The youth structure in wales relies heavily on "dady's the coach" or "dady has lots of money to sponsor the team". It sounds slightly bitter, but it does happen, i see it happen day in day out (not going to name names)
You don't need to tell me!
i did my teaching practice in wales, and on my second day a mother came in to ask why her child was not in the district rugby squad! obviously, being a student on teaching practice, i knew nothing about the squad. the mother had a brother who was high up at one of the regions, and another boy in the class i was teaching was dropped so that this woman's son could be selected.
i assume the child that was dropped knew he had been dropped, because it was after the squad was made public that the mother complained. i always felt a bit sad about that, because i know that the district team ended up playing at the Millennium Stadium--- which means the boy who was initially selected on merit, missed out on a pretty special day because another boy's mother knew someone high up.
nepotism is rife in schools though. i have been in 4 schools and they all have someone abusing their power in some way. at one school, there were violin lessons made available, but only for 6 children from a class of 30+ --- the headteacher had her twins getting lessons, and then the children of some of her friends. the same thing happened on a school trip to lapland paid for by the school, with the same children travelling. im still not sure if it is nepotism, or just fraud?
well anyway, i also noted the common logic amongst some school rugby coaches was that if a child had a relative, even distant relative, who had played for wales, or even just played for a top club, that child must somehow be genetically primed for rugby. of course, even with this bias the number of welsh international players with welsh international fathers is very low. and you would've thought it would be even more common in a country with such a small population, and where a third of that population in north wales has historically been ignored in rugby terms. it works both ways of course, and im sure that sons of ex-internationals have turned away from rugby as no matter how hard they work, their achievements will always be greeted in some quarters with a, "well of course he was selected, his father is so and so".
well anyway, hopefully this humping will bring the same desire for change at age group level, as the 96-13 humping in south africa had in bringing about regional rugby.
