to score 1 try, **** me, if he can get a player to make 1 line break, then it's better than the **** show that's been served up last year or so.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Losing a region would kill any ambition of Wales returning to 6N competitors...

I fully expect the WRU to retire the Dragons, and tell the fans to support Cardiff lol.

Gatland returned to a horror show, the issues with everything welsh rugby can be laid squarely at the foot of the morons who run the sport nationally, who have made every decision they can to kill off rugby in Wales.

I said it before and I'll say it again, there isn't a coach on the planet who wins any of our last 14 games with our squad, when you lose every contact, and every kicking battle you are destined to lose, and when the players coming through are 10kg+ per player lighter than theirnoppositon, and your governing body is closing academies and centres of excellence you have to accept they want to be tier 2 over making less profit.

The reason we can't compete with the top 4 is because of the quality of players, the reason we can't compete with Italy is mainly psychological in my opinion.

 

[dirty harry]

The reason we can't compete with the top 4 is because of the quality of players, the reason we can't compete with Italy is mainly psychological in my opinion.

We don't improve the quality of players by reducing academies and professional exposure...

The scotland model only works because of the amount of money they spend on foreign imports...

Scottish private schools have been banned from competing with public schools forbH and S reasons... the amount of foreign children in private schools playing rugby makes it unsafe to compete with Scottish children.

Wales is not capable of doing the same, it doesn't have the rugby culture people think it does, and the private schools, and public come to think of it focus on football.

I've said it a million times, Cardiff isn't a rugby region any more, the changing demographics, and the university programs have killed rugby in Cardiff.

 

[dirty harry]

He's only got the gig for 3 matches mate. If he can get us to score 1 try, **** me, if he can get a player to make 1 line break, then it's better than the **** show that's been served up last year or so.

He will 100% throw the kitchen sink at Ireland, Scotland and England, but I fully expect to lose by 30, 20 and 15 points because of that.

Wales need restructure from every angle, removing a regional coach mid tournament both negatively effects Cardiff and Wales, it's just another moronic WRU decision!

Dai Young is twidling his thumbs, Lancaster, Rowntree or Humphreys would all have been decent appointments on short term contracts until the summer, and wouldn't have negatively effected a region, or ****** of a regions owner.

Without sounding harsh on Sheratt, he's a coach, he's a back room character, he isn't a big guy, an imposing character, and he certainly doesn't demand excellence!

 

[Dean Cooperfield-West]

I'd downsize to three well funded regions each with an academy regularly doing try outs and with that have academy teams. I'd forget the obsession with funding a local game. If there's an 8 year old who shows potential, they'll be moulded from a young age in the academy teams. The teams would play in the Premiership when I believe the general standard is better. They'd be playing against better qualify teams more regularly and would be better players for it

 

[Weldit]

I'd downsize to three well funded regions each with an academy regularly doing try outs and with that have academy teams. I'd forget the obsession with funding a local game. If there's an 8 year old who shows potential, they'll be moulded from a young age in the academy teams. The teams would play in the Premiership when I believe the general standard is better. They'd be playing against better qualify teams more regularly and would be better players for it

I'd argue the Premiership hasn't really improved and has stayed stagnant for quite some time. Like it or not, the money isn't there and everyone is just having to do the best they can with what they can get. I'm not for or against cutting clubs, but it needs to be done very carefully or could do more long term harm than good.

 

[dirty harry]

I'd downsize to three well funded regions each with an academy regularly doing try outs and with that have academy teams. I'd forget the obsession with funding a local game. If there's an 8 year old who shows potential, they'll be moulded from a young age in the academy teams. The teams would play in the Premiership when I believe the general standard is better. They'd be playing against better qualify teams more regularly and would be better players for it

The problem with this is WRU don't identify talent until 14, and thebfirst academy structure is U16s...

 

[dirty harry]

I'd argue the Premiership hasn't really improved and has stayed stagnant for quite some time. Like it or not, the money isn't there and everyone is just having to do the best they can with what they can get. I'm not for or against cutting clubs, but it needs to be done very carefully or could do more long term harm than good.

Imagine us going down the Scottish route and not supplementing our professional game with foreign talent?

Take out Ashman, Schoeman, Dempsey, Tuipolotus, Van der Merwe, jordan, and the other 6+ English lads... that would decimate the Scottish team in reality, and I'm not including actual Scottish men who were just born in England, I'm talking converts through scouting.

That's where we are, with 4 regional academies that are U18 and U20s wooden spoon contenders every year.