By Graham Thomas
There are big decisions to be made in Welsh rugby right now – such as who does Warren Gatland pick in his squad next week and should the Wales coach be able to stick his nose into other people’s business.
Gatland is due to name his group of players for the autumn internationals on Monday, as he attempts to turn the tide in matches against Fiji, Australia and South Africa.
The New Zealander is also keen to have more influence over the regions, when it comes to which teams players are with and what positions they are used in.
It’s a plan the Welsh Rugby Union are right behind as they attempt to grasp more control from the four regions in return for taking on some of their collective debt.
Never mind that it was the WRU who saddled them with the debt in the first place, by taking a loan from the Welsh Government and then passing it onto the quartet in a sleight of hand far slicker than anything Gatland’s team have managed in the past 12 months.
The upshot is a stand-off at present between the Union and the regions over whether this arrangement is acceptable.
So far, the Dragons and the Scarlets have suggested they are willing to comply, whilst the Ospreys and Cardiff are not.
In the meantime, the Wales coaching staff are rehearsing this closer tie-in to see how it fits.
Gatland’s assistants have been going around the regions, giving their input ahead of United Rugby Championship matches.
At the Ospreys, for instance, backs coach Rob Howley was a visitor on Wednesday of this week, whilst forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys had dropped in earlier in the week.
Ospreys and Wales prop Gareth Thomas – whose team face a trip to Ulster on Friday night – says Humphreys was keen to run the rule over the way the loose-head and Wales hooker Dewi Lake connect at scrum time.
“There were a few conversations around work-ons from the summer in Australia,” says Thomas.
“We have seen the Wales coaches quite a bit this season. They are working hard with us on the detail we need when we go into camp.
“There was a lot of stuff to work on after the summer, things we need to work on around accuracy and skill-set if we’re to win games.
“That makes the transition to the Test matches easier if we have already addressed certain aspects and should mean we avoid slow starts to international series, like we’ve suffered sometimes in the past.”
This close level of technical and possibly tactical collaboration is something all the regional coaches are comfortable with.
The unease comes around more contentious issues like which games players are rested for, should they play centre or wing, flanker or second row, or even if they should leave one region and join another.
Cardiff coach Matt Sherratt has already stressed that he sees Ben Thomas as an inside centre and not an outside-half, where Gatland would like Thomas to operate.
What happens when Gatland suggests Thomas should move down the M4 and join the Ospreys, where he may get used as a No.10?
The argument put forward for more WRU control is that this works well enough for Ireland.
It’s not a straightforward parallel, however, since the Irish provinces are funded to far higher levels than the teams in Wales – enough for them to recruit high quality overseas players to plug any gaps caused by national demands.
Removing £3.5m worth of debt won’t solve that inequality, which is baked in year-after-year.
Ulster’s Irish international forwards Ian Henderson, Rob Herring and Tom Stewart are all unavailable to face the Ospreys in Belfast on Friday night.
But their squad is strong enough and deep enough to absorb such absences in a way that the Ospreys and the other Welsh regions are not.
In fact, even though Ulster may have been hit by injuries, the Ospreys have 18 players unavailable and coach Toby Booth has admitted those kind of casualty figures are taking their toll.
The Ospreys can be backed at even money with a 13-point start.
“With depleting wage caps and smaller squad numbers, it’s always going to be difficult if you get injuries or unavailable players in the same place,” says Booth.
“We’ve got a lot of people out in similar positions which makes it challenging.”
Would it make much difference if Gatland was able to exert greater control?
Not as much as if the regions were properly funded.
