Sharp knives out for Welsh rugby coach

Press, 17 June 1988, Page 20

Sharp knives out for Welsh rugby coach

BOB SCHUMACHER

looks at the disastrous Welsh rugby tour of New Zealand.

When a team stutters and stumbles on tour as frequently as did Wales on its recent antipodean rugby visit, some blame must inevitably be attached to, and accepted by, the management. Welsh journalists on the calamitous tour kept their knives in sheaths until a late stage before the “Western Mail” newspaper correspondent pressed for the resignation of both the coach and assistant coach, Tony Gray and Derek Quinnell, respectively, on the eve of the second and final test against the All Blacks. In typically benign manner, Mr Gray said that he would wait to read the article before making comment. But when the Welsh Rugby Union holds its annual meeting next week-end it would be of no moment should Mr Gray’s resignation be among the correspondence. If he does not resign he will almost certainly be deposed. Twice capped for Wales as a loose forward some 20 years ago, Mr Gray has been in charge of Wales for its last three contests against New Zealand. In those three tests within the last 12 months Wales has been credited with 18 points; on the debit side has been 155 points.

Before Wales undertook its tour, the captain of the successful 1971 British Lions team down under,

John Dawes, described Mr Gray as “the Perry Como of coaching — totally relaxed.” It may have been better had Mr Gray possessed a Michael Jackson personality — impetuous and vibrant — for the laid back training approach manifested itself in competitive matches. It is hard to imagine the present All Black coach, Alex Wyllie, or for that matter, any other New Zealand coach calling off training early or postponing it because the conditions were a mite frosty. Ironically, when Wales cancelled its scheduled morning training run at Lincoln College in preparation for the first test because of overnight frost, the ground at Lincoln College was bathed in sunlight and free of any sign of frost. As head coach, Mr Gray had responsibilities beyond the team itself. Pre-match interviews and after-match interviews are burdensome at times and the after-match press conferences must have been especially painful for the Welsh.

Mr Gray declined to appear several times, leaving the answering to be done by the approachable team manager, Rod

Morgan, or the captain for the day. Disappointed and despondent though he must have been after Wales’ loss in the final test, Mr Gray’s non-ap-pearance at the final press gathering was inexcusable. While the ill-fated tour seems bound to have ended Mr Gray’s coaching future with Wales, it will be interesting to see what is in store for Mr Quin,nell. Will he resign? Will he be axed if he does not? Twice a British Lion tourist to New Zealand, the rugged Llanelli club stalwart was capped 23 times for Wales between 1972 and 1980. It was hard to judge his input on the recent tour. In appearance he and Mr Gray were poles apart — Mr Quinnell powerfully-built, bearded, seemingly as menacing as when packing down in the Lions scrum; Mr Gray, slender, bespectacled, quietly unobtrusive. Whether their thinking ran parallel or veered off at a tangent is not known. What is known is that the head coach has the final say. Before the Otago game, Mr Quinnell expressed sentiments which have since been echoed by the All Black first fiveeighths, Grant Fox, and

the man behind the fitness programmes of the All Blacks, Jim Blair. All agree that it was not a lack of fitness which contributed to the demise of Wales. They saw the Welsh malaise accruing from playing too much rugby. Mr Quinnell said the quality of northern hemisphere rugby had to increase and the quantity decrease. He said that he had made that plea after the British Lions tour of 1971 and it had gone unheeded. "We seem to be selfdestructive. We cannot criticise the players because we are putting them into a difficult position when we ask them to play so much rugby.” Fox said that the spate of injuries suffered by Wales was not the result of a lack of fitness. He said the players were having 50 or more matches in a season and, after having rugby commitments for the best part of two years — the World Cup was in the northern hemisphere off season — the bodies were in need of a rest.

Even allowing for the strain of constant rugby, the questionable coaching methods and the present high standard of play in New Zealand, Wales

1 failed to discover the “hwyl” needed to ensure a successful tour. It lacked in commitment and in refinement. The Welsh selectors and the touring management obviously did not see eye-to-eye on the abilities of some players. Certainly several of the replacements were seen in a better light than the players they had substituted.

Sympathy had to be extended to the young Llanelli new cap, Steve Bowling. A surprise choice at fullback, he was given just one match, against the second division team, Hawke’s Bay. Even after the first-choice fullback, Anthony Clement, returned home after being injured in the first test, Bowling remained on the outer, Mark Ring playing out of place in the custodian’s position and Jonathan Mason, a late replacement on the tour> being Ring’s backup in the second test.

The disappointments on tour were the halfback, Robert Jones, who showed nothing of the talent and tenacity displayed in the World Cup, Ring, Tim Fauvel, and the Llanelli lock, Phil May, whose bald pate was seen too often in the loose when it should have been buried in the tight.