Gatlands law 23

Personally Gatland should bring back the play in wales to play for wales law as far as I'm concerned ,
But if so what would be the strongest 23?

Also should he say after the 2015 World Cup this law will be enforced with no compromise? If any time that would be the best to enforce it.

Wales have too many top players playing overseas to be able to do that . we be basically playing our under 20s side plus the front row and tho odd one here and there

First off it was never a 'law' as some people keep trying to point out and secondly as to what his strongest 23 would be well there won't be any difference.

The players he considers to be 1st choice are still picked regardless of where they are playing.

It is not Gatland's responsibility to bolster a failing regional set up by imposing a play in wales rule. The market is determining the value of welsh players and they are very much in demand, that's a good thing for the national side but only the WRU can repair the damage being done at the regions and if they don't act fast the game will die a slow death in the next 10 years.

Its a dangerous game to play.

Whats the difference between a top salary in France and a top salary in Wales.

Say Halfpenny is on 500k a year in France, how much did Wales offer him.... (I read Warburton was offered 270k). Thats a huge diff, near a million GBP before tax over 5 years.

Yes I'm sure there is honour in representing your test nation but at what expense... your family's future? Yes these guys earn big money but its not guaranteed they will after they hang up their boots and how long will their test career last... maybe someone will emerge that will push them out of their squad place and they have no more test appearances and a lesser contract for being loyal.

I don't think their is a definitive answer whether keeping players together is beneficial or not.

Ban as in ENG... keeps talent in England meaning the union has some influence over club matters, players are more familiar to each other. However some players such as the Armitage brothers will be lost who would certainly have improved the squad. Even chaps like Sheridan could have done a job post RWC had he been required esp. in Wales 13 when an inexperienced Marler was torn to pieces. Could have made the difference.

No ban as in WAL.... they lose players outside of test windows to club commitments, players will only play together in test matches/practices but they can blood more youngsters in their respected clubs meaning development will remain.

The only issue now with the new HC is that only 1 region is guaranteed a place in the tournament per Rabo nation. If they spread the talent too thin then the teams will not qualify for the top competition and players will not get the top class exposure test match calibre players need to develop and maintain their game.

Overall I would say by only being able to offer contracts half as good financially as clubs externally you will lose a number of players ban or not. The question is, is the talent pool strong enough to mitigate those losses?

NZ & SA - yes.
ENG - Managable probably because salaries are greater in the AP than the Rabo in Wales???
Wales - Looking at the players who have gone, probably not.. although I doubt Halfpenny would have signed had a rule been in place and it was enforced... well we'll never know anyhow, not for now.

1. Jenkins
2. Owens
3. Jones
4. AWJ
5. Ball
6. Warburton
7. Tipuric
8. Faletau
9. Davies
10. Biggar
11. J Williams
12. Allen
13. S Wiliams
14. Cuthbert
15. Williams

16. R Jones
17. Dacey
18. S Lee
19. Coombes
20. A Shingler
21. R Williams
22. O Williams (Blues)
23. Amos? Walker?

IM,

Thats a good side which does prove we have players out there, whose your 10 cover on the bench though.

I would have Tovey on there and Rees but there a few options still and if he wanted to keep Warburton at 7 Lewis Evans could more than do a job at No6.

Tovey or Patchell would be my reserve fly halves, aside from locks, fullback and wingers we aren't really struggling that much.

Other centres we have that are good enough in my opinion: Owen Williams and Ashley Beck.

Dan Fish could possibly find some form and consistency to push for a place at fullback, though I'm sceptical. Sam Davies could be there if he learns to tackle.

Locks are an issue however.

At the moment, the Regions have negotiated a settlement of aprox £1.2M for player release to the Team Wales set up for 30 - 35 players for around 18 weeks (6 AI, 7 6N and 5 or 6 ST), at the lower figure of 30 players that is 540 units, that works out at £2,200 each week, which equates to aprox £115000 per season. The WRU has recently given a contract to Sam Warburton so reports say of £275000, which is over double the amount they pay for any other player when coming from the Regions. Mark Davies Scarlet CEO and acting head honcho of RRW, stated the WRU had identified £2M from sponsors and another £2M of funds were available. If these funds were made available, there is no reason why after the 2016 6N Gatlands Law could be implimented, correct me if I'm wrong there are 3 players, Owen Williams, John Davies and Leigh Halfpenny, playing outside of Wales that we need to get back, all other players could be told leave Wales and not be capped, with the rapid rise of youngsters coming through we do not need to rely on some of the more experienced players plying their trade overseas.

It just struck me that the introduction of central contracting in Wales has coincided with the new RCC tournaments and qualifying format. That may have some interesting implications.

For instance, if only one or two regions qualify, will the WRU have the option to redploy all the centrally contracted players to those regions over the summer?

If I were RRW, I'd be fighting tooth and nail in the current round of negotiations to ensure that the WRU couldn't do that, or could only do move players around at specific points (e.g. once every 2 years). If I were the WRU, I'd be keeping very quiet about that option and hoping no-one notices.

Poorfour wrote:It just struck me that the introduction of central contracting in Wales has coincided with the new RCC tournaments and qualifying format. That may have some interesting implications.

For instance, if only one or two regions qualify, will the WRU have the option to redploy all the centrally contracted players to those regions over the summer?

If I were RRW, I'd be fighting tooth and nail in the current round of negotiations to ensure that the WRU couldn't do that, or could only do move players around at specific points (e.g. once every 2 years). If I were the WRU, I'd be keeping very quiet about that option and hoping no-one notices.

Poorfour, at the moment the Regions through its RRW negotiating stance, will NOT play any player that is CC, it is hardly likely that they will allow that ace in the pack, to be played without decent recompense.

It's a good starting point. Do they have enough leverage not to have to negotiate it away?

IronMike wrote:1. Jenkins
2. Owens
3. Jones
4. AWJ
5. Ball
6. Warburton
7. Tipuric
8. Faletau
9. Davies
10. Biggar
11. J Williams
12. Allen
13. S Wiliams
14. Cuthbert
15. Williams

16. R Jones
17. Dacey
18. S Lee
19. Coombes
20. A Shingler
21. R Williams
22. O Williams (Blues)
23. Amos? Walker?

I'd like to see that team take on an exiles 15 , with back division of -

9. Phillips
10. Owen Williams
11. Leigh Halfpenny
12 Roberts
13 JD2
14 North
15 Hook

Front row would include Craig Mitchell Hibbard and Paul James, Charteris and Ian Evans in the 2nd row, Lydiate and Gareth Delve in the back row, bench spots for Peel, Mathew Morgan, Rhys Gill and Huw Bennett (?).

Any other suggestions for the pack?

Ryan Jones is heading to Bristol next season so thats an exile