Wales coach Warren Gatland rebukes team over strike threat

Warren Gatland admitted that the appeal of the Wales shirt is not what it once was and that its past successes have “papered over the cracks” of the country’s rugby woes.

Head coach Gatland showed tangible signs of the effects a remarkable week has had on him and his team. He seemed a bit jaded but, as always, he chose his words carefully and appeared to criticize his own players for their goal threat which put England’s game in doubt.

The Gatland side will face their bitter rivals on Saturday, but the match was in doubt until Wednesday night with the Wales side considering attacking unless their contractual demands were met. In the end, a compromise was reached after a remarkable few days.

‘It has been a challenge. There’s no doubt about that,’ Gatland said after naming Cardiff rookie center Mason Grady for a Test debut against England and ruling out Liam Williams and George North.

Gatland have shredded their team, making a total of nine changes from the team that was beaten by Scotland. His previous comments about him going to England were just as fascinating as his selection for the Cardiff clash.

“When the players have meetings and only they are involved, you are not very sure of their demands. I support the players in terms of the action that was taken,” Gatland said.

I guess young people are sometimes a bit impulsive. There probably could have been a period in which they could have established their demands. It came quite quickly and there was a lot of pressure put on the Union and the regions to figure things out because they finally decided they had had enough.

“Maybe there could have been a little more warning, but that’s the way it is and they made those calls.” I think in the end they are quite happy with the result.’

The Welsh players wanted the abolition of the country’s controversial 60 cap rule, a representative on the Welsh Professional Rugby Board, and the removal of the variable fixed element from proposed contracts if they did not go on strike. After a crisis meeting with the Welsh Rugby Union, a compromise has been reached, meaning the England game will go ahead as planned.

A moving Gatland opened up about his belief that his trophy-laden first spell in charge of Wales had distracted the country’s rugby bosses from the issues below the surface.

Those problems came to a head with the threat of a player strike amid contract chaos and budget uncertainty.

“Now looking back on the first term I was here, a lot of these problems were going on, but the fact that we had had reasonable success probably covered the cracks a bit,” said Gatland, who has suffered losses to Ireland and Scotland. in his first two games back in command.

He was preventing the dam from breaking. The dam has now burst. It’s busted because the regions feel they don’t have enough funds. As a national team we are not having success. The desire to play for Wales and to be in Wales potentially isn’t as strong as it used to be. Winning often hides the problems that occur behind the scenes.

“Maybe there were disgruntled people in the past, but now it’s highlighted by the fact that maybe there are a number of players who are thinking about whether they want to play their rugby in Wales.” With us as a national team not doing well in the first two games, they are probably looking for other opportunities abroad.”

With the 60 cap rule, which restricted players from playing domestic rugby outside Wales and also playing at Test level unless they had that many caps, falling to 25 with immediate effect as a result of the lawsuits of the players, some are likely to move. abroad.

That’s for the future, but now Wales must try to focus on the present. Gatland has made big calls by shutting out Liam Williams and North and leaving fly half Dan Biggar on the bench. Owen Williams replaces Biggar. Grady and Joe Hawkins, both 20, form a young midfield and Louis Rees-Zammit is back on form.

In the group, Gatland has left for the experience and Tomas Francis, Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau return. The roof of the Principality will be open at the request of England.

“For both of us, this game is absolutely massive,” Gatland said.

The key question from a Welsh perspective is how the chaos off the pitch will affect them once play begins.

Gatland canceled his team name on Tuesday as planned while the match was in doubt and revealed that his players had asked him to do so.

The change from the 60 to 25 cap rule will have a huge impact on Gatland and Welsh rugby in the coming months and years, but that will have to wait.

We have a lot of work to do to get to the levels that I know we can achieve. We are not at those levels yet,” Gatland said.

“There’s potentially a little more pain to go through, but I’m sure we’ll come out on the other side.”

After a week of untold anguish and chaos as the threat of strike overwhelmed the build-up to the England game, everyone connected to Welsh rugby could do the exact opposite of more grief.

Now it’s up to Gatland and his players to try and provide a ray of light.