Posted by When the Ospreys announced that Head Coach Toby Booth is set to depart the club at the end of the season it didn’t seem anyone was quite prepared.
The Englishman will call time on his spell in Swansea after five years at the helm, taking the Ospreys from a side with plenty of big names but a limited game plan and mixed results, to a well-rounded squad that made the United Rugby Championship play-offs last season.
All that, of course, against the backdrop of Welsh Rugby desperately attempting to self implode with Project Resets, merger talks, the new PRA, strike threats and extreme cost cutting.
We once again enter a new season with an air of uncertainty hanging over all four professional clubs as Richard Collier-Keywood, Abi Tierney and the new Welsh Rugby Union Executive Board attempt, no doubt with the help of yet more external consultants, to thrash out some sort of strategy.
The smart money would be that any “strategy” just ends up being more of the same; muddling along with limited playing budgets attempting to punch above our weight, while the Rugby Mad Welsh Public struggle to understand why there’s no club success, the best players keep heading abroad and the national team don’t win anymore.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
For the Ospreys that creates a particular uncertainty as if the WRU did go nuclear and give notice on the PRA with the intention of dropping a professional club then, as much as their fans won’t like to hear it, they would be a candidate to fall on their sword from a purely economic sense.
Now Booth hasn’t confirmed a reason for not wanting to carry on with what he has created in the mid-west of Wales, but it’s a fair suggestion that operating under the constant circus of Welsh Rugby over the last four years must have placed a major strain on the 54-year-old.
Couple that with what are likely to be ongoing restrictions from a financial and planning perspective, and when asking himself the question of “what more can I do with the Ospreys?”, the answer may have been “not much more”. Have a go at winning the Challenge Cup this season, try and repeat the URC play-off heroics, and then search for a role outside of Wales where serious and sustained success is possible.
This is the warning for Welsh Rugby generally as that situation is very likely to be repeated elsewhere. Take Cardiff, for example, and the job Matt Sherratt has done to turn the shambolic situation of last summer into the current squad that contains plenty of exciting talent.
There is still room for growth at the Arms Park as the young stars improve with greater experience and hopefully narrow losses become wins, but ultimately there is a ceiling to that where investment is needed to make squad additions that improve the playing group and take them to the next level. It is unlikely that level of finance will be forthcoming in the immediate future.
Then when the young stars have established themselves as internationals and are seeking new and improved contracts in two-to-three years it’s unlikely we’ll be able to keep hold of them all, let alone be able to add to the squad alongside them.
At that point Jockey may ask himself similar questions to those Booth appears to have asked around chances for future growth and success, and come to the conclusion that handshakes and well-wishes are best before looking to explore new pastures.
The Ospreys have planned the succession well with Mark Jones set to step up to the top job after a long coaching apprenticeship with Scarlets, RGC, Crusaders, Worcester and Cymru D20 among others. He’ll have been at the club two years by the time of his ascension, replaced as Defence Coach by the retiring Justin Tipuric who has been preparing for a switch to coaching for many years and who’s rugby brain is unquestioned.
That too is a lesson for the other clubs, but ideally they and the Welsh Rugby Union will get their act together in enough time to provide reassurance to the coaches, players and supporters that there is a realistic prospect of achieving major and sustained success.
They say it’s the hope that kills you, but first you need the hope to cling to!
Cardiff Rugby Life 