(Photo: Getty Images)
By Peter Jackson
Dai Young is set to sign a long-term contract with Wasps that will effectively rule him out of succeeding Warren Gatland as Wales‘ head coach.
The Rugby Paper understands that Young has agreed to remain in charge of last season’s Aviva Premiership finalists for another six years, a decision that will force Wales to remove his name from their three-man short list to take charge of the national team after the 2019 World Cup.
Young’s deal at Wasps, due to run out at the end of next season, will be extended by four more years until 2023, a reflection of how highly the Welshman is valued at a club whose average Premiership attendance has trebled to more than 16,000 since his arrival from Cardiff in 2011.
Young refused to discuss his future but there can be no doubting his ultimate ambition to return home as national coach, nor that four more years of competing for English and European titles will make him even better qualified for the biggest job of all.
The 50-year-old Welshman had been short-listed along with New Zealanders Dave Rennie (54) and Chris Boyd (59). Rennie, who coached the Chiefs to successive Super Rugby titles, will now become Wales’ No. 1 target.
He had been head-hunted by the WRU last year before opting to succeed Gregor Townsend as head coach of Glasgow Warriors. Boyd runs the Hurricanes‘ Super Rugby franchise as well as the Junior All Blacks.
WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips, responsible for finding Gatland’s replacement when the Kiwi’s record eleven-year reign ends after the World Cup, refused to name names but acknowledged that one prospective candidate had told him he would ‘not be available until 2023′, that he thought that ‘would be the right time for him.’
He was almost certainly referring to Young. ‘’We have got the list down to three and there are one or two others whose names have popped up in conversations,” Phillips said. ‘’One or two have said: ‘I’m really loving the job I’m in. I want to give this another five years.’
‘’When you find yourself in a white-hot situation and there’s a massive call to be made or you have to make a tough decision on selection, you want people who have experienced that in their career. Maybe only three or four coaches in the world have been under that pressure.
‘’We don’t have a ‘they-need-to-be-Welsh-thing.’ It’s about putting the best possible man in the position to deliver. The head coach has to be allowed to pick his own team of specialists coaches and not have them picked for him.”
Northampton having expressed an interest in Gatland to fill the vacancy caused by Jim Mallinder’s sacking, Phillips made it clear the Saints would be wasting their time over any approach: ‘’I would tell them he is contracted to us and that he is unavailable.”
Wasps success in turning Young’s mission into a long-term mission will clear the way for a third Kiwi to join the revised three-man list, Scarlets‘ head coach Wayne Pivac. The exhilarating manner of their crowning as PRO12 champions meant they succeeded in captivating Welsh rugby where the national team had failed.
WRU chairman Gareth Davies plans to name Gatland’s successor before the start of next season. All three candidates, he said, saw the job not just as running the national squad but liaising with the four regional teams.
‘’We have three people in mind who tick all the boxes,” he said. ‘’They are aware of going to the next stage of more formal discussions. The main criteria for me is having a successful track record. It’s a huge decision.”
