Peter Jackson: Departure of Jonathan Davies highlights WRU feud
No stretch of the imagination is required to envisage a starting XV largely drawn from players employed by clubs all over France and a couple in England. It is no exaggeration to predict that at least two-thirds will come from outside Wales as follows:
Leigh Halfpenny (Toulon?); George North (Northampton), Jonathan Davies (Clermont), Jamie Roberts (Racing), Mike Phillips (unattached), Paul James (Bath), Adam Jones (Toulouse?), Alun-Wyn Jones (any French club), Luke Charteris (Perpignan), Danny Lydiate (Racing), Sam Warburton (Toulon?).
Phillips, unattached since his sacking by Bayonne, will have had no shortage of offers to attach himself to another French club or one nearer home, like Worcester.
Two more Lions can be added to the list. James Hook, a perennial Wales substitute, is thriving at Perpignan to such an extent that he has signed a long-term contract with the Catalans to spend virtually the rest of his career there. Ian Evans, out of favour with the Ospreys and out of the contract in six months’ time, will also be looking to new frontiers.
A serious state of affairs, one which will inevitably become more serious soon enough unless the Welsh Rugby Union does something to stem the tide. The dangers of limited access to a growing number of prize assets relocating outside Wales has been hammered home to the Union by their highest profile employee, head coach Warren Gatland.
And that begs an obvious question – what have the WRU done to stop the exodus? Why, after months and months of promises, has there been no action? The smoke swirling around the political war between the Union and the four regions was supposed to have cleared this time last year.
December 4: The WRU announce the formation of the Professional Rugby Game Board, consisting of four members from the Union and four from the regions with an independent chairman, later named as the High Court judge, Sir Wyn Williams.
One of the major objectives of the new organisation was: “To help retain senior Welsh internationals playing in Wales where appropriate.” Chief executive Roger Lewis called it “a landmark moment in the history of Welsh rugby”.
The Board never got off the ground.
April 2: The WRU “invites representatives from the four regions to discuss the contracting centrally of key Welsh rugby talent.”.
Almost ten months on, no definitive decision has been taken.
June 26: The WRU announce the investment of an additional £1m to regional rugby. The money will “target the development, recruitment and retention of Welsh international players”.
The Regions subsequently learnt that it came with a quid pro quo – that the Blues, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets sign a new participation agreement. No signature, no deal and that’s where the matter rests.
July 18: Back to our old friend, the Game, or not-so-game, Board. The WRU and the four regions have “reached full agreement on the establishment of a new Professional Regional Game Board to work together to improve the sustainability and competitiveness of regional rugby in Wales”.
High up on the agenda: “Regional player contracts and recruitment policy”. The apparent inactivity prompted no less a figure than Phil Bennett to voice his disapproval.
“I’ve not heard a lot of noise coming from that Board,” he said in his capacity as president of the Scarlets on the subject of Davies’ imminent exit.
October 24: The WRU have “offered to contract all of the regions’ leading Welsh-qualified players who are out of contract at the end of this season, on appropriate terms to be agreed”.
All that hot air has counted for nothing, at least not yet. If it was designed to keep Jonathan Davies in Wales, then it failed.
The Scarlets say they did “everything in our power as a club and as a business” to keep the player in his native environment, “Heart and Soul Rugby Country”. Their lengthy statement made no reference to the WRU contributing towards the deal which Davies turned down.
In pushing the boat out as far as they could, thought to be close to £250,000-a-year, it was nowhere near enough to match Clermont’s clout. Unless Welsh rugby gets its act together pronto, more will be leaving.
Nobody can blame them for looking after themselves in an increasingly brutal profession. Davies knew that before last Saturday’s painful attempt to prevent Jean de Villiers muscling over for the Springboks’ opening try, the Welsh Lion virtually writing off his international season in the process.
A four-month recovery will eliminate him from the entire Six Nations and leave only the final weeks of the season to be played out before he changes allegiance from Scarlet to the yellow and blue of Clermont.
Exactly why his new employers announced the coup at such an early stage is not clear. Perhaps Davies and his advisers got tired of waiting for the WRU to end their feud with the regions and get down to business.
