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Subscribe to RSS FeedWales` new beginning
Gone... now what?
So Wales are out of the Rugby World Cup and hunting for a new coach, and some people are still surprised that it is Fiji and not Wales in the quarter finals.
Well people, I have news for you, Wales did not deserve to be in the quarter-finals and furthermore this is the wake-up call Welsh rugby has so desperately needed. And before anybody levels accusations of false nationality at me let me just clarify, I am Welsh!
Let me take you back a few years - not to the 1970s where most will think I am going - but to 2005 and a Welsh Grand Slam. Finally it looked as if Wales were building a decent squad, a core group of players, a meaningful style of rugby and the right people in power to carry us forward. Life was looking reasonably good, or so you would have thought.
Then on February 14 2006 Mike Ruddock stepped down as head coach and with him went any hope of a meaningful future. For whatever reason, all was not well under Ruddock. Whatever it was, it wasn't on the pitch though.
Gareth Jenkins was then ushered in as new coach under less than professional circumstances. A quick fix. The people's choice. But the people are not always right.
Since Jenkins took over in April 2006 Wales have been on a downwards spiral, and at a rate of knots, culminating in this disastrous World Cup campaign. Yet it hardly comes as a surprise that Wales failed to make any telling impression during the pool stages.
The man charged with taking Welsh rugby forward has, in the space of eighteen months, taken a Grand Slam-winning side and turned them into a bunch of flops. I fully appreciate that a coach can only do so much, and the rest is down to the players. But given the World Cup squad was more or less the same as that of 2005, one can only point a large finger at the coach.
Heading into the World Cup Jenkins could hardly boast an impressive track record, having played sixteen and won four. When you consider that two of those wins came against the Pacific Islanders and Canada you get a flavour for Jenkins' shortcomings as an international coach.
That, then, he could only add wins over Canada and Japan to his already dismal record was the final damning piece of evidence we needed to clarify that he was well out of his depth. The fact he pleaded with the WRU not to make and rash decisions in the aftermath of the defeat to Fiji proves he was deluded as well as floundering. How he thought he deserved to remain in the job after that is beyond me.
We all know that an 'old boy' club exists in rugby. You only have to look at the amount of English forwards Sir Clive picked in his Lions pack for the first Test against New Zealand to prove that. But Jenkins took it to a new extreme.
Having stuck by Stephen Jones, his golden boy from their Llanelli days, during a bad run of form it came as no surprise when he announced him as captain. The fact he was soon dubbed 'Captain Crap' should give you an inkling as to what sort of job he did. Thankfully for Jones, and the rest of us, injury prevented him maintaining the job for too long.
The road ahead is a long one in terms of rebuilding the Welsh squad, and one only hopes we have a better man in charge than the clueless Jenkins. The manner in which he has brought the national team down was unacceptable and we can only thank the WRU for bringing to an end what must rank as one of the darkest periods in the history of Welsh rugby.
One thing is for certain, the WRU can only go upward from here.
By Marcus Leach
