Shambles

It may be June, but in the space of five days last week we had the players threatening not to go on tour to Australia and New Zealand because of pay and insurance problems; Percy Montgomery banned for two years, 18 months suspended; referees threatening strike action because the sentence was too lenient; Glanmor Griffiths resigning from the WRU after 18 years, and WRU general manager Steve Lewis a few senior players were ringleaders in the pay dispute.

Just another normal week in the life of Welsh rugby really!

It beggars belief that the biggest tour Wales can go on - to Australia and New Zealand - is held up because of pay negotiations.

While the squad is supposed to be getting on the bus to take them to the airport they are in a nearby motorway service station awaiting the outcome of talks on pay and insurance. No wonder Welsh rugby is a laughing stock all around the world.

But who is to blame for it all? The answer is everyone. Obviously the players were ill advised, but how can Steve Hansen and Alan Phillips claim their action took them by surprise?

They claim the squad is a tightly knit unit, yet they know nothing about a possible strike by the players on the very day of departure.

The players, of course, say they are the innocent party pursuing a perfectly legitimate claim. But there are ways and ways, and the method of airing their grievances is not to hang around a service station when they should be getting on the bus to the airport.

That way lies nothing but ridicule, especially on the back of seven successive defeats. And what of the part played by Steve Lewis? He may have spent 20 years in industry, and there are not many members of the media who remember him as a player.

I do, and let's say he wasn't exactly a shrinking violet known for his great modesty. It looks as though he's carrying all those 'qualities' into his new job as WRU general manager liaising with the players.

Was it wise for him to air in public his view that there are some troublemakers in the Welsh camp? Was it wise for him to reveal in public all the players' pay details over the past few years?

He is already reminding me of one of his WRU predecessors, Denis Evans, who charged in where others feared to tread and met with a sticky end which heralded the revolution led by the late, lamented Vernon Pugh.

As for the referees and their reaction to the Montgomery case, that, too, defies belief.

Clearly it's wrong for a player to put his hands on a match official, but Monty was fined heavily, he was banned a minimum six months and he will miss the World Cup. Isn't that punishment enough?

But the referees want blood. They want the International Board guidelines of a two-year ban followed absolutely.

But the law of the land tells them that is unenforcable, that legal action would have been taken for restraint of trade and the WRU would lose. You'd think they'd take notice of all that.

Yet still they threaten to strike because they believe the penalty is too lenient. If the police disagree with a judgement in court, if a criminal is, say, fined instead of imprisoned do they threaten to strike, or do they get on with their job? Rugby referees must get real.

And so to Glanmor Griffiths, the saviour of so many smaller clubs but the arch enemy of the bigger ones.

Quite obviously, his legacy will be the magnificent Millennium Stadium. I have never wavered in my view that it is a wonderful asset to Wales and that it was right to go ahead in its city centre location.

Everyone who goes there - player, fan, administrator is full of praise for the stadium. And the man who gave up chunks of his life to see that the project was delivered on time and within budget was Griffiths.

But he owed his power base almost entirely to the smaller clubs who he courted almost religiously, sometimes at the expense of the big boys who were desperate for proper leadership and funding at a critical time and didn't receive either.

Nevertheless, the passing of Pugh and the loss of Griffiths means two big men in the game have gone. It remains to be seen how everything will fare under the leadership of a fully professional executive.

Meanwhile, the regional rugby shambles continues. Cardiff have launched themselves, with others set to follow, but still there is little agreement here.

Is the team to be called Gwent? Is it a combined Newport/Ebbw Vale region or Gwent? Will the Newport name belatedly get into the title? What will the colours be? What is happening to the staff at Rodney Parade in particular? What is season ticket deal? What other players are to be brought in to boost a low profile close season?

Questions, questions, but precious few answers, and we're into the second week of June. I would make two observations, I could make many more.

If individuals are no longer prepared to put a lot of money in, you can't continue to rely on the WRU or the banks to bale you out. And if things are not sorted by the time David Moffett returns from holiday in a fortnight, there is a real risk the WRU will step in and run the 'Gwent' side.