Peter Jackson: Gatland’s Law pays no heed to loyalty

The Welsh Rugby Union really ought to write a thankyou letter to those nice people who run the big English clubs, Premier Rugby Ltd. There is no time to waste, not now that the latest Wales squad announcement has brought another tacit admission that the so-called ‘Gatland‘s Law’ carries about as much clout as Donald Trump at a Women’s Rights convention.
All those dire warnings from the WRU about how those players who opted for the greener fields of England and France would suffer as a consequence have come to nothing. The fans – remember them, the people who actually pay the players’ wages? – have been sent so many conflicting messages that they could be forgiven for retreating from the subject in bewilderment.
Worse still, what about the assurances promising those who stayed at home reward for their loyalty, that they would have an advantage over rivals playing outside Wales? Take Scott Williams as an example.
His Test selection depends on getting the nod over Jamie Roberts at inside centre, all the more likely when the fixture in question, Australia in Cardiff on Saturday week, falls outside the Test window as decreed by World Rugby.
The English clubs’ umbrella organisation, Premier Rugby Ltd, have long decreed that none of their non-English players will be released for such matches. They are under no obligation to do so. They also have businesses to run, a fact that ought to be appreciated by those players paid more for their services in England than they were in Wales.
And yet instead of accepting that players like Roberts and George North are out-of-bounds for the Wallabies fixture, the Welsh management suggested in midweek that they might be available, after all.
Far from using them as an example of how playing outside Wales can be injurious to your Test match health, they gave the impression of bending over backwards to reclaim them by bending their own rules. In that respect they appear to be putting players like Scott Williams at a disadvantage.
Only last month head coach Warren Gatland was telling anyone who cared to listen: “A couple of big names and big players are going to miss out in the autumn. That’s going to be quite dramatic. Everyone’s been questioning whether we are going to stick to that policy and I can guarantee you that that’s going to happen.”
Which “big names and big players” would they be, Warren?
As far back as last December, WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips predicted that “the current selection policy will start to bite in the next 12 months … there will come a time where we will be unable to pick people.”
And who, now that the 12 months are almost up, would they be? The big Premiership guns have been picked en masse – North, Roberts, Luke Charteris, even Taulupe Faletau and he hasn’t played since the first day of the season.
The only player to miss out, Rhys Priestland, has done so for two reasons neither of which has anything to do with Gatland’s silly law. Priestland has not been picked (a) because he has hardly played for Bath this season and (b) because Sam Davies has overtaken him in the national fly-half ratings.
Priestland said as much the other day, speaking, as he always does, with a refreshing candour, a quality in depressingly short supply among those of his breed taught parrot-fashion to say little more than media gobble-de-gook.
His absence has nothing whatever to do with the fact that he is employed outside Wales. Had he so wished, Rob Howley could have made him a wildcard pick, in place of Faletau who is unlikely to be fit before the last match, South Africa on November 26.
The WRU’s ‘player selection policy’ is riddled with so many get-out clauses that there is a loophole for just about every exiled player.
Leigh Halfpenny is still treated as though he never left, free to carry on despite signing a contract extension at Toulon and despite Cardiff Blues claiming their offer was “on the table”.
Of course, Halfpenny should be the first name on any Welsh team sheet but then why go to all that trouble of warning that he and his likes will fall foul of the player selection policy if that policy amounts to a load of old tosh?
Charteris’ status remains unaffected despite his transferring from Racing to Bath, preferring to go there than back to Wales. The Blues made a bid but, according to the WRU, theirs came after Charteris had signed for Bath.
It sends a confusing message from a governing body supposedly cracking down on those outside Wales as a deterrent aimed at dissuading others from following them down the yellow brick road.
If Halfpenny, for example, decides to sign for Wasps all he and his advisers have to do is keep shtum until the bids come in from Wales, then tell them they’re too late.
Tomas Francis responded to interest from the Welsh regions by staying at Exeter on a new, long-term contract. Despite that he is free to carry on regardless for Wales without having to bother about securing a wildcard. Test tightheads are in short supply.
As I said the other week, the policy has more holes than Carnoustie. Now it makes Henry’s bucket, the one with a hole in it, dear Liza, seem positively seaworthy by comparison.