Wales captain Ryan Jones has said that the Principality's rugby revolution can only succeed if new ideas are accepted.
Welsh rugby should embrace change, says new skipper
New Wales captain Ryan Jones has said that the rugby revolution coach Warren Gatland wants to lead in the Principality can only succeed if the new set-up is open to new ideas.
Jones was speaking ahead of the upcoming RBS Six Nations Championship, which Wales won in 2005 playing a brand of attacking rugby which thrilled fans - but has brought little success of late.
The same style was deployed at last autumn's World Cup, with the result being a pool defeat to Fiji and elimination before the quarter-finals of a World Cup for the first time in the professional era
And now Jones, who voiced criticism of Wales' failure to develop a more practical style from the sidelines after getting injured prior to the World Cup, has re-iterated his belief that change should be embraced.
"Rugby is changing and evolving all the time and you have to keep up to speed and develop a game that can cope with it," he said.
"It is about being more accepting of ideas. New coaches will bring in new ideas and as a player that is how you develop.
"Sometimes you need a fresh impetus and a change. That is what we have got and hopefully it will bring a fresh impetus to the Six Nations."
New regime
Within 12 hours of Wales' World Cup debacle, head coach Gareth Jenkins had been sacked, with replacement Gatland forging a new coaching regime alongside Shaun Edwards and Rob Howley.
Besides the adoption of new ideas, the uncompromising Gatland wants to toughen his squad up - the New Zealander saying when he took over in November that he wanted to "break" the players mentally and physically.
Such an attitude might be based on the record of the side he inherited: in 2007 Wales enjoyed just one Six Nations victory and lost two Tests in Australia prior to their disappointing World Cup campaign.
Echoing his captain's sentiments, Gatland said: "I'd rather win 3-0 playing ugly rugby than lose 48-46 playing attractive rugby.
"We can move the ball and play some attractive rugby if we get on the front foot and dominate the collision areas and get our set piece right.
"But if we don't do that we have to play our rugby a bit smarter."
New era
Wales open their 2008 Six Nations campaign against England on February 2nd at Twickenham, a ground on which they suffered a record 62-5 defeat shortly before the World Cup.
Indeed, they have not won there since 1988 - all the more reason, according to Gatland, to buck the trend and usher in a new era of Welsh rugby.
"I have been really impressed with the whole attitude of the squad," he added.
"It has been a positive start to what will be a really challenging tournament for us.
"We go to England with confidence and belief we can get a result.
"I am impressed with the potential of the athletes we have got to work with. When you are big and have a physicality about you, you have a chance. And we have that physicality."
