Watkins joins Wales detractors
February 4, 2002

Wales rugby legend David Watkins has joined the growing line of critics of the Welsh international set-up following their 54-10 Lloyds TSB Six Nations defeat by Ireland in Dublin.

"It was hugely disappointing and I honestly believe it starts with the Welsh Rugby Union to look at the way in which they are conducting the game," he said. "The flak is being diverted all the time," he added.

Watkins - the only man to captain Great Britain at both rugby union and league - believes the management structure of the national side is top-heavy and that money would be better spent on developing young players.

"We have a coach, a team manager, defensive gurus, kicking gurus and forward experts and we still can't get it right," he said. "There are Welsh players who can play better than they are."

With many Welsh supporters calling for the head of coach Graham Henry, on a reputed £250,000-a-year salary, Watkins said: "It is up to him he wants to stay and the Welsh Rugby Union whether they want him to go but it is clear-cut to a lot of people at this moment in time.

"He has a five-year contract so whatever happens he is going to be okay."

Watkins believes the coach is not getting the best out of the players.

He said: "The players are bogged down in a coaching era in which they are not allowed to think for themselves. I think a New Zealand culture doesn't always go down in Celtic Wales.

"You have to ask the question of how good is the preparation and what sort of confidence do the players now have in the coach.

"If my results in business were as bad as these I know I would no longer have a job."

He criticised the build-up to the Ireland game.

"Graham Henry said he had all the time they wanted to prepare but it went wrong," said Watkins.

"Then we had this stupid scenario of who was going to kick the goals. Stephen Jones had just landed 17 out of 17 and Iestyn Harris is a good kicker but we waited days for a decision.

"There are other things to concentrate on."

Watkins, chairman of Newport, also maintains that links between club and country - and the national coach - leave much to be desired.

"The Welsh Rugby Union have talked and talked about rapport with the clubs but we have no rapport with the union of any sort. And we have no rapport with the coach.

"The coach comes to games 10 minutes after the start and leaves straight away at the end. I would have thought he would spend more time talking to the clubs.

"A couple of years ago a few former players were invited to a trial match to give our opinions but because we weren't saying the things they wanted to hear it wasn't carried through.

"You only have to go to the annual general meeting of the Welsh Rugby Union to see how futile anything you say is."

Watkins urged a return to the basics.

"The coach should coach the players instead of getting involved in how the game is run, the players should concentrate on playing and the administrators should be held responsible for running things."

Watkins feels Wales fell behind when the game's professional era was launched and have never caught up.

"I don't think we have moved forward at all in the last four years and that has given us the headaches we have now," he said.

His club Newport have been criticised in the game for bringing in foreign players.

Watkins countered: "There are positive aspects. They have raised the standards, they put bums on seats and the professionalism they display is vastly superior to that of players who have grown up in south Wales."

He also insists too many players in Wales are paid for playing, blocking the development of players.

"They get paid down to about Division Five. Only players in the Premier Division should be paid.

"You get players in Division One content to pick up a couple of hundred quid a week and that stops youngsters coming through.

"Below the top level the game should be amateur apart from a few selected young players getting development grants," he said.

But Watkins believes the heads-in-the-sand mentality of officialdom and the expectation of a nation who desperately crave a return to the glory years is not a combination to bring about rapid change.

"If we beat France at the Millennium Stadium in a fortnight, and it's not beyond the bounds of possibility, the euphoria will be such that all the problems will be buried under the table for the next six months," he added.

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