By Lucky Maree
Wales’ international campaign in a World Cup year could not have started any worse – or could it?
Yes, it just got a lot worse.
Wales’ players are threatening strike action against the Welsh Rugby Union because of contractual problems, putting the Six Nations game with England next week in doubt.
Talks have been going on between the governing body and the country’s four regions over budgetary deals and the players don’t know where they stand.
While players are quoted most anonymously, they are all saying that their contracts have not been signed.
According to the Daily Mail, professional players in Wales will meet soon to discuss what they are going to do, and strike action is one of the options.
A six Nation Squad member told the publication he was five months away from the end of his contract and his future hasn’t been sorted out.
“I’m on antidepressants. I’m one big injury away from not having a job in July yet I’m starting for Wales every week and the WRU is making tens of millions from international matches,” he said.
Commentators around the world have been asking the question that nobody can answer. “Where to from here for Warren Gatland and the Welsh team?”
It’s hard to remember that Wales was once one of the most feared and respected rugby nations in the world.
Young boys like Barry John, Gareth Edwards and JPR Williams played their rugby in among the slag blackened green hills of Wales and grew up to become all-time legends, respected in any country where rugby is played.
Well, that’s all in the past, now.
Comedian-philosopher Max Boyce famously said that the mould for great flyhalves was created in the bowels of a Welsh coal mine until they cast Phil Bennett and that was the last.
“And then they broke the mould,” said Boyce.
Well, that is all suddenly just myths and legends
Is it too dramatic to imagine a World Cup without a Welsh team. Too dramatic, yes, but not impossible.
Pictured above: A World Cup without Wales. Can’t be, can it?
Image source: @WelshRugbyUnion
