Lolcow – (n) A person or group of people laughed at for actions that they take, despite not trying to be funny. They may try to take themselves seriously, but are often “milked” for laughs with or without their knowledge (Urban Dictionary, 2019. Synonyms: court jester, buffoon, the Welsh Rugby Union)

The lolcow description may be one that sounds all too familiar to Welsh rugby supporters and rivals alike. Last Sunday’s result against Fiji is just the latest paragraph in what is this current chapter of embarrassment for the supposed national sport. A 10^th loss in a row equals Wales’s worst run of form in the modern history of Welsh rugby, and in all honesty, they’re sleepwalking to that being 17 before the Lions Tour next summer. After Australia’s massive win at Twickenham and South Africa being South Africa, it’s not likely that the Millennium Stadium will see a win this Autumn, and the way things are going I wouldn’t bet against a second wooden spoon in 2025. 

I have waited for years to write about this, but it never really felt like the right time to do so and I didn’t know what exactly I was going to say without it turning into an expletive-ridden rant. But given the results on the field have been poor for a while, the WRU are stuck in the seventies, they end up in the national press with another scandal what feels like every other week, and a head coach who’s hellbent on ruining his once untouchable legacy, it seems like now would be a good time to get it out there. This is probably going to be a long one, so buckle up.

I want to make this abundantly clear; this isn’t a piece going after the players. They’re doing all they can in a terrible situation and there’s heaps of talent in our player pool. It’s nothing short of an absolute miracle that they’re dusting themselves off and playing for the national team given how little the Welsh Rugby Union have given back to them in recent times. Any player involved in the international Welsh setup, be they actively in the squad or not, get nothing but praise and admiration from me.

When things go well for Wales, they tend to snowball. The wins get bigger and more impressive, the performances are strong, and they keep rolling on and on. Just look at that 2019 run that took them to a grand slam, the top of the world rankings, and a World Cup semi-final. The same, however, is true for when they go poorly. The losses come thick and fast with little rest bite with an occasional win over an Italy, Fiji, or Scotland depending on the time of year. This time? It’s different. The game has changed. Teams that were seen as smaller tier one sides have slowly been getting better over time and now, we’re starting to see the results. I’ve been banging the drum for Italy for years, and since 2022 they’ve solidified themselves as a legitimate competitor in international rugby. Alongside that, tier two sides are rapidly closing the gap with countries like Portugal, Georgia, and Uruguay all having strong outings in the last World Cup. This is a reality that the Welsh Rugby Union haven’t quite grasped, and I don’t think it’s something they want to.

It’s hard to recall a time where the WRU ever really held itself in glory, but the pigs ear they’ve made of the game over the last five years paired with scandal upon scandal has seen the organisation’s name driven into the ground. The complete mishandling of player contracts, absurd rules about where players are allowed to play their club rugby, lack of funding for the regions, no real support system to bridge the gap between the amateur and professional game, cultures of racism, homophobia, misogyny, and sexism being exposed, and a colossal mismanagement of the women’s professional game has left a sour taste in the mouths of many Welsh supporters. Words can’t describe how sickening the most recent scandal was, with the union threatening to withdraw the women’s team from the World Cup next year if they didn’t sign contracts.

This isn’t a new issue either, the WRU’s inability to put pride and ego aside has damaged Welsh rugby for decades and will continue to do so for a long time. If you have an idea how to improve the game at any level that goes against the WRU’s constitution then you’ll get laughed out of the room. All you need to do is look at the case of Carwyn James, where I believe the cracks in the union started to be exposed. The man coached the British and Irish Lions to a series win in New Zealand in 1971 (something that had never been done before and hasn’t been done since), led Llanelli to beat the All Blacks in 1972 in one of the most famous and celebrated results in Welsh rugby history, and coached the Barbarians in that win against the All Blacks in 1973 at the National Stadium in Cardiff. That’s four wins over the best rugby team on the planet in the space of three years, Wales haven’t beaten New Zealand four times in their history. Surely the union would offer anything and everything they could to get him in charge of the national team, wouldn’t they? Well, the answer was no. Carwyn made the fatal error of believing that the coach should chair selectors meetings, which was a massive no-no in the WRU’s books because it would go against their constitution, leading to James to withdraw his application. The inability to put ego aside and try something new that went against a constitution that can be amended cost one of Wales’s greatest ever teams to be led by one of its greatest ever coaches, and even fifty years on it’s a move that would likely still happen now.

The WRU could easily sack Warren Gatland at the end of what at this stage will look like a winless Autumn series, but until the entire structure of the union is overhauled absolutely nothing will change. There may be a temporary new manager bounce in time for the Six Nations where Wales could end up overperforming winning maybe three games, but under the current regime in 18 months’ time we’ll find ourselves back at square one. The leadership of the WRU has driven every level of the game into the ground, from the national side to grassroots. Its inability to evolve has left it in a state where it’s unfit to protect the sport. Rugby has changed quite a lot since the 1970s, but the Welsh Rugby Union is still stuck there.

The big question is, obviously, who do Wales appoint if Gatland is shown the door. Maybe it would be tricky to get someone in the job in time for the Six Nations with a Lions tour looming and the majority of top coaches being snapped up for that, and who would want to coach Wales at the moment? In an ideal world I’d like to see the job given to Ronan O’Gara. I don’t think in a million years he takes it, but Wales should try and do everything in their ability to get him in. Steve Tandy is another option, and maybe more realistic than O’Gara, but I struggle to see him leaving Scotland. But this is the WRU we’re on about, and anything that could rock the apple cart isn’t really their thing. I’ll bet any money that the next appointment will just be another corporate yes man who will back the higher ups and side with them on absolutely every decision they make.

Will we see the changes that are needed? Probably not. This is an institution where the problems are beyond systemic. Anyone who tries to rebel against their system will be quashed, as was the case with the threatened player strike. Heaven forbids that players playing in Wales with mortgages and families wanted contractual security to ensure they were actually taking home a wage they could live on. I don’t have the answers, but what I do know is that Welsh rugby can’t carry on being run like this, otherwise we will see the death of the so-called national sport.