'Laughing Stock'- WRU Hit by Fresh Strike Threat Before Test

His side heads into the encounter following a 33-31 victory over the Barbarians and will be boosted by the return of English- and French-based players. Wales’ women’s side also recorded a victory last Saturday at Allianz Stadium, and Wales U20s got their Junior World Championship campaign underway with a nail-biting 25-24 victory against host nation Georgia.

For once in what feels like an eternity, Welsh rugby was surprisingly all rosy. Three wins, three away victories. The start of something? But, like in the past, when things look up, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) always finds a way to bring everyone back down to earth, and does so harshly.

The feeling of uncertainty began to creep into the minds as the afternoon went on at their Vale Resort training base. That had nothing to do with the players or staff; it had to do with a press conference.

Two players were scheduled to speak with the media early Wednesday afternoon, but both failed to show their faces. In fact, those two anonymous players will have to remain anonymous as they were not named beforehand. That raised suspicions straight away.

Ignoring the fact that Wales’ head coach Tandy was pacing around the Vale on the phone, as players were leaving and also returning to the main hotel. Something was off.

After nearly two hours, those players failed to show, and the media were then informed that there would be no press conference. Players continued to leave.

The reasoning? It was due to players discussing match fees ahead of the summer Tests against Fiji, Argentina, and South Africa. Let’s not forget this squad already knows who’s playing in the curtain-raiser in three days time.

Surely this would have been dealt with. That would have been too easy, wouldn’t it? As they should in these positions, the players stood their ground, despite it being detrimental to this particular journalist's workload.

The WRU stated that the press conferences were postponed, but they really meant cancelled. As time went on, some players began entering the Vale hotel while others continued to leave.

Those more senior players were pushing for match fees and other details to be agreed ahead of the inaugural competition. It wasn’t just Wednesday that Welsh players were questioning; this has been rumbling around the Vale all Test week.

It’s understood that players wanted a meeting with WRU bosses, some of whom were absent from these talks on Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday is a normal training day for Tandy’s side, followed by a normal day off on Thursday, before Captain’s Run on Friday and then gameday on Saturday.

Wales’ attack coach Matt Sherratt, Dragons Ben Carter, and Scarlets’ Ryan Elias are the trio that have spoken to the media this week.

Other senior players, such as Gloucester-bound duo of Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan, Cardiff’s Josh Adams, and Dragons’ Aaron Wainwright and Dillon Lewis, are believed to be among the players involved in a meeting late on Wednesday afternoon.

Tandy’s side would undoubtedly have had to combine training with meetings. Not something that a high-level performing athlete wants to be doing ahead of a crucial Test match. Tandy will say it won’t affect the players, but that’s not true.

Those players have had their minds on Fiji throughout the week, but also on the possibility of striking. Now that may have been the final blow to this already broken hierarchy in the WRU, whose position looks more and more untenable as the weeks and months go on.

Striking would have been the last major nail, and it was possibly not hours but minutes from actually happening. Wales nearly came close to striking in 2023 ahead of their Six Nations match against England at Principality Stadium. Important to note that the contest finished in an England victory.

In the end, we didn’t have a repeat of the then captain, Ken Owens, branding Welsh Rugby as a ‘laughing stock’. Like now, the dispute was avoided days before the match. Perhaps calling Welsh rugby a laughing stock is still fitting to this day.

But another thing, the former hooker stated on the lawn outside of the Vale, is that Welsh rugby ‘can’t keep going on this merry-go-round of crisis after crisis’. However, that remains the theme for the WRU.

It’s gone on far too long, Owens added: “We need to be at the top, not a laughing stock". That image, he stated, needs to fade away quickly, but still remains as clear as it was then. Has anything improved?

As the time was nearing 5 pm, the WRU drafted a second press release, but this was a joint statement from the WRU and the Welsh Rugby Players Association (WRPA), and it said: “Media access was postponed today due to ongoing negotiations between WRU representatives and the Welsh Rugby Players Association around employment terms for the new Nations Championship competition.

It’s far from ideal this time around for Wales, as Saturday’s contest is on paper their only chance of victory this summer, with daunting trips to Argentina and South Africa. A winless summer could be catastrophic for Tandy, but the 46-year-old and the rest of his squad won't make the off-field politics an excuse, though everyone knows it will have taken its toll.

The WRU will see Wednesday as a morale victory, stopping players from inevitably striking, but Tandy now has the unwanted task of facing the media on Thursday. Those above him should do the right thing, do what he and all the other players do consistently, and come forward to answer those uncomfortable questions.

When I started this role as a Welsh rugby writer, I asked for one simple thing, just one normal day in Welsh rugby. That’s all I asked, and yet the wait goes on. For how long nobody really knows.

For now, Tandy has to quickly regather the thoughts of his squad and reassert their focus on Fiji, as they’ll be gunning after Wednesday’s antics for a historical second consecutive away victory against Wales.