The legendary Jonathan Davies slams 'scandalous position' in Wales

Welsh rugby legend Jonathan Davies has slammed the situation in Wales that has led to the threatened players' strike for next weekend’s Guinness Six Nations match versus England. Failure to fulfil the February 25 game could cost the WRU upwards of £9million in much-needed revenue as it grapples with a financial crisis it is nowhere near solving.

No contracts are currently on the table for players at the four regions whose deals expire at the end of the 2022/23 season and the situation has now turned nuclear with the national team considering whether to play next weekend or give the match with England a miss.

The latest development in the controversy came on Tuesday when the WRU called off its planned 12-noon announcement of the Wales team to play England.

That denied the union the opportunity to switch the narrative onto selection and on-pitch matters and temporarily move away from all the negative headlines surrounding contracts and this Wednesday’s scheduled meeting between the WRU’s professional rugby board and the Welsh professional players.

It’s a standoff that the legendary Davies doesn’t like. His gut feeling is that the Six Nations match will eventually go ahead but he is dismayed that the sport has fallen into such disrepair. Appearing on the latest episode of The Rugby Pod, he quipped: “I’m glad I have retired with all this hassle going on.”

Asked for the inside track as to what is happening behind the scenes in Wales, Davies continued: “I don’t think anyone knows unless you are around the table and I’m not. It’s a serious threat, a well-timed threat really. It [Wales versus England] is the biggest earner for the WRU, the players know that. How that is going to have a knock-on effect if the game doesn’t go on to the regions and their finances I’m not sure but I just feel it is a decision they all came to and they had to do it.

“It’s a scandalous position to be in. You can’t expect players to perform when they have been promised finances to be sorted. It was pre-Christmas or whatever and it is still the situation. It was highlighted by Jack Dixon of the Dragons. He went off injured and he is up for contract renewal His confidence must be shattered and he is worried because who is going to sign a guy who is injured? It makes it harder.

“They are serious about it and hopefully they can all get around a table and get it sorted ASAP. Everybody wants the game to go ahead and I’m sure all the players would but unfortunately, they have been caught up in a situation. It’s not a great reflection on Welsh rugby and the WRU and they have had a disastrous last couple of months.”

Davies believes the Test match will ultimately happen but he has called for total reform of rugby in Wales. “It will go on. Gut feeling is everybody wants it to happen. Hopefully, this will be put to bed… But you have got to have a business plan.

"The regions have got to know where they are, the players have got to know where they are and we have always been told, just concentrate on your rugby. That is what the players want to do but they can’t do it because of the financial situation.

“The problem is the union doesn’t trust the regions, the regions don’t trust the union and I don’t think the regions trust each other. That has always been an issue and if you have got five parts to this, they should work in harmony for everyone to get better because they need the grassroots, they need the regions, and then all of a sudden you have got Wales. For me, it’s the union’s fault that it has come to this.

“They had to try and nail it down ASAP. I can understand that maybe the regions have squandered the money. I do think that across the board now, not only in Wales, they have got to look at player salaries," reckoned Davies.

"When you have got clubs like Wasps and Worcester going through and then Leicester needing a cash injection, it’s not sustainable. They have got to look at contracts and players will go, ‘Why are we taking a cut?’ Because for the longevity of the game they have to and they have to be realistic about salaries.

“I don’t know how that is going to work… but what they need first and foremost is trust between the lot of them. I don’t even know what (Warren) Gatland is going to be doing. Is he staying, is he going to be a rugby director? What influence is he going to have over the regions? The regions won’t want him to come in because he is a union rep.

“So this is an opportunity to have total reform, on finances, on the rugby, on the culture in the WRU. You need a CEO to run the business and either a CEO or a director of rugby to run the rugby because we have been failing the youngsters. I am looking at it now and we haven’t got strength in depth and I do blame coaching at the lower level.

“When you get to regional standard you shouldn’t have to be taught how to pass or how to kick, which tackle to use in a tackle. We have failed the youngsters coming through as well because we neglected the finances at grassroots and age-group rugby.”