Not another WRU draft plan
Not another WRU draft plan.
Well firstly what a game for the neutral, the game between Fiji and Wales was a storming game and a good advert for rugby. Unfortunately for Wales the wrong result and as usual in the principality the blame game begins and the coach has gone.
So after watching the fallout and listening to the opinions of the experts and the public I decided to create my own ‘tongue in cheek’ plan for the Welsh Rugby Union.
Draft Plan.
There seems to be problems at all stages of the welsh game from the opportunities available for career progression, the fact that in fairness ‘rugby player’ is not seen or promoted as a career and the skills of even the semi professional tier seems to be lacking. On coaching side of things there also seem to be problems.
So what I propose is a Draft system as they use in the U.S. Before dismissing the idea lets think about it.
If you play at the grass roots level of rugby in this country how do you know if you are good enough to move to the next tier? Well there are the scouts I hear you say true but the onus is placed upon other people to convey and promote individuals. This system must certainly miss as much talent and it promotes. What about if a scoring system to qualify for draft consideration was in place, this then places the onus completely on the individual.
So now we have the next tier from high level amateur to semi-professional well this system can also be applied here allowing the individuals who possess the sufficient skills to further their rugby career to a semi-professional.
And on to the next tier the professionals well obviously they can’t move on a tier however they can certainly be expect to retain the standards required for professional rugby or lose their status and move back to the semi pro tier .
Ok this is a simplistic breakdown of a draft system, but if this could be implemented then the draft should be continually developing new talent into all levels of the welsh game. It would almost certainly improve standards of all the players. I wonder how the professional rugby players would feel knowing that every year there will be 10-15 profesional contracts up for grabs.
Let us not forget that Welsh rugby will always be more important than the player, in which case the only winner should always be Welsh rugby.
By Sheridan on 05 October 2007.