First they came for the pro game…

They say a leopard never changes it’s spots, and in the same vein the Welsh Rugby Union Executive never changes it’s insatiable thirst for central control of rugby matters in Wales.

Does it matter that it can’t afford the level of central control it so desperately wants? No, of course not. This is the WRU after all. Instead they’ll demand someone else pay for that central control for them and gift them the honour of running the rugby departments at the surviving professional clubs despite having no track record of successfully running a hunt for chips on Caroline Street.

Their plans for the operating of the professional game in Wales are absurd. They are not attractive to private owners or supporters – the two key stakeholder groups that they most need to attract. Not only do they want benefactors to carry all commercial risk without any control over the rugby in a rugby club, but they also want them to pay back their loans and take 50% of any profit on top of that.

If it wasn’t so tragic and packed with condescension it would be laughable. How on earth do they expect to sell Cardiff to anyone competent or well meaning when that is the operating model on the table? You barely need a GCSE in Business Studies to laugh them away from the negotiating table.

Concerningly though the WRU are not stopping there. The plans for the new academy system are worrying in their lack of soul. Nobody is going to complain about additional investment in, and focus on, the pathway, it’s universally accepted that it’s the area of Welsh rugby crying out for it as the good coaches and staff in the current system work with their hands tied behind their backs.

Having a centrally run National Academy complemented by two centrally run Regional Academies; one covering west and north, and the other central and east, is an interesting plan for player development on paper but without a set link to the pro teams it feels somewhat empty.

Yes, the young players should get an excellent rugby education in good facilities with a top level of coaching and support, but they don’t develop that emotional link to their future team alongside that. If they simply get assigned to whichever professional team they fit on a succession planning basis without any connection to where they’re from the whole thing becomes very sanitised.

And that is then set to continue through the pathway as the Welsh Rugby Union announced plans for additional investment in, and changes to, Super Rygbi Cymru last week.

As you might expect for a piece of work from the current WRU Executive, it is 90% corporate management waffle, but it rightly points out the current SRC is working well to increase quality, reduce the average age of players at this semi-professional level, assist in coach development and retain community links in the locality that each team is based in.

However, the headline grabber is that the Union intends to employ the Head Coach of every team in the competition. The explanation for this is “providing increasing coaching provision and implementing a unified playing and coaching philosophy”.

The second half of that sentence is almost nonsensical to my mind. From a player perspective what good is a development league where all teams are coached to play in the same way? How does that prepare a young academy graduate for stepping into whatever first team they’re assigned to and coming up against a different playing style every week?

It’s a strength of the league currently that young Cardiff players playing for the Rags can go from the running rugby of a Llandovery on their artificial pitch, to a balanced side like Newport at Spytty before going up to the direct, forwards-oriented battle of Ebbw Vale at Eugene Cross Park.

Meanwhile from a supporter perspective we are told that should our professional team disappear or be replaced by a merger or new soulless identity then we can retain our historic club link in the SRC, but who wants to watch yet more WRU controlled nonsense at this level? The league is currently an entertaining spectacle which struggles to attract eyes to it, this change would be even less attractive.

It’s another example of the arrogance of the WRU that after presiding over a decade of decline of the professional game in Wales they still believe they are the answer through central control. The new regime begin to make the right noises in certain areas, but ultimately let themselves down with this never-ending quest to micro-manage every element of the pathway, academies, semi-pro game and professional clubs.

Hopefully it is a case similar to that of the initial “optimal solution” whereby the Union pitch a wildly over the top version of a structure and then negotiate to a somewhat favourable middle ground for them where change is pushed through to an acceptable level rather than a fundamental dystopian remodelling, but it’s not exactly a glowing example of collaborative working.

As things stand there’ll be very few people left watching the professional level or the SRC, with the Principality Stadium noticeably empty in the final 10 minutes of Saturday’s game between Cymru and South Africa. Voting via feet will only continue if the WRU don’t develop some sort of real world feel to their plans.