By Steffan Thomas
Welsh rugby has been told it must continue to bring its best players back if they are to achieve continued success at test level.
This week former Wales centre Jamie Roberts became the latest high-profile figure to criticise the Welsh Rugby Union’s controversial 60 cap selection policy.
The Dragons midfielder accused the WRU of blackmailing players with less than 60 caps to remain at one of the four Welsh regions.
But former Australian prop Ben Darwin, who co-owns one of the biggest analytic companies in the world, insists dropping the 60-cap law would lead to disastrous results at test level.
“I think in the long-term relaxing their selection policy would be disastrous,” said Darwin, who co-owns Gaine Line Analytics.
“I know Robin McBryde very well and we’ve talked about the Welsh 60 cap law and how it affects them.
“I’ve also had a lot of conversations with David Moffett who was the architect of regionalisation so even though he’s hated in Welsh rugby the effects that his changes had, if you look at their Six Nations wins, has been pretty profound.
“With the 60 caps rule the problem is a lot of tests are being played outside the window so it’s far better if you have all your players playing at home. Picking players playing outside of Wales steals from tomorrow to win today.
“What you want is when a player walks onto the field for your club you want him to have generally played with his teammates before. That’s part of why Munster were so successful historically but if you select players playing all around the globe your chances of success at test is significantly less.
“What you want is to build cohesion at the regions. For example, Leinster are also playing together all the time whether that’s the first team, Leinster A, or the schools.
“You need the system to be drilled down. You want alignment of the province underneath your test side as much as you can.
“Secondly you need to stabilise and retain the development of talent as much as you can within the regions which means you get an accelerated level of talent development.”
The future of professional rugby in Wales is a hotly debated topic with Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets coming in for criticism.
And Darwin claims the evidence shows the fewer number of professional sides there are the greater the chances of success at test level.
“By reducing the number of clubs in Wales back in 2003 they’ve dramatically improved the performance of the Welsh team because they are now playing together as club mates much more often,” said Darwin.
“Your club system needs to be appropriately sized and the generally the smaller the better. Let’s say Wales went to three clubs then what would happen is the next layer down would be better looked after.
6 Nations banter starting a bit early? Wales just need to dump their dumb 60 cap rule. Doesn’t harm the Boks to pull from their entire playing pool, does it?
— Alastair Martin Henderson (@AlastairMarti16) November 14, 2021
“The talent would flow down. If those two clubs were winning Europe and sitting at the top of the URC they would get better crowds, more profitability, and Welsh rugby would be better off for it.
“That talent would then shift down a level. If you’ve got too many clubs, you tend to get money thrown around for no reason.
“If you look at Gatland with Wales he kept his squad very tight, and their defence got better and better. The correlation between cohesion and experience and defence is ridiculous.”
