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Welsh rugby has many problems, but none may prove more damaging than the one unfolding quietly beneath the surface.
The brightest young talents in the country are increasingly leaving Wales for England’s fee-paying schools and, from there, progressing into the academies of Gallagher Premiership clubs.
The trend is already evident. Seven members of Wales’ Under-20 squad at the World Rugby Junior Championship are attached to English clubs, among them co-captain Deian Gwynne at Gloucester Rugby.
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Premiership academies are now rich with Welsh prospects, highlighting a pathway that many young players and their families perceive as more attractive than those available at home.
But the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. For former Wales scrum-half Richie Rees, now Director of the Sports Academy and Rugby at Haberdashers’ Monmouth School, the solution may not lie across the border at all, but within Wales itself.
“Over the last 20 years 400 boys have gone over the bridge to either secondary school or university; how many have gone on to win senior international caps? The answer is 17,” Rees tells WalesOnline.
“The big point is the grass isn’t always greener. Gloucester U16s have just released 260 kids.
“They go to Hartpury or Cheltenham College which is a system with 500 more people than they’d have in Wales.
“It is a little bit of a numbers game.
“If I had two sons I’d tell them you’ve got a much better chance of becoming a professional rugby player and importantly a more individualised service in Wales than you’ve got across the border but they get blinded by the lights sometimes. Ive seen it first hand in the professional game of having a call 12 months later from mum or dad where they want to come back”
“We need to change the perception that it is not always better to go over the bridge.”
Haberdashers’ Monmouth School is one of the most prestigious private schools in Wales and its facilities are as good as anything on offer in England. Fees start at around £27,000-a-year for day pupils, rising to over £55,000 for older students who board there on a full-time basis.
The WRU have pledged to invest £28m into the pathway over the next five years and it undoubtedly needs to put a big focus on education.
While schools such as Millfield, Clifton and Sedbergh can offer 100% scholarships to talented young rugby players from working class backgrounds, that is not currently an option in Wales.
Former Cardiff and Tonga attack coach Rees has urged the WRU to work with Monmouth School in a bid to keep Welsh talent in Wales.
“We aren’t the only solution but we are part of the answer,” Rees tells WalesOnline.
“As a school we’ve got unbelievable facilities and excellent coaches within our programme. The Eddie Butler centre here is a top end gym space.
“The Dragons and Cardiff have both been up here for a training camp.
“We have six rugby pitches, we’ve got two pools, we’ve got this world class gym facility, we’ve got a 4G training area with a hydraulic scrum machine.
“We are willing to be part of a solution.
“We are an academic space. I’m pushing hugely that they have to touch on the education side of it.
“It’s a balancing act for the parents as well. We’ve got an option of flexi-boarding and full-time boarding but we are a fee paying school.
“We do more bursaries and scholarships than we’ve ever done and we’ve got a few external backers at the minute who are connected to the area who are winning to help across our sporting programme. They want to see Welsh sport and the area succeed.
“We could also become a Welsh exiles base for all those exiles across the border if the union worked with us.
“But we can’t fund everything ourselves which is where these external backers may be able to help.
“We’ve got a couple already but if the union came under that space it would be massive for Welsh rugby.”
So, what does a typical week at Haberdashers look like for a rugby player?
“We’ve got boys who are in the Dragons academy so we transport them to training,” said Rees.
“Our forwards coach coaches the U16s and U17s of the Dragons. So, he drives the minibus with some of our U16s, U17s and U18s boys who are in the Dragons system up to training.
“We’ve got boys like Brogan Leary, Oscar Friend and Elliot Young, also Olly Beynon who are in the Dragons academy.
“They go up there three nights a week but then they train two afternoons with us. They play a game with us on a Saturday.
“There’s early morning gym sessions here, there’s sports scholar sessions and there’s after school sessions.
Haberdashers’ Monmouth School fields 14 rugby teams and competes on the independent school circuit against the likes of Millfield School, Cheltenham College and Collegiate School.
Its rugby programme is already of a high standard, but with stronger backing from the WRU, it could become a far more powerful mechanism for keeping Welsh-qualified talent within the game at home.
“We are here for the benefit of the pupil first,” said Rees.
“We’ve got boys here who are in the Gloucester academy. We’ve got a great relationship with the Dragons where we offer a Dragons scholarship.
“We’ve currently got Brogan Leary who is in the Wales U20s squad, the priority is we do everything we can to ensure Brogan has the opportunity to succeed in his academic AND sporting aspirations which we manage extremely carefully.
“I do some of his skill stuff so he doesn’t have to travel to Ystrad Mynach or the Vale. He can do some of his gym programming here because of the quality of the facility and we’ve got a full-time member of S&C staff who has a masters in S&C. Its all very aligned.
“We are currently in the process of doing a deal with one of the other Welsh sporting governing bodies which is a brilliant thing for us as a school and all our sporting pupils.
“We are a Welsh school who are 45 minutes away from Cardiff and these pupils can be educated exceptionally well here with unbelievable facilities.
“With some external backers there’s no reason for some of those pupils who leave to leave in search of a professional rugby contract.
“Before they removed the Welsh Exiles programme I went up to Grasshoppers RFC in west London. A Welsh father approached me.
“He lives in Holland but his boy was in an independent school in northern England. His boy has now signed for the academy at Racing 92.
“He wants to be involved with Wales but at the moment this can’t be funded 100% by ourselves. If there was a portion where we funded some of it, his parents funded a portion and the WRU funded a portion it would be so powerful.”
It is a question of both talent and infrastructure, but Wales has yet to join the two into a functioning whole.
Schools such as Haberdashers’ Monmouth already provide a strong platform within Wales, but they will need the support of the WRU if they are to be fully integrated into any wider solution.
Until that is addressed, the system will continue to leak its best young players across the border.
The onus is on the WRU to correct this.
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