Welsh Rugby: What Went Wrong?

The previous Gatland era glory days of Welsh rugby seem long ago now. A decade of underfunding, mortifying defeats, lack of support for the regional teams. Big-name Welsh players with dementia diagnoses. Strike action threatened as c.70 players face redundancy unless a new financial framework can be agreed between the regions and the Welsh Rugby Union. Seemingly institutionalized misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia within the WRU exposed by the BBC. Unaccountable amateur committeemen influencing the running of a near £100m business while people with excellent business credentials leave the WRU and PRB because the Board refuses to listen to them. The WRU taking out loans they expect the regions to pay back after the loss of gate money under Covid restrictions but spending millions building their own hotel. All of this has brought Welsh rugby to perhaps its worst ever low. How have we reached this point? This book looks at the key events from the early 1980s to the present day which have brought Welsh rugby to its present crisis.