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Jones has spoken out after news the Ospreys’ owners have been chosen as the WRU’s preferred bidders to buy Cardiff
Ospreys head coach Mark Jones says there was “anger, frustration, confusion and a bit of fear” amongst his players as they sought answers from club bosses, amid news owners Y11 Sports & Media have been chosen as the preferred bidders to buy Cardiff.
Players and staff have been left in the dark over what the decision means for their futures, with the former Wales international admitting he only learnt the bombshell news when his wife sent him a screenshot of a news article on Monday night.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Jones said he had been told that jobs were safe for another 18 months, but admitted that Tuesday’s meeting between the squad, staff and chief executive Lance Bradley didn’t yield “anywhere near the amount of clarity everybody was looking for”.
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He also confirmed WalesOnline’s earlier story that some Ospreys players walked out of the meeting in frustration, while full training was cancelled on Tuesday.
Reflecting on the most chaotic 48 hours of his coaching career to date, Jones said it had been “a tough week” so far, as he explained how he first learnt of the WRU’s decision.
“The speculation that appeared a couple of nights ago came from my wife,” he said. “She sent me screenshots of an article and that was the first that I’d heard that there was a preferred bidder that had got an opportunity for exclusivity with the WRU.
“Then, within a few minutes, there was the article that it was actually Y11. So that’s when I first heard about it and then you’re trying to seek some more information off the back of that at eight or nine o’clock at night.
“It’s certainly not something you plan in to try and be high performance, that’s for sure. As the coach, as a member of the Ospreys, it’s not helpful at all, particularly when you hear it second-hand. That’s been the difficult thing to deal with, the shock of it.”
On the events of Tuesday, he said: “It was a busy day, as you can imagine, for lots of different reasons. It was a big rugby day planned, from a preparation point of view and then obviously with what broke late in the evening the night before, clearly the focus of the day had to be around addressing that.
“That speculation and trying to get some clarity for everyone in the room, staff and players, so that people can focus and get back on task with their day-to-day jobs. We had to address that and as a result, we knocked training on the head. We felt like there would be more value in looking after our people off the field rather than the work on it.”
However, the meeting did not deliver the clarity Jones, his squad and his staff were seeking, with players walking out as they learnt they are “still a little way away from getting the full picture” from Ospreys chief Bradley.
“No, we didn’t get anywhere near the amount of clarity that everybody was looking for, because there are so many things that are unknown,” said Jones. “It was a news article that broke, so it was all speculation and then obviously Lance has come in and tried to give as much information as he can.
“But we’re told that we’re still a little way away from getting the full picture and he would prefer to tell us the whole picture as opposed to bits and pieces.
“I think there was a variety of feelings [in the room] actually, not just anger,” he added. “There were different people feeling different things for different reasons. Anger would have definitely been one, I think [there was] frustration, confusion, probably a bit of fear in the room as well around the unknown.
“If you don’t know what’s going on, in can create a lot of anxiety. So, a lot of feelings in the room and that certainly presented itself through the meeting.
“Players were frustrated with some of what they were hearing, some were upset and just wanted their own space. It’s absolutely natural that individuals want to do that, fully support that. If you’re in a place where you need some space, you need to go and get it.
“That’s just what happened, it was nothing major, it was one or two players. There was no issues around that.”
As for where the events of this week leave the Ospreys, Jones said that while he has been told that Y11 are interested in buying Cardiff, he does not know any details around the purchase or what it looks like. However, he added that he had been told that jobs are safe for the next 18 months.
Asked where the Ospreys were as it stands, the coach replied: “We don’t know yet. What we know from yesterday’s meeting is that our owners are interested in discussing a potential purchase of Cardiff Rugby and we don’t know anything around what that purchase looks like.
“That’s information that is going to be shared with the group in a short space of time, from our understanding from yesterday’s meeting. I think once we hear that information, I’ll be in a much better position to talk around where we are.”
“[Y11 being interested in buying Cardiff] was the feedback from the chief exec, they’re in discussions with the WRU and Cardiff about what that looks like.. But we don’t know as staff around the detail of that purchase, what it looks like, what it means for the Ospreys and Cardiff.
“There’s no information there around what that looks like, other than we know we’re going to be carrying on as best we can in this year’s competition and next year’s competition, because that’s a period of time where we’ve got our current funding deal signed and sealed and we have to honour.”
On jobs being assured for the next year-and-a-half, Jones added: “That’s what we were told, yeah, and we’re carrying on as normal. To be fair, that’s always been the case, right from when this started off around reducing the regions.
“One of the first questions people would ask is, if there is a reduction and one team is reduced, how long have we got? It’s always been consistent with that period of time, so nothing’s changed there in that respect.”
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