Peter Jackson: Extra Test match is crippling Welsh Regions

The Welsh Rugby Union have stuffed the golden goose over the last four weeks as never before, taking some £15m in gross ticket sales. Regrettably, they have also gone some way to knocking the stuffing out of the prospects of their two regional contenders qualifying for the last eight of the European Rugby Champions Cup.
The David Pickering-Roger Lewis regime left the distinct impression that only one team in Wales really mattered – Team Wales.  They turned every November into wall-to-wall Test rugby and if that interfered with their regions’ preparation for European matches, well too bad.
Of the Six Nations, only Wales play four autumn internationals year in, year out.  A week which began with Ireland‘s and Scotland’s players rejoining their domestic teams ended with the WRU putting their squad through the wringer against the most physical team on the planet, South Africa.
Tomorrow they will rejoin their employers after a battering in the national cause with only a few days to recover before plunging into critical Champions Cup tie.
The Scarlets’ tie against Ulster at Ravenhill, a daunting prospect even with fully fit squad, will be affected by the state of their Test seven.  The Ospreys must shoulder the same potential burden going into their home tie against Racing Metro on Saturday.
How they envy their Celtic rivals. Munster, for example, were able to put three of their Ireland contingent – Dave Kilcoyne, Tommy O’Donnell and Felix Jones – on the bench for yesterday’s mighty Pro12 collision with Ulster at Thomond Park.
More significantly, they could allow their remaining five Test players a day off.  So while Wales were going hammer-and-tongs at the Boks, Paul O’Connell, Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Dave Foley and Simon Zebo had their feet up taking it easy before next week’s Champions’ tie cruncher against Clermont.
Welsh insistence on stretching the resources of players and fans alike to the limit by playing an out-of-window Test devalued what would otherwise have been one of the most attractive fixtures of the Pro 12 season – Leinster against Ospreys in Dublin yesterday.
The holders had the option of picking their big guns but chose to pick only two – half-backs Ian Madigan and Eoin Reddan – and rest the remaining eight for next weekend’s Champions Cup tie against Harlequins in London.
Ospreys, in contrast, went without eight otherwise engaged on Wales duty – Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb, Scott Baldwin, Aaron Jarvis, James King, Justin Tipuric and their proposed new signing, Dan Lydiate.     Another 12 are hors de combat, including Canadian wing Jeff Hassler.
As if that’s not bad enough, their newest international, Nicky Smith, will not play again for four months following an operation on the torn pectoral muscle which limited his appearance against the All Blacks to two minutes.
While Wales’ most successful region tried to cope with such a depleted squad, one of their chief rivals for the title, Glasgow Warriors, are today reunited with roughly half of the 22 players they provided for Scotland, Fiji and Canada.
The other half were presumably saving their energy for Toulouse in the Champions Cup next Sunday.
Should the Ospreys end up in the Pro12 Grand Final for the third time next May it will not be because of the Welsh Rugby Union but in spite of them. A demoralising state of affairs which can be remedied at a stroke by Wales settling for one Test fewer in November.
France, Ireland and Scotland can manage on three, as England did last year. It’s time the WRU did everyone a favour – players, fans and regions – by cutting back.
*This article was first published in The Rugby Paper on November 30.