View from next door: Australia

As someone born in 1994 the last dark times of Welsh rugby were just drawing to a close as I became aware of the sport with the 2005 Grand Slam triumph. This feels very much like we are in the midst of my generation’s bleak period.

A record breaking 11th straight test defeat, a heaviest loss at the hands of Australia for nearly 30 years and a heaviest loss at home to the Wallabies since the 1991 Rugby World Cup. Going down 20-52 against a side we beat 40-6 just over 12 months prior is a marked turnaround on both fronts.

From a Cymru perspective you can look at the game in isolation; how the attack fails to really provide any cutting edge, how the defence collapses once it is even slightly stressed, and how the lineout folds once an error is made. Ultimately though it’s all symptomatic of wider issues around the national team and the game in general.

The mismanagement of the Welsh Rugby Union over the last decade and more is well documented, even if some of the national team fanboys and bitter old pro game haters will bury their heads in the sand. Failing to capitalise on the golden generation of 2012-2019, failing to succession plan and evolve away from that group, and now failing to deal with the fallout.

With a serious financial belt tightening at club level, and the loss of so many experienced campaigners from the national team, each Welsh side has seen a major overhaul in their squads and been forced to fast track talented groups of youngsters into their first teams.

Despite their potential, the inexperience and restrictive budgets each side are operating under mean that competing at the top of the United Rugby Championship and into the Investec Champions Cup is a pipe dream, especially on a regular basis. The players will not be exposed to, let alone be competitive at, the top level.

This makes the step up to test level extremely difficult. Young players, some of whom in an ideal world would probably still be developing through the development pathway and not even regulars for their club side yet, thrown into the test arena and expected to challenge with the best teams on the globe. It would be a tough task for anyone to get Cymru to a win over a tier one nation.

And yet, two things can be true. Welsh rugby can be in a bind and the national team be in a really tough spot, and at the same time Warren Gatland and his coaching ticket can be under performing and the set up in need of change.

The New Zealander had a seriously successful spell in his first stint as Cymru Head Coach, whether propped up by Shaun Edwards or not, and it was an understandable decision to bring him back in after Wayne Pivac’s departure through to the end of the Rugby World Cup, but extending him to 2027 post-France was a rushed decision with little basis.

Gatland demonstrated with the Chiefs that the game was tactically moving on from him, and that was also confirmed during 2023 back at test level. What was needed in the Welsh set up moving into 2024 with the squad overhaul was a modern and innovative coaching ticket who could design a game plan around a group of players that are undersized but quick and skilful.

Would results have been better? Perhaps not, but at least there would have been a style of play being developed as a team whereby individuals could improve within that. The narrative would have been around that growth, rather than the current state of affairs where the incumbent coach desperately tries to deflect blame on anyone other than himself.

Abi Tierney has reached a huge point in her spell as the CEO of the WRU and now has important decisions to make on multiple fronts. There has to be a sea change with the domestic professional game in order to get the players playing at a competitive level on a regular basis, there has to be a sea change within the WRU Executive around who is overseeing performance rugby, and there has to be a sea change in who is coaching the men’s national team with an entirely new coaching ticket required.

In the meantime attention now turns to the visit of the Springboks to the Principality Stadium on Saturday. Ahead of the Rugby World Cup last year they came to Cardiff and put 50 on us, if the men in red keep it under that in this fixture it will be a huge success. In truth, even getting out without serious injury will be classed as a small victory.

Once that is over, and the calendar year of defeats is complete, it’s all eyes on Westgate Street…