Welsh Rugby is Contracting - It's Official

I am ashamed to admit that I took one look at the weather and I decided not to go to Bonymaen to watch the Pooler. Instead I reclined on the couch and flicked between watching the Dragons v Northampton and Racing v Toulouse whilst paying attention to the twitter feed from Ken Long who was braving the elements in Bonymaen. In the end, Pooler lost a close match 10-8 with the stormy conditions having a large influence on the result.

The Dragons’ match was not close at all and it was a salutary lesson for those who think that the Welsh regions could breeze into the English Premiership. Make no mistake, this was Northampton seconds who brushed most of the Dragons’ first team aside.

In France, I thought that the Welsh representatives in the Racing team acquitted themselves well and were all fully committed despite the first Six Nations game being only a week away. Mike Phillips was particularly prominent and at his spiky best. I assume the Welsh based members of the Welsh squad all had their feet up somewhere. I guess this is the harsh reality of playing in France.

So Sam Warburton is the first Welsh centrally contracted player - let’s hope that he is not the last! I don’t think it makes much sense having a small number and at the very least it should be two per region. Can the WRU afford this? Even at around quarter of a million pounds per player the WRU are still far short of Leigh Halfpenny’s reported deal in France and what I suppose George North got from Northampton. Are we wasting money battling against market forces when our pockets are not really deep enough I wonder? The whole subject of centrally funding players begs a lot of questions and we haven’t really been party to the WRU’s thinking yet. Who decides who is centrally contracted, how much they are paid and who they play for?

Of course, centrally funding one player hasn’t really solved any of the underlying issues that are tormenting Welsh rugby but at least it might be viewed as a statement of intent from the WRU. I watched last week’s Scrum V Special with a mixture of sadness and disbelief. It seems hard to imagine the issues being solved by those on view who seem content to waffle on without actually saying (or doing) anything. And then there was David Moffett who seems to want to throw his hat in the ring. His interpersonal skills will certainly not pour oil on stormy waters. What a mess!

We should be looking forward with eager anticipation to the Six Nations but somehow the political wrangling seems to still have centre stage. Perhaps they all hope that it will all go away like magic once we kick off against Italy. I have got news for them - it will not.

The one down side of the Six Nations is the lack of club rugby. Only one game scheduled for the Pooler in February - why?