Warren Gatland has implored Welsh rugby’s warring factions to come together and resolve the dispute that has led their Six Nations campaign to descend into crisis.
Wales are due to meet England in Cardiff next Saturday, but as a contract row with the game’s governing body continues, the former captain Alun Wyn Jones said on Thursday that the players were willing to carry out their threat of unprecedented strike action.
The Welsh Rugby Players Association and the Professional Rugby Board are in dispute over a proposed six-year funding arrangement that would mean players’ wages were reduced and the introduction of a new bonus structure.
In a tense and dramatic week the PRB said there was no room for negotiation on the deal, prompting a furious response from the players’ body. Jones accused the PRB of “unprofessional dealings”, saying of the uncertainty over contracts: “It has come to a point where people are being affected, there is potential to affect families.”
The Wales squad left a sponsors’ event early on Wednesday and they are refusing to be filmed by Netflix cameras for a planned documentary until the disagreement is resolved.
Gatland said: “We’ve got to take away our parochialism and take away the self-interest. I’ve always been a big advocate of this. Let’s make the best decisions for the game. I come from a country when you’re in a bit of a crisis, you get everyone in a room, and you sort it out within 24 hours. The strength of New Zealand rugby has been the ability to change and change incredibly quickly. Probably the hamstring of Welsh rugby is that change is like a slow train … to effect change in Wales is time‑consuming.”
While stating he backs his players in their disagreement on pay and conditions, Gatland has refused to support the notion of a strike. The head coach said he believed there had been a “reset” prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and that players would be obliged to accept lower wages to make the sport economically sustainable.
“I felt the way the game was going before Covid, there was actually going to be a lot more investment, with outside investment, potentially growing the game in the US, and there’s a lot of money in Japan and France,” he said.
“The Covid situation has curtailed all of that and there’s been a reset from everybody in terms of investment. Probably the reality – and this is probably going to be tough on players – the reality in Wales is that, going forward, the expectation of players’ salaries is probably going to be 30% less than they’re currently on.”
Despite the deepening crisis, Gatland said he was “confident” the meeting against England would go ahead.
Of the challenge posed by Steve Borthwick’s side he said: “They’re a little bit like us at the moment. They’re going through a bit of transition with some new players in the squad, bringing in some youngsters. Bringing in younger players you’ve got to go through a little bit of pain.”
Wales have been emphatically beaten in their first two Six Nations fixtures, 34-10 by Ireland in Cardiff and 35-7 by Scotland at Murrayfield, and Gatland said improving discipline is an important focus. “You can’t win internationals giving away 16 penalties and then 19 the next game,” he said. “That’s a massive focus. The target is to get that number down and we want to tidy up some of the opportunities we’ve been creating. We’ve probably left at least half a dozen tries out there and not taken our chances.”
