Where have the all the great Welsh rugby players gone?

Evan Wall

Welsh rugby is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The men’s team sit 12th in the World Rankings, while all the regions finished in the lower reaches of the URC. The women’s side, unprofitable and struggling for support, have just been knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage.

Meanwhile, the WRU’s commercial ventures — a hotel and a roof walk at the stadium — are costing money rather than making it. And the final blow? The bureaucrats are preparing to cut two teams altogether.

All these factors indicate that the system is not working. Wales is no longer producing a high standard of rugby, and fans are no longer as interested or engaged as they once were.

Detached

The crux of these problems is that the heart of Welsh rugby has been detached from the body.

The WRU have detached the game from the clubs and communities that created great players in the past, replacing them with clubs people don’t identify with to the same degree.

Subsequently, without the heart of our body, we no longer produce the players we once were able to.

12th in the world rankings (up two from 14th), only two Lions are the headlines.

But the problems run deeper, 10 of the 34 (29%) players in Wales 2025 squad were foreign-born,  meaning they did not come through the Welsh system.

In addition, 11 of the squad play their rugby in the English system. Less than half the Welsh squad were developed by or play within the Welsh domestic system.

This is striking because it shows that the current system and region-centred approach is deeply ineffective.

Robotic

Also, our better players are those that aren’t Welsh produced. I’m not going to name names because it is a systematic issue, but the homegrown players we see now are not on the same par as those we once produced. They they lack rugby intelligence and spirit. They are too robotic and chiselled.

On the Pontypridd rugby website, this issue is confronted head-on: “C**diff meanwhile are laughing all the way to the bank as they still don’t have to develop their own players (the valleys will do that for them), and can now officially, and with WRU approval plunder, the talent from north of Taffs Well to use and abuse as they see fit.”

The new model forced upon Wales by the WRU has not created regions which produce their own players. Rather, they are franchises that take from disempowered clubs and offer very little in return.

An aftereffect is that because the clubs that historically produced Welsh rugby greats have been bundled into the (not so) “Super” Rugby Cymru, they do not produce the same volume or quality of players, nor can possess the same appeal to their communities because it is an uncompetitive league.

The final nail in the coffin is that and decent talent they do produce gets poached by the franchises.

Interest in Welsh rugby (as a sport) has never been so low. Welsh rugby has never produced so little talent or performed so poorly – and the root cause of this plight is the switch to regional rugby.

Pontypridd

Think of some of the last great Welsh players, then consider where they learnt their trade.
Gethin Jenkins, Gareth Thomas, amongst others, were toughened in Pontypridd and Bridgend, not the Cardiff Blues or Celtic Warriors.

Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones were both product of Llandovery and Swansea, before they achieved fame at the Ospreys. James Hook and Shane Williams cut their teeth in Neath, before being poached by the Ospreys.

My favourite player, Dan Lydiate did not develop his world beating tackling technique in a gym or in the Dragons academy. His famous chop tackle technique came from grappling with sheep in Llandrindod Wells.

These players were not made by the regions; they were simply on show there and capitalised upon.

These players, whom we all love, and their national team success were not the product of the regional system; rather, they were the last line of production from the old Welsh way of rugby.

In 2011, had it not been for a bad refereeing decision, Wales would’ve won the World Cup (or at very least reached the World Cup final).

Home-grown talent

Even better, this success was fostered off the back of home-grown talent. The poster boy was Rhiwbina and Glamorgan Wanderers Sam Warburton, alongside the sheep Tackling Dan Lydiate.

Great skill and Welsh spirit possessed that team, a side which was robbed of its own greatness. Players such as Mike Phillips, James Hook, Stephen Jones, Shane Williams, Jonathan Davies, Ryan Jones etc were possibly the last class of the old format of Welsh rugby.

Oh, how we lament for the skills of those players who came from clubs that the WRU have abandoned!

It’s no coincidence that since the original Welsh clubs have been cut off and reduced to insignificance, the flow of great Welsh players has almost run dry.

Now, any solution for the current crisis has to see respect and homage paid to  the Welsh way of rugby, before the regions the were created.

Much attention has been paid to the closing of the Welsh fly-half factory, but it seems that our backs and forwards production lines are struggling too. The last line of community born Welsh rugby players (such as AWJ), plucky national results, effective recruitment and flexible nationality rules have all papered over these cracks.

A proud Welshman, Evan Wall is a doctoral Researcher working in the International Politics department of Aberystwyth University. His research focuses on the connections between Welsh and Irish nationalism. He grew up playing rugby in the South Wales Valleys.