The saga continues

If bad things come in threes, then bad things in Welsh rugby seem to come in dozens. I had a long list of topics to broach during this past week and only got halfway through them. The WRU was next in-line but they will have to wait until Monday because I'd like to talk a little about the latest nonsense going on.

Let's start with the obvious. Dwayne Peel is contracted to the WRU during the Six Nations. The regions, who are mostly bankrolled by the WRU, signed an agreement stating that Wales will have first say on their international players during this period. Simple as that. Scott Johnson, were he so inclined, could have told Gareth Jenkins that he wasn't going to have any of his Llanelli players in; the Welsh squad, or in the first XV, or who are most vital to Wales at present. Instead he allows every Llanelli player bar Peel to play for Llanelli against Bath today in the Powergen Cup semi-finals in Cardiff. Did he do this out of sheer spite? Of course not. Wales are short of scrum-halves with Gareth Cooper injured and Mike Phillips not having had a lot of recent game time (for the record I don't agree with him playing for Cardiff last night though). In the face of this obvious issue, Gareth Jenkins throws his toys out of the pram and complains of being hamstrung blah blah blah

Will someone please clear this up fast. Everything is down in black and white, Llanelli have no prerogative to claim they can still play him and why does this keep coming up? The regions, I use the term very very loosely, receive a large amount of money from the WRU to run their clubs. If they didn't they'd go bankrupt. More than that, in the stupid political identity dance that lead to the formation of the 'regions' Cardiff stayed Cardiff, Llanelli stayed Llanelli and Newport stayed Newport. Only Swansea, Neath, Pontypridd and Bridgend actually formed genuine regions. The other four then removed the best regional team, the Celtic Warriors - the only team to beat Wasps the year they won the Heineken cup lest we forget, so they could divvy up the players amongst themselves. Did I mention we were internally cannibalistic in an earlier post? Well here was further proof. So now one of the major hotbeds of Welsh rugby doesn't have a regional team, yet Gareth Jenkins is continuously bleeting on about how badly Llanelli and himself personally are being treated. I don't care if you can't work with the WRU, you were passed over two years ago for a reason. Another year of a few decent results (including a decent one point win against Bath today) in an otherwise weak season, does not make you a good coach - especially when you have the whole Welsh backline in your region near enough. It is not up to the coach to dictate terms to the union, to say who should and shouldn't work be able to work with him.

The regions were set up to aid Wales. Not for the various entrenched chairmen and coaches to moan constantly about how unfair life is or to test the limits of their regional edicts. It's called not biting the hand that feeds you, something we in Wales seem unable to grasp as a concept. This isn't football where the dubious collides with pure greed based on the insane amounts of money the sport makes, this is rugby. A financially immature sport without the vast number of followers required to make progressively larger profits. Rugby should always be about the game, not about the player or coach or management. Once we lose track of this fact and wallow in each individual's self-importance then we become no better than football. Which is sinking very low indeed.