Amid all the conjecture about the future of Wayne Pivac in the aftermath of Wales’ defeat to Australia, former Wallaby coach Michael Cheika made arguably the most salient point. If the Welsh Rugby Union decide to sack Pivac, said Cheika, they must be as confident as they can possibly be that his replacement is going to improve the fortunes of the team.
Cheika talked about not just a new coach but the “infrastructure” around the group, the assistants, the specialists, those responsible for squad culture. It was a reminder of just how bold a move it will be for the WRU to ditch Pivac and his henchmen abruptly, even if it is the right one.
It would have been tempting to conclude that previous sentence with the words “10 months out from a World Cup”. But the governing body would be mistaken in allowing that tournament to cloud their thinking in the coming days and weeks. The best Wales will do in France next year is reach the quarter-finals, regardless of who is in charge. They are in transition. Too many of their most important players are the wrong side of 30. It will not be Wales’ time. Instead, if there is any vision lurking in the corridors of WRU power, it should be focusing on the World Cup of 2027.
Read more: The key questions the WRU must now answer as a matter of urgency after awful year of rugby
Union bosses have three choices. Firstly, they can stick with Pivac, which all current evidence suggests could result in a fifth or sixth place 2023 Six Nations finish and World Cup pool elimination. Second, they can install an interim coaching team, which may trigger the kind of short-term revival that new voices are so often apt to do but which, for one reason or another, is not regarded as a long-term solution. Or, third, they can take the bravest and most decisive action: they can go and appoint the man they want in charge in 2027 right now, stealing a march on their rivals for his signature in the process.
In 1998, having sacked Kevin Bowring, the WRU hierarchy travelled to New Zealand to appoint serial Super Rugby winner Graham Henry, then at the helm of Auckland Blues. It ended unhappily for Henry by February 2002 after a 54-10 drubbing against Ireland in Dublin, but not before he had won back long-lost respect for Wales among world rugby’s elite nations.
If the WRU want Crusaders boss Scott Robertson, who, in a way, is Henry’s 2022 equivalent, then whoever currently calls the shots in the boardroom should be on the first available flight the moment they dispense with Pivac. Robertson is said to have been sounded out by England as Eddie Jones’ potential World Cup successor. If that’s correct, then the WRU can’t afford to faff around with committee meetings. They need to go get their man now and beat England to the punch like they did with Shaun Edwards.
The levers of power in an antiquated chain of WRU command may be clunky, but if it can be done in 1998 it can be done in 2022. Yet you wonder whether there is the stomach among the executive for such upheaval. You wonder whether there are the individuals at the WRU with the gumption to get something like that done. Whatever you thought of Glanmor Griffiths’ chairmanship, at least he aimed high and delivered his man. Roger Lewis did the same when he courted Warren Gatland, taking him around Wales by helicopter until he signed the contract Lewis was offering.
Trouble is, the WRU has enough on its plate trying to reform its internal structures, attempting to resolve perennial wrangling with the regions and trying to ward off litigation surrounding personnel matters and ex-players seeking damages for rugby-induced early-onset dementia.
Keeping Pivac, therefore, may be seen as the easiest option, but that option could come with a heavier price than any compensation payment or lucrative contract for Robertson. If Wales limp on, marking time before the World Cup and the conclusion of Pivac’s contract, we risk further humiliation and a state of constant public opprobrium for the better part of a year. Have your say on whether Pivac should stay or go here.
The loss of goodwill and potential ticket sales is, as yet, unquantifiable, but loss will accrue just as surely as it will if coaching contracts are terminated early and new ones drawn up. If an interim change is made, the WRU at least buy themselves breathing space and are seen to be taking action. If they go and get Robertson, it’s the start of a new era.
They have a man some of the top nations in the world would happily employ, just as Gatland and Henry were. A proven innovator who will bring fresh ideas, a change of culture and breathe new life into the men's national team.
The appointment will not solve all the ills of the Welsh game. There will still be those who argue that until there is change at the very top, until domestic on-field matters are improved, nothing else matters. Well, yes and no. Is structural change at the top needed? Absolutely yes. Do we need prosperous and successful regions? Of course we do. But are such things inextricably linked in every sense to the fortunes of the Wales team? No. Not yet, anyway.
Wales cannot go on as they are. Waiting for wide-ranging reform before moving on other pressing affairs is not an option. The case for changing Pivac is, sadly, unanswerable. However, solving this mess is going to take wisdom, shrewdness and rugby statesmanship.
This is the biggest test for the WRU leadership since the carnage of the 2007 World Cup. Sure, Welsh rugby need solutions on many fronts at the moment. But no solution matters more than who leads the men’s national side. And we do now need a solution.
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