Talking ourselves to death

You have to wonder if some of the hierarchy in Welsh rugby have a death wish. Elementary things, like managing the relationship with the press, appear beyond them. Here’s Paul Turner, coach of Newport Gwent Dragons, talking to the Western Mail.
“It did look like some of the players weren’t playing for Gareth,” said Turner. “The players have to take a good hard look at themselves too.”
Highlighting the problem of increased player power in the professional era, Turner also questioned the commitment levels being shown.
“A lot of the players these days haven’t grown up like we did in the game,” he explained. “It’s just become a job.
“Whether we like it or not, we are in the professional age where you get player power. The coach who comes in will have to take absolutely no messing.
“At the end of the day these players are highly paid, professional athletes and you can’t treat them any different.”
In case you’re wondering, yes, some of those players are members of the squad at Newport. They’re players Turner has to foster a good relationship with. So what’s the logical next thing to happen? Here’s Michael Owen, a thoughtful player who has some of the stamp of a future head coach about him, talking to the South Wales Argus.
"When there are around 30 players involved you are always going to get strong opinions, some will say the coach is awesome while others will say he's no good.
"It's not a case of players not doing what the coaches asked, it's nothing like the players wanted the coach out or anything like that.
"You're bound to get a difference of opinion with so many players involved and some strong opinions, but nothing untoward happened.”
"We all let ourselves down. The players are equally to blame, we didn't perform and it's got to be a shared responsibility."
Now it’s hard to see any dissent there, but that’s before the journalists got to work on the story. According to the Western Mail ‘Turner’s comments simply reiterate the belief Jenkins had lost the support of some of his senior stars.’ According to the South Wales Argus ‘Player power was not involved in the sacking of Gareth Jenkins as Wales coach, insists Newport Gwent Dragons number eight Michael Owen, pictured. There have been allegations that some players fell out with Jenkins, that they didn't support him and went their own way in the crucial game against Fiji which Wales lost and led to the dismissal of the coach.
But Owen, who captained Wales to the Grand Slam two years ago and remains an influential member of the squad, denies the players had any part to play, though he does admit they have to share the blame for the disaster which has ripped Welsh rugby apart.
So you’ve got two different points of view being spun by journalists as a result of unguarded remarks by Paul Turner and Michael Owen. Nothing unusual there you might argue, but in the tightly knit world of Welsh rugby politics introspection and the kremlinology of every word uttered by ‘insiders’ is the real national sport. What’s a head coach doing even implying that some of his charges, when they were away on national duty, may have been giving less than 100% for the national side?
Sometimes, in employment, you have to be careful not to make public statements that harm your employers’ interests. That’s why good employers have press departments to support colleagues who have contact with the press, and set boundaries for them so that they can be safe in their work with the press. You have to wonder if someone at the Dragons shouldn’t have sat Paul down and reminded him that some of the players he suggests hadn’t been playing for Gareth Jenkins were ‘his’ players, people he has to work with for the rest of the season and maybe longer.

The Dragons, arguably, don’t have the resources to support Paul Turner in this way. I suspect Paul, reading this, will think it’s a criticism of him. It’s not. It’s a criticism of an introspective system where too many journalists with too many pages to fill have too much unrestricted access to figures who haven’t been trained and helped to avoid needless controversy. That’s not how professional sport should be run. Newport Gwent Dragons gain nothing from having senior employees who should work closely together being seen to disagree in the press. Welsh rugby needs to learn that lesson before it starts any inquiry to how we ended up at the world cup with what looked like a side of lions coached by donkeys.

Who'd be a coach?

Paul Turner told the Argus the other day he couldn't see any of the Welsh regional coaches wanting to apply for the Wales job.
Paul should know; he's in the toughest job in Welsh rugby, trying to get a quart out of the pint pot that is the Newport Gwent Dragons budget. The trouble is that Welsh rugby is an environment where coach and player development isn't succeeding. Part of the problem is the lack of professional leadership in the game. Coaches like Paul Turner find themselves filling a gap where professional managers should be, and all of it under relentless pressure from media, fans and the board. The abrupt but deserved defenestration of Gareth Jenkins without any attempt to work out what went wrong was a reminder for Welsh coaches of what a harsh environment the principality can be. In the absence of sensible structures that enable clear accountability no-one wins; not the players, the coaches or the fans.
Whenever things go wrong it's easy to blame the critics for pointing out what goes wrong. Better if some openness and frankness enabled the whole rugby community to genuinely engage with the past and work towards a better future.

Dragons 16 Munster 26

How did the Dragons come to lose this game?
Easily, in the end.
The chronology of the game is mundane. The Dragons weathered an early assault by Munster, moved into a well deserved 16-0 lead, then proceeded to lose the game as inexperience and an absence of leadership overtook them, aided and abetted by a ref who followed momentum.
The Dragons started badly, looking disorganised from the kick off and struggling to keep Munster out. It was a fortunate start for the weakened Dragons that reminded neutral observers that this wasn't Munster at their full strength either. Watching Parkes and Aled Thomas open the door for Munster on the tackle line by both pursuing the same player was a terrifying reminder that under Paul Turner the Dragons have had to rely on scramble defence to make up for the sheer awfulness of their defence in the five eightth channel regardless of who's played there. Munster's failure to take the lead raised false hopes for many Dragons fans.

That the Dragons managed to claw their way back into the game was a tribute to the spine of the team. Steve Jones was combative and feisty, and Joe Bearman had his best game in a Dragons shirt, outpacing a sluggish and slow thinking Munster backrow at every turn. On the front foot Evans at scrum half, hauled on after Andy Williams' knee gave way, looked lively and bright. The Dragons try, when it came, was a copybook piece of multi phase play off a line out in the Munster 22, embellished by some neat cleaning out from Steve Jones and a dart from Evans that exposed the frailties of the Munster defence. It's part of the Dragons paradox that when they reel off one of the coaching team's set plays they can look superb, often within minutes of looking naive and disorganised.

The problem for the Dragons for much of the game was that they had absolutely no invention. The wingers stayed rooted to their wings and Gomar-Davies and Ash Smith had to try and step their way through a defence that a poor ref allowed to lie up offside all night. When Smith limped off to be replaced by Gareth Maule you got the impression that honest endeavour was never going to be enough to regularly unpick the Munster defence. Gareth Wyatt had a game of less influence than the average water carrier, even managing to win the 'least mobile back player of the night' award off the officially retired Shaun Payne. Parkes looked utterly unsuited to the link role between forward and backs that this game demanded, and floundered at times as he tried to work out how to do all that was necessary. The most dangerous option the Dragons had was Evans darting from free kicks and penalties, and the ref took that option away with a display of pedantry that was shameless in its stupidity.

Nevertheless the Dragons were looking to turn round 16-0 ahead courtesy of Evans' try and three Thomas penalties. That was before a Munster try that unpicked the Dragons defence far too easily and suggested a lack of concentration or fitness so close to the half time whistle. A second Munster try just after the break left the Dragons suddenly looking like rabbits in the headlights.

And yet, if the Dragons had been better led, they would have still been able to win this match. A brave breakout by Bearman, ably supported by Charteris, ended three metres from the Munster line where the Dragons couldn't finish the break off. A surprise rolling maul that Munster could only cynically drag down tempted the Dragons to spurn three points for a kick to the corner. The adept defusing of the attempted rolling maul by Munster was as predictable as the ref's unwillingness to follow up on his threatened yellow cards against Munster players offending in the 22.

By the end, after Warwick had picked off a poor pass for an interception try the Dragons looked inept. They were never the same team once Bearman went off, while Andrew Hall's departure ushered on Peter Sidoli for a cameo of such rivetting ordinariness that it was hard to notice he was there, save for the moment when he picked up from a ruck in a move so telegraphed that it was a wet copy of tomorrow's Argus he couldn't run through.

Unlucky teams sometimes lose games they should have won, but losing teams often blame luck when a long hard look at what they're trying to achieve would make more sense. An organised and robust ten man game from this Dragons pack could have secured this game; arguably the loss of Williams early on decided this game. Nevertheless it's hard to see this side winning more than they lose this season