Lack of Welsh Lions shows stark reality of systemic failures
Ahead of Wednesday’s British and Irish Lions midweek game against the Brumbies in the Australian capital of Canberra I came across a shocking statistic.
The match was the first since 1899 not to include a Welshman from the matchday 23.
I am not surprised that it has happened on this tour given only two Welshmen – scrum-half Tomos Williams and back-row Jac Morgan – travelled down to Australia, and the No9 has already been sent home injured. But it does lay bare how uncompetitive Wales are among the Home Nations at the moment.
Is anyone truly shocked, though? I didn’t think so.
Where are the Lions?
The Welsh game – both internationally and domestically – is in turmoil: the men’s team is on a run of 18 consecutive losses and could see that malaise extend to 19 with a second loss in seven days against Japan this weekend; the women’s team are stupidly touring Australia this summer, just weeks before a World Cup which is being hosted in England; the development team lost their opening two matches in the U-20 Championship and the domestic regions seem to be at war with the governing Welsh Rugby Union.
And all of that festers into a culture of failure, where only two men are picked for a quadrennial tour many players describe as the peak of Home Nations rugby.
For me it starts with the grassroots and investing in the future of fans. Wales is a small country, with fewer inhabitants than Dubai, and fans are being pulled in all directions by club and international football, rugby, Hundred cricket and athletics. The Welsh Rugby Union – with chief executive Abi Tierney and chair Richard Collier-Keywood at the helm – need to secure a future player pool amid growing competition.
Wales struggling for answers
It is the long-term solution to a lot of short-term pain, but it is something that needs to be done for the sake of the game in Wales.
Jac Morgan is a shining light for Wales; he has impressed massively on this tour thus far and I am sure will be in the mix for the three-match British and Irish Lions Test series against Australia.
But few would be able to find any of his fellow countrymen in Japan at the moment who would replace anyone in the current touring team, and that speaks volumes. In Scotland, England and Ireland there are world class players who didn’t make the cut.
So with no one pulling in the same direction and the domestic game decimated by years of mistakes, it is no wonder that the international game is floundering and the nation cannot produce a stream of Lions.
It’s been 126 years since a Lions 23 went without a Welshman, and that run being broken this week is damning of the systems that have led to the situation Wales finds itself in.
There is no quick fix, but the prolonged pain is surely enough to turn many away from rugby in what was once a Nome Nations heartland. And that’s a crying shame.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11