Give Dai Young The Credit He Deserves!

“I just don’t think his record stacks up and it never has,”
“He has made progress, but at a snail’s pace.
“It has been a slow process which has taken too long.
“Having been there so long, you would expect Dai to have really grasped the concept of what’s going on in the modern game".
“You have to say that hasn’t happened".

These are Mark Ring's comments on Dai Young recently. For some reason Ring has never had a good word to say about Dai Young. He recently said on Real Radio that the 2 cups Dai won with the Blues were "Mickey Mouse". Young has a lot of critics like Mark Ring but I believe he is a good coach and will be Wales coach one day. I think Dai has done a good job in his 9 year tenure as coach of Blues. People forget Young started as a forwards coach for Cardiff RFC who was suddenly thrown in at the deep end when head coach Rudy Joubert went back home to South Africa. Young took a barely professional club side with on and off field troubles to being one of Europe’s top teams. The 2 Cups that Young won with the Blues were not "Mickey Mouse" as Ring puts it.
Young took the Blues to EDF Cup glory stuffing Gloucester 50-12 at Twickenham. Just a week later, they were cruelly knocked out of the Heineken Cup Semi-Finals in a penalty shoot out with Leicester, having been unbeaten in the 6 pool games and knocking out Toulouse in the quarters finals. The next year although the Blues started the season badly Young soon turned it around as the Blues became the first Welsh side to lift European silverware. In front of 50,000 fans (just 500 or so Blues fans there), they beat French super-club Toulon to lift the Amlin Challenge Cup. The Blues have underachived in the Celtic League and Dai will have regrets about that and people question his recruitment ie Norton-Knight, Bryn Griffiths, Tom Davies, Dan Parks. However he did sign quality players like Ben Blair, Xav Rush, Paul Tito, Casey Laulala and brought through young players like Bradley Davies, Sam Warburton, Chris Czekaj, and Tom James. Overall I think he did a good job for us and hope he does well for Wasps. It will benefit him in the long run.

The question I want to ask is this. Why has Dai Young not got the credit he deserves in Wales yet in England top clubs like Leicester, Gloucester, Harlequins and Wasps have all made enquiries about Young ? In England he is highly thought of even the likes of Lawrence Dallaglio said "it's a great move" for Wasps to get Dai Young. So why does Dai lack respect in Wales but not in England ? Thoughts please...

I think his acquisition of certain players has been an issue. After two very good seasons winning silverware, signing a player like Dan Parks at pivot was not going to get the best out of the Blues backs. Harsh comments from 'Ringo' though imo.

You also have to factor in that some ex internationals will always have their own agenda in Wales; perhaps 'Ringo' has his.

As a Wasp I'm not sure that Dai is the right man for us. But then again, we do give people a chance. I certainly hope that we'll see the best of Nicky Robinson next season, and maybe Dai will have an influence on that score.

"give-dai-young-the-credit-he-deserves"

OK. Well done Dai. You managed to keep you'e job whilst your team under performed for years, you successfully took the credit for the professionalisation of your changing room by Rush and Blair, and once that novelty wore off you managed to get people talking of you as the next Welsh coach and landed the Wasps job. Fair play But, fairly impressive brass neck you've got.

That sort of thing?

With rush and blair's track record. It wasn't hardly a rusk bringing them in. Signing norton knight ( a full back, fly half wannabe) was a big risk. Add cooper and Sweeney to that list of bad signings.
I think the blues need rebuilding as young has allowed the squad to grow old. There's no money to spend, so what a great time to jump ship.
I can't see wasps giving young the amount of time that the blues have. 9 years, 2 trophies. The amlin was a great success, but the EDF i's mickey mouse. Come on. The dragons made the semis last year!
Iyou can't take away those trophies, but the blues only got of of there group once or twice and not only have they not won the magners, they've never come close.
What I find the most strange, i's that Peter Thomas doesn't want to lose him and has been touting him as the next welsh coach.
Well we'll soon see, but I don't see the wasps board being quite as patient and I don't see young pulling up any trees. Will be very interesting.

I think Dai is probably a decent forwards coach, as in out there on the training paddock with tracksuit on and whistle in hand.

However I don't think he is a Director of Rugby as can be seen by his recruitment of many duffers.

I hope he doesn't become coach of Wales as I just don't see what he has done to deserve it.

i remember back when dai yawn merely looked out of his depth in the top job.

season after season we failed to make an impact in the league and were never looking good enough for europe.

then the catalogue of singing disasters, and letting nikky go- we havent had a comparable (let alone better) FH since.

dai has had a major hand in ruining nikky robinsons wales chances and destroying a year in the young career of snk.

his coaching has been barely adequate and has struggled by because of the quality and experience of his squad.

he has failed the players and the fans. it was time for him to go last year. at last he is gone. i only wish he hadnt dodged the indignity of actually being sacked.

wales coach one day? personally i can wait. i dont want to see our dysfunctional squad utterly destroyed by dai yawns poor to catastrophic coaching.

Agree dogtooth. Why i's Peter Thomas such a fan of young? It makes you wonder if young saw out his contract until 2014, would Thomas have been looking to sign him on again?

Young was brought into a Blues team that had just been formed and was plagued with on and off field problems.

He leaves the Blues in a better situation than when he joined.

Although, people talk about him being there 9 years, he was only given any money to spend for the 2006/7 season, and from there managed to claim 2 tropies in 3 years.

He has made mistakes in signings, but has also brought in some real talent who have helped bring through the next generation of Welsh talent

Xavier Rush, Paul Tito, Ben Blair, Casey Laulaula, Andreus Pretorious etc make up for SNK and Parks.

Also, MOG, The LV Cup is a mickey mouse competition, the EDF was taken seriously and to beat a full strength Gloucester team 12 - 50 was something to see.

Dai Young isn't stupid, he's a hard task master and quite clever. The real problems he has is he isn't reactive to game changing situations, if Dan Parks is having a nightmare and he has Ceri Sweeney on the bench he will only change the player if he has the substitution in his game plan, he never seems to adapt when needed.
Secondly he seems to have a real problem with trying to put square pegs into round holes, Nicky Robinson left so he needed a fly half, but doesn't seem to know exactly what type of player he wants for his team.
Ceri Sweeney is a decent player but notoriously unreliable and generally only puts in strong performances when he comes off the bench. Next he tried Sam Norton-Knight a full back, who said he'd like to play fly half. Sadly he looked totally out of his depth at Magners League level and would probably only just about hold his own at Welsh Premiership level.
Then Dan Parks becomes available and Dai seems to buy him for the hell of it because he was stumped. With skilled players like Leigh Halfpenny, Tom James, Chris Czekaj, Ben Blair, Jamie Roberts and Casey Laulala are you really going to get the best out of those players by bringing in a fly half who's main talent is kicking the ball up field into the corners?
Do the Blues actually have such a strong line out that they could steal the ball on the other teams throw in once Parks has kicked it?
The answer is with Tito, Bradley Davies and Deiniol Jones as their locks a quite resounding NO! Their decent line out players on their own ball, but none of them have the skill or timing to consistently steal opposition's line out ball. So Dai's game plan is flawed from the start.

606. Young should be judged on HC and Celtic league. Hopefully we'll see the next generation come through now.
Also check your spelling. Don't pick others up if you can't spell!
At the end of the day if you're happy with young's record that's what counts. After all you're a blues fan so it's you who should be judging him. I take it 2 trophies and never challenging in HC and Celtic i's good enough for you?

I have never rated Dai Young as a coach.

Though the blues have achieved some marked goals in rugby they also failed miserably, almost pathetically in other areas...

And as mentioned above some of they players they contracted were dire Sam Norton Knight and Dan Parks being the most glaringly obvious failures. Why on earth they were hired in the first place amazed me. There performances never verified their acquisition or selection.

Under achievement being another issue, the blues, like all of the Welsh Regions are limited to excel. They cant play better than even fifty percent of their best ability in crucial games. It is remarkably frustrating.

Maybe a good time for Dai Young to move on.

I would not accolade the good performances to his coaching ability, but to the players. The failures to win bigger and better trophies and to achieve more over the last five years I do think surpassed Young's limitations as a coach.

There is something in what Ring has said, albeit very bluntly put. Nine years and one meaningful trophy is not enough imo. On how many of those years have the Blues even threatened the ML top spot? The answer is again not enough.

I'll be glad to see the back of Young so long as his successor isn't a brainless, dead end pick, which knowing the profound insight and thought put into the regional boards' decisions it probably will be.

He has some achievements - a Heineken Cup semi final and an Amlin Cup victory.

However his recruitment was very poor and a good Blues team may have underachieved,

Stag is the first rugby poster to hit 2000 posts- right here.

Young has been ok, not as bad as some Welsh fans make out, but it seems like he's taken the Blues as far as he can now. Maybe a new coach will be a blessing in disguise. I suspect if he does leave, Blues will have a season of rebuilding.

Basically, the Cardiff Blues 10 shirt has been his achilles heel. He was wrong to let Robinson leave and he's failed to bring in a good 10 since. That's part of what holds them back as a side.

And his Blues teams have always lacked consistency in the league.

Notch. If young goes, how can they rebuild with no money to spend? If you mean bringing through some welsh youngsters I think we'd all be pleased to see them follow the scarlets and dragons in giving youth a chance. It all helps the national team.

Yes, I do. They may be able to afford to bring someone else in if they get compensation from Young being bought out of his contract as well.

But more fundamentally, a new coach will want to implement his own systems and gameplan.

Notch wrote:Basically, the Cardiff Blues 10 shirt has been his achilles heel. He was wrong to let Robinson leave and he's failed to bring in a good 10 since. That's part of what holds them back as a side.

And his Blues teams have always lacked consistency in the league.

Very acute...!

Robinson was never the finished article, but he finished up at the Blues on an all time career high performance wise. Sam Norton Knight was a kipper as is Dan Parks. Money badly spent by a team who's financing is serious consideration.

So far as I know the Blues are lumped with Parks for another term unfortunately. It will be interesting to see who the new rein holder decides is a worthy candidate.

And Cardiff were always renowned for having the best half backs!

manofgwent wrote:And Cardiff were always renowned for having the best half backs!

Not sure any since Gareth Davies have really lived up to the immortalisation that surrounded "The King" or “Morgan the Magnificent” of the last century.

Well they did have howley and Jenkins in the 90's. They weren't too shabby!

The biggest disapointment for me, was he was there for 9 or 10 years and universally accepted as a strong scrummaging prop himself but could never develop the same at the Blues. If they came up against a half decent or strong scrummaging team they capitulated, to me as an Osprey, people slag us off for not realising our potential but as far as I'm concerned the Blues under DY are far worse.

wayne wrote:The biggest disapointment for me, was he was there for 9 or 10 years and universally accepted as a strong scrummaging prop himself but could never develop the same at the Blues. If they came up against a half decent or strong scrummaging team they capitulated, to me as an Osprey, people slag us off for not realising our potential but as far as I'm concerned the Blues under DY are far worse.

I agree they spend far more on wages than we do.

He's without a doubt been the worst long term (over 2 years) coach in the celtic league since its inception.

kiwicraving wrote:He's without a doubt been the worst long term (over 2 years) coach in the celtic league since its inception.

You forgot Michael Bradley.

Scott Johnson?

I don't accuse him of signing duffers. How many times over the years have good players gone off the boil in Cardiff? Promising players that can't deal with the temptations of the big city, who stagnate in a comfort zone? How bad was the Blues pack before Rush? One thing they could always do was cut loose behind, but he's strangled that out of them now as well like!

Young's record speaks for itself - it's not very good.

I'm surprised that the Blues have shown so little ambition over the last 9 years. They appointed him and effectively allowed him to serve an apprenticeship. Still - if the Blues are satisfied with the last 9 years that's their issue. Personally, I don't want Young coaching Wales - there are far better coaches in world rugby.