Welsh getting worse and worse

After the first 2 rounds of the Hk the Welsh regions only picked up 1 win out of 8. The Welsh national team is on a 7 run loosing streak. So far this weekend the welsh regions have played 2 HK games and lost 2. It seems to me that Welsh rugby is unravelling at a rate of knots. What needs to be done to stop the rot?

Ive been saying this for months, but obviously I've been wrong. Just want to point out though Dragons aren't playing HC rugby!!

wrfc1980 wrote:After the first 2 rounds of the Hk the Welsh regions only picked up 1 win out of 8. The Welsh national team is on a 7 run loosing streak. So far this weekend the welsh regions have played 2 HK games and lost 2. It seems to me that Welsh rugby is unravelling at a rate of knots. What needs to be done to stop the rot?

Destroy the vultures?

Remortgage the MS?

Reduce the number of Regions further?

It will get worse before it gets better. But to be fair the injuries haven't helped.

The Welsh Regions are on a hiding to nothing in Europe. Thanks to the WRU preoccupation with paying themselves huge salaries and paying off the stadium debt faster than ever. The regions have to operate on the smallest budgets in the competition and don't get their international players back until a few days before the round three games.

Solution:

Dual contacts for the top 25 players playing in Wales

Slow down the debt repayment to finance the central contracts

Get rid of the overpayed Lewis and Pickering (that will pay for some of the dual contacts)

Put a rugby man in charge.

Losing by the way.

I'll tell you what will help though, is if English supporters enjoy their own alleged success and stop trying to concentrate on Welsh faults. If all things are so rosy over there, why worry about us?

Seagul

Lewis has reportedly saved the WRU to the mount above his wage, so they love him, he's going nowhere!!!

He saved them money by turning them into a poundstore organisation, not even Asia smartphone. A huge stack of jewels and cash to sleep on isn't much use if some little hobbits can come along and slay you...dragons should have learnt this lesson by now.

His whinging about clubs signing Welsh players is pathetic. What does he expect if those individuals put money above the interests of their privately owned region and national side

I have seen a good Ospreys performance.

Since when being offside off the game is a penalty offence? I heard Toulouse coaches calling for offside and guess what happenned?

This turned the game in my opinion.

Seagultaf wrote:The Welsh Regions are on a hiding to nothing in Europe. Thanks to the WRU preoccupation with paying themselves huge salaries and paying off the stadium debt faster than ever. The regions have to operate on the smallest budgets in the competition and don't get their international players back until a few days before the round three games.

Solution:

Dual contacts for the top 25 players playing in Wales

Slow down the debt repayment to finance the central contracts

Get rid of the overpayed Lewis and Pickering (that will pay for some of the dual contacts)

Put a rugby man in charge.

+110%

Have said this money times. Let Roger order the staples, toner for the photocopier and go to corporate lunches on the Barclays expense account, but the WRU has to be headed up by a rugby man.

Pay Graham Henry whatever he wants to come back as Chairman.

Why is anyone suprised at the losses?

For the last 6 weeks the Welsh squad players have been away with Wales and not practising with their regions, during that time nearly all the ospreys welsh players got long term injuries. Then their supposed to come back and fit right into the ospreys again and win in Tolouse?

I'm still not too worried about Wales to be honest. 3 narrow losses to Australia and a battling loss to New Zealand. Our style suits northern hemisphere teams and with all our injured players back we'll be more than a match for most of the other teams.

Bottom line is Wales is doing the best it can, we cant compete with richer cubs in terms of salaries and we just have to swallow it.

You kind of summed it up Alyn...!

I have said a number of times that calling for short term or knee jerk measures will not work in the long run.

We cant have high expectations for regions in Europe at the moment. But hopefully, if the Regions, WRU and players are clever we could see a lot of success in the future.

thebluesmancometh wrote:Seagul

Lewis has reportedly saved the WRU to the mount above his wage, so they love him, he's going nowhere!!!

In english please bluesman?

1 missed A and it's not english???

Lewis has saved the WRU to the amount of money above what he is being payed, meaning the WRU are earning to keep him employed.

wrfc1980 wrote: What needs to be done to stop the rot?

Pay off the debt and then invest that money into the Welsh teams, allowing them to bring in better quality players and coaches. Central contract some of the top players. Like I have said elsewhere this is how Ireland do it and it works, but it took time. I think a lot of people are overreacting, most of us knew the four Regions were in for a tough time this season. Although nobody could forsee how the Autumn played out.

Until then the Union needs to keep investing into the grass roots. The academy levels of rugby in Wales are still going strong.

thebluesmancometh wrote:1 missed A and it's not english???

Lewis has saved the WRU to the amount of money above what he is being payed, meaning the WRU are earning to keep him employed.

I now see what you are saying!

Don't agree mind, Lewis is being payed £300k plus for managing a £50M business, thats about 3 times the going rate! In the real world he would have to be a financial genius to earn that salary based on his level of responsibility and performance. It's a mutual appreciation society, a cosy club where real issues and problems are dealt with by management speak and clever sound bites.

Get rid of Lewis and Pickering and all the other hangers on, get a rugby man in charge!

I think Lewis is saving the WRU a fortune by repaying debts early, and a whole host of other financial initiatives he has put in place (not thought of just taken other peoples ideas and put them in place) Its reported he has earned his wage and actually gets bonus's from financial targets.

I would love a rugby man in charge but finding one that won't inundate us in debt again is near impossible!!!

Lewis is actually doing a good job in regards to the financial viability of the WRU, but there is definately a need for a strong rugby influence to help to reignite the professional game, it's a balancing act the money men are getting wrong at the minute.

thebluesmancometh wrote:I think Lewis is saving the WRU a fortune by repaying debts early, and a whole host of other financial initiatives he has put in place (not thought of just taken other peoples ideas and put them in place) Its reported he has earned his wage and actually gets bonus's from financial targets.

I would love a rugby man in charge but finding one that won't inundate us in debt again is near impossible!!!

Lewis is actually doing a good job in regards to the financial viability of the WRU, but there is definately a need for a strong rugby influence to help to reignite the professional game, it's a balancing act the money men are getting wrong at the minute.

Isnt that where Pickering should be earning his money. To be honest, I can see where Lewis is doing his job, but I cant for the life of me see where Pickering is doing his. He is just on a free ride these days, living off his glory days, and lets be honest he didnt have many of them as a player.

I wouldnt worry about it. Welsh rugby is only capable of producing extremes. They either underachieve or overachieve, produce sublime rugby or are awful. That really has been the way for as long as I can remember.

What goes up must come down is very true for Welsh rugby.

thebluesmancometh wrote:I think Lewis is saving the WRU a fortune by repaying debts early, and a whole host of other financial initiatives he has put in place (not thought of just taken other peoples ideas and put them in place) Its reported he has earned his wage and actually gets bonus's from financial targets.

I would love a rugby man in charge but finding one that won't inundate us in debt again is near impossible!!!

Lewis is actually doing a good job in regards to the financial viability of the WRU, but there is definately a need for a strong rugby influence to help to reignite the professional game, it's a balancing act the money men are getting wrong at the minute.

Blues, I was talking to a welsh mate over the weekend and he said something similar. The thing is, wasnt it a rugby influence which brought about the regional situation in the first place? ie. 'my club should be a region, its too big... why change the kit colours.. etc' Whereas if there had been more of a business influence from the start, self interest would have been less apparent and a system which flows from the bottom to the international side could have been implamented?

Bathman, it was sort off a mix of both. It was a business decision to base it on existing clubs because a) they knew they'd get at least a bit of support initially, whereas new entities cold have been even slower to start, and b) there was no money for new entities such as north, south, east and west, and the stadia they would have needed. So business/economics has been involved in this process from the start.

On the Roger Lewis thing; from what I can tell and expect he doesn't make the rugby decisions. He's the business side of things, management, etc. Yes, he's the front man and spokesperson but I don't think he would decide on rugby matters. That's what Pickering and more recently Joe Lydon are for, aren't they?

thebluesmancometh wrote:I think Lewis is saving the WRU a fortune by repaying debts early, and a whole host of other financial initiatives he has put in place (not thought of just taken other peoples ideas and put them in place) Its reported he has earned his wage and actually gets bonus's from financial targets.

I would love a rugby man in charge but finding one that won't inundate us in debt again is near impossible!!!

Lewis is actually doing a good job in regards to the financial viability of the WRU, but there is definately a need for a strong rugby influence to help to reignite the professional game, it's a balancing act the money men are getting wrong at the minute.

I guess you could describe him as the anti-Rob Andrew...a proper rugby man who gets payed a fortune but no-one is quite sure what he actually does aside to contributiong toward the 6 million RFU loss.

All above are valid points, Pickering is the rugby influence but when the Accountant can quantify his acheivements and shout them from the roof tops it kind of shadows what Pickering is trying to do.

Plus rugby decisions take much longer to be able to quantify acheivements than a quick bank statement.

Not that I think Pickering is doing a great job mind you!!!

At inception it was a mess, the WRU weren't strong enough to control things, they bowed to both rugby and monetary pressure from over bearing and childish money men! So the issue was personal interests all round unless you were a fan then that was the last thing on the agenda!!

But then the RFU got slated for doing the opposite. It just turned its shoulders to the clubs and said "deal with it" whne the game turned professional, whilst continuing to remain dominated by the council of farts.

I think the Welsh need to bear two things in mind:-
You need a dispassionate finance guy at the top of the tree as he does have to make hard-nosed but longer term decisions. The coach, for example, really only to worry about who their next opponents are.
Secondly, you can thank your chosen religious diety that you are not scottish. We are 0 for 6 with Edinburgh having scored the might tally of 9 points in the HC this season

Still, now we're a tier three nation the ticket prices will have drop to reflect our status. After all Roger Lewis was content to sell tickets for Argentina and Samoa for about 25 quid and kids half price - can't wait for next November!

magicsponge wrote:Still, now we're a tier three nation the ticket prices will have drop to reflect our status. After all Roger Lewis was content to sell tickets for Argentina and Samoa for about 25 quid and kids half price - can't wait for next November!

Every cloud...!