Beware Hansen's rugby doomsday

Predecessor Graham Henry departed after the crushing record defeat at the hands of Ireland on the opening weekend of the Six Nations Championship in February.

It was the right decision in view of the way he had lost it and the stick which followed the storm of getting across the Irish Sea.

At the time I felt it was time to revert to a Welsh coach and given the huge success of Gareth Jenkins in galvanising Llanlli and propelling them onwards in Europe advocated him for the job.

But gradually Hansen made his presence felt in his own style, completely different from fellow New Zealander Henry, though effective all the same.

His down-to-earth methods won the players over and converted the WRU's technical department headed by Terry Cobner and Mostyn Richards.

Suddenly their voices were heard again, the directorate became involved, whereas they had been subdued by Henry, who raised the profile of the Welsh team management instead.

And Hansen added another touch when he involved coaches Jenkins and Neath's Lyn Jones in Welsh training sessions.

He was prepared to listen, and he wasn't interested in writing newspaper columns or books or speak at public occasions like Henry.

Hansen said he didn't even care that much whether he got the Wales job or not, that decision was up to the WRU.

So maybe he wasn't a bad choice for the Wales job after all, but that was before a certain Press conference leading up to the Scotland match and then the game itself.

Speaking as the 'evening paper reporter' referred to in one Welsh paper and the 'veteran hack' in another, I have to own up that I was the one who raised Hansen's hackles about regional rugby.

After refusing to answer questions about how many teams he would like to see at top level, he asked three of us how many we would go for.

When one reporter replied 'three or four provincial teams' the cat was out of the bag. I took issue with that, whereupon Hansen, getting visibly angry and red in the face, defended the provincial system, basically saying we would never know if it would work here until we tried it.

So there you have it. Another New Zealander is coming in to try to tell us how to run our rugby and do away with over 100 years of history and tradition, never mind overwhelming public opinion the other way, all on a personal whim.

It puts him on a collision course straightaway with WRU chairman Glanmor Griffiths who says the future must be club based.

And I've said so may times regional rugby won't work here while one respected critic calls it the ultimate lunacy.

New Zealand is a far bigger country made up of two islands, whereas rugby in Wales is spread over just 60 miles along one coastal belt. No comparison.

It's now pretty clear regional rugby and all its perils and pitfalls is high on Hansen's agenda.

Couple that with central contracts favoured by the WRU giving them control over all the leading players, and club rugby in Wales really will be dead and buried even if, or rather when, the benefactors walk away.

Ambition will be stifled and the majority of clubs who have had their way will be responsible.

Success on the club front in Europe and on the international fields will have been sacrificed on the altar of everyone being the same. A carbon copy of the destruction of the grammar schools in favour of comprehensives.

All of this is not to consider the tactics on the field against Scotland. Why, even seventh division teams manage to win most of their own line-out ball, but for Wales to lose seven on their own throw, what on earth is going on?

I'd be very wary of Hansen after this little lot. We can't have regional rugby and we mustn't have more performances like the one against Scotland.

Llanelli have performed wonders in Europe while Mike Ruddock has turned Wales A around.

They know Welsh traditions, they know all about the rugby politics here, so I would get the pair of them involved with Wales now if it's not too late.