Four months ago, the Welsh Rugby Union announced the appointment of John Alder.
With extensive background in the field, and a familiar relationship with performance director Nigel Walker, he was hired as head of player development across the men's and women's game.
Previously, Gareth Williams had held a similar role – head coach of transitional players – alongside his job as under-20s boss at the time, but Alder will not have demands on his time which stretch beyond his remit.
The age profile of a number of key players currently in Wayne Pivac’s Wales squad has raised questions over the development pathways in Wales. Mainly, are we producing enough prodigious young players and is the development of their talent being adequately facilitated?
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Earlier this year, Wales U20s slumped to fifth in the Six Nations. Like their senior counterparts, the only win came against Scotland and alarm bells were ringing.
Speaking frankly over why the age-grade side had failed, Walker said at the time: "Because we, as a Union, haven’t done enough with our U20s last year. I know we’ve had Covid but you can’t leave it to chance. You have to map somebody’s progress and hold them to account."
His words came just days after Alder’s arrival at the WRU. At the time, a staggering senior side and floundering age-grade crop was cause for great concern, making Alder’s role one of the most important at the entire organisation.
The summer performances of both the aforementioned sides has calmed the panic slightly, but there are still genuine questions over the pathway. Many male age-grade players were starved of rugby during the pandemic (Wales Women U18s was only reformed this year, while there are plans afoot for their U20s) and the vehicle for their development has flipped between 'Premiership Select' teams, to 'A' teams, and now the hope is the Welsh Premiership can once again be the place for budding professionals to cut their teeth.
Giving his views on the matter, Alder tells WalesOnline: "The unicorn talent, the guys who have taken that more linear route through the system – Joe Hawkins is one example very recently – the current pathway serves those guys quite well but the real question is how do we serve those who need more time or support to develop? Equally, how do we cater for those who have taken a different route and not come through an academy?
"All of those challenges can be addressed in some part by the role of the Premiership as our premier club competition, where you have a unique blend of players who have been around and are quite battle-hardened, and then the developing talent coming through. That’s one of things that makes it stand out compared to former age-grade or ‘A’ team competitions, you have that really rich blend."
In principle, bringing the Premiership back into the performance pathway makes sense. But conflicting interests are making things difficult. The clubs themselves, of course, want to win first and foremost. The Community Game Board which governs the league is said to be pushing forward with plans to expand from 12 to 14 teams, while the performance department wants the league shrunk to 10 in order to raise the quality of it.
Alder describes the situation as "complex" but has plenty of experience. He has held similar roles within the English Institute of Sport – which is where his path crossed with Walker – Team GB, UK Sport and New Zealand Rugby League, making him an impressive hire.
His philosophies on player development are intriguing. He talks of the process being "supported" by a competition rather than the goal being to win that competition, but admits striking that balance is tricky.
Alder, who has a PhD in high performance sports management from Auckland University of Technology, also talks of developing the person being equally as important as developing the player.
“What role does a competition play in facilitating the development of the player? It’s not competition-driven and that can be a tricky balance to get right because you never want players to not want to win,” he says. “But it’s how coaches work with the players and how, as a wider community, we place the value on this particular competitive experience.”
Delving deeper, he adds: “Can we put the player at the heart of our decision-making? Understanding where they are in terms of their biological age but also their rugby age. When did they start playing the game? Did they start late? Are they 10 years or two years in?
“Then it’s how we use that to make professional decisions around what is needed for this player next, whether that’s your core skills or if it’s the psycho-behavioural skills you need to sustain life as a professional rugby player.
“That’s probably the area I’m most interested in and the research is unequivocal. If players do not have a well-developed set of psycho-behavioural skills, they’re likely to drop out of the pathway. Things like resilience and ability to set goals are two of many.
“It’s about how we, within the pathway, foster those skills because they’re not as obvious as kicking, running and catching. But they could be the thing that makes the difference. My experience in Olympic sport, and rugby league before that, would speak to that as being a key cornerstone.”
Alder’s plan speaks to as personalised an approach to player development as there has been in Welsh rugby. In his vision, male players picked up at under-15s – or Dewar Shield – will be closely monitored and receive tailored guidance along the way, thus giving them the best chance to succeed.
To use Walker’s words from a few months back: “If you’re a 19-year-old outside-half and you can’t kick off both feet, or your goal-kicking isn’t good enough, you should get a four or five-point plan which improves that. Somebody then needs to monitor it and get you the help that you need.”
It involves building relationships with not only the regions and Premiership clubs but also schools and colleges around Wales to ensure that, if a player has the talent, they also have every chance of making it.
Within Alder’s remit is also the creation of a "coherent pathway for girls to realise their potential and go on to play for Wales." That starts in one of Wales' 37 female hubs, who have teams from U7s to U18s and also seniors. But he's got a big job on his hands here too, and Wales has a long way to go if it ever wants to rival the domestic set-up in England's Allianz Premier 15s, where virtually all of the Wales Women's squad ply their trade.
For his strategy to work, Alder, who seemingly has the pedigree, requires total buy-in from those at every stage of the process. For the male side of things, it involves aligning the pathway from schoolboy age, through academies and the Welsh Premiership all the way to the elite sphere.
In principle, it can sound so simple, but in a rugby nation like Wales, putting it into practise is not going to be straightforward.
But it is imperative that Welsh rugby gets this right and continues to supply quality players to the national set-ups, so that it can remain successful and continue to fund all levels.
The future of the game here is at stake.
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