Regional Coaching

OK its only one game but after yesterdays game against Ireland and the performances at the WC surely now questions must be asked as to why the playres seem to be THAT much better in the Welsh camp than when at the Regions.

Is it simply the coaching of gatland and Co that seem to get so much more out of the likes of Roberts, Evans, Jones etc etc

There's a few reasons for regional under-performance I think. Coaching, regional identity, support, team spirit. These things are all lagging behind the Irish provinces, who are the most obvious direct comparison. Coaching is the main thing they can fix in the short term. The other things can only be built over time, and can be driven forward by good performances on the field (which requires good coaching, as it happens).

The difference between the coaching being right and the coaching being wrong is clear in Ireland too, but in the opposite direction. Joe Schmidt is getting the best out of what's available to him at Leinster and they're playing like the All Blacks (at a lower level obviously; I'm not saying Leinster are as good as the All Blacks). Kidney has Ireland playing an out of date style of rugby that the players are not particularly suited to, and in any case, was made redundant at test level when the tackle laws changed.

Bedford, if you visited the Ospreys website, when Lynne Jones got sacked the majority of posters also wanted HOHUM to be sacked at the same time, now practically everybody wants the whole coaching staff gone including Hore and they want SJ gone immediately.
For the players that we have had we should have done a lot better especially in the HC, what WG gets out of the same players is no comparison to what our coaches accomplish. We have suffered injury wise to a few of our players and reintroducing them to our systems when so many were called up to Team Wales has been a struggle because of the different systems we use. That could be easily rectified by using a system much closer to the TW systems, (it couldn't be exactly the same as the Welsh players at the other regions would be able to spot it when playing for their teams)this has been mentioned on the website for a number of years.

Lets remember the mandate of the regions is to produce players for Wales and specifically to develop them.

Look at the Wales team?
Can we really say that where it matters (Wales) are our regional coaches and teams not doing their job?

We can put our regions down all we like and depress ourselves, and let the Irish provinces wave their Heinaken Cups at our regions from across the Irish sea, but frankly the star at the top of the Welsh Christmas tree is Wales and the boys in red are now 3-0 up against the lads in green.

Bottom line - Wales is producing talented, skilled rugby players and Wales has hope for the future. The Welsh have, and always will, measure success in Grand Slams!
Regionalism, the Heinaken Cup and the Rabo Direct is a means to an end.

As long as the like of Toby Faletau, Rhys Priestland, Jamie Roberts, George North, and Adam Jones are being developed by the 4 regions the coaches and regions are working brilliantly!

I don't want to state the obvious, but I think that Wales (Gatland) does much better than the regional coaches because he gets to pick the best bits from the regions and put them together! He can pick the Ospreys tight 5, chuck in a world class Gethin Jenkins to strengthen, chuck in the best the Dragons have to offer (6 and 8), pick some awesome Scarlets backs (10, 13, 14) and more than fill the gaps with a world class 9, the best 12 from the blues, etc.,etc.!

My point is that maybe there are 18 or so top players in Wales. Gatland gets to cherry pick the best and, injuries permitting, put them all together where they form a very good team. The regional coaches on the other hand only get to play some of these top players and then have to fill the gaps with lower quality players due to budget restrictions and quota caps.

I think in Ireland there are more 'top' players so the provinces are stronger across the board. In other words, maybe their non-Irish squad members (whether Irish or NIQ) are a lot stronger than ours and so are stronger than us in Europe? More depth maybe?

Look at the Dragons. I don't think it's a failing of the coaches that we are not competitive in Europe. It's just that we only have maybe 2 top players (Lydiate and Faletau) and are unable to afford/attract better players. Those players do do well at regional level but are surrounded by dross. The Ospreys have more internationals than the Drags, and do do better in Europe, but still probably only have 6 top players. They too perform well but are again surrounded by lesser players. The best european teams have pretty much intetnational
quality from 1-15. How can we compete with that?!

To be fair as well the Welsh squad has a pretty good calibre from 1-22 so it's easy to look good when surrounded by class.

The regions have around 10 good players surrounded by has been journey men and hangers on from an embarrassing age of Welsh rugby!

Imagine if Isa Necawa played for a region! he would surely strengthen it, but we have the likes of Tito.

Im sorry to say this but the regions will take another 8+ years until they really find there feet.

viewtothegym wrote:To be fair as well the Welsh squad has a pretty good calibre from 1-22 so it's easy to look good when surrounded by class.

The regions have around 10 good players surrounded by has been journey men and hangers on from an embarrassing age of Welsh rugby!

Imagine if Isa Necawa played for a region! he would surely strengthen it, but we have the likes of Tito.

View, yeah that's exactly what I was saying but I took 1000 words when you manage it in about 10!