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.