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Date Posted: 22:12:53 03/23/02 Sat
Author: confused
Author Host/IP: 213.1.129.183
Subject: We're accentuating the negatives

Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Scotland have all reduced the number of their elite teams with varying degrees of success, but one thing is certain, their teams are made up overwhelmingly of home based players. French and English clubs both have large numbers of overseas players but ensure that they have more than a small handful of teams operating at the highest domestic level in order to compensate for that. We are the only fools accepting an increase the numbers of overseas players in our game while reducing the number of clubs. It is a recipe for disaster.

The Wales and Wales A team heve been selected from the same 6 or 7 clubs for the last few seasons. These are the clubs which have been taken part at european level and have, for several seasons experienced the toughest games available for any European club. A reduction to 6 "elite" teams would remove a small handful of easier fixtures from the schedule, but the clubs would not find any tougher competition than they currently experience.

The reason our players are not performing at international level is because there are too FEW welsh clubs at the top level not because there are too many. Look at the outside half position. 3 of the 5 top rated welsh qualified fly halfs play for Cardiff. Iestyn Harris, Nicky Robinson and Neil Jenkins (once fit). This means that 2 of the 3 will either be warming the bench or playing out of position week in week out.

Overseas players are becoming more and more common, so our best players will not only have to share playing time with each other at these 6 clubs, but also with imported players. Each week a maximum of six welsh full backs, hookers, fly halves and scrum halves will play. More realistically two or three of these positions will be filled by non-welsh players. This means in key positions you will only see 3 welshmen taking part in these much sought after "tough" fixtures. Not much of a choice for Steve Hansen particularly if the incumbent international is injured or suffering a loss of form.

Six elite teams could only work if they used welsh players exclusively. Real improvement will come for international players when their places are threatened by 6 or 7 players not by 1 or 2. Look at England's hookers, in recent times we have seen Cockerill, Greening, West, Regan, Thompson and others all challenging for the international berth. In Wales we face the prospect of our best young hookers being confined to bench duty behind an old stalwart or overseas import or playing at semi-professional level.

Our best young talent not only needs to be playing every week, but need to quickly take on the responsibility of key players within their club teams. This won't happen while they are in squads with 10, 12 or more experienced internationals. Our reserve half backs today (Peel and Robinson) are not key players within their own clubs. Both should be first choice players at clubs that depend on them to produce the goods week in, week out. It would mean leaving the safe confines of Llanelli and Cardiff and force them into taking full responsibility rather than sharing their duties with older or more seasoned players.

Our best players need to be spread over a wider number of clubs. Ever wonder why we don't seem to produce dominating players? It is because we have far too many of our best players cossetted within 30 man squads. They can afford to be good without needing to be outstanding and only get found out when stepping up to the highest level. The gap between our "full" side and "A" side is minimal, this is because our system of a small number of top clubs produces dozens of good players but very, very few outstanding ones.

With the proliferation of overseas players in the welsh game we need at least 8 and possibly as many as 12 clubs in our leagues (if three of these are scottish then our players should be looking to play for Glasgow, Edinburgh or Borders rather than be a squad player at Swansea, Newport or Cardiff). The best players must be discouraged from congregating at two or three clubs. Young players must be exposed to regular pressure games as early as possible. Even with the best players further spread out , the top teams each year will still be competitive at European level (or at least no less competitive than they currently are) having been successful at a tough and competitive league.

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