DAVEY SAYS: Rugby chiefs need to go back to school

The scoreline that really counts and must reverberate throughout Welsh rugby is 92-0, the thrashing they received at the hands of New Zealand in the Under 20 competition last week.

The usual headlines have been trotted out already after the victory over Ireland – ‘Wales finish with a flourish’ and ‘Wales end on a high’, as though it was some achievement.

The ‘high’ they are referring to meant Wales finished in a lowly seventh position, some high.

Of course, it was a decent achievement to beat Ireland fairly convincingly but the hiding at the hands of the Baby Blacks, as they are known, which was a record defeat for Wales at any level, is what still sticks in the throat, not to mention the setback against Fiji in the following game.

And throwing that miserable performance against New Zealand into even sharper focus and putting the win against Ireland into some perspective was the was the way England played in the final on Sunday.

The young All Blacks predictably won it – they have never lost a game in the competition – but only after a significant fright.

It was level on tries at three apiece and only the superior place kicking of outside half Gareth Anscombe won the day 33-22.

England took the game to the Baby Blacks and they even had the temerity to lead 7-0 against opponents whose worst performance in the history of the tournament was a victory by as small a margin as 14 points.

So the Welsh youngsters can’t possibly return home in some form of congratulatory mood and neither can the WRU chiefs put any spin on it for that just won’t wash.

But what to do about it? Where does the problem lie?

How can Wales restore real pride in themselves and the nation in a game which is supposed to be our national sport? How can they avoid scorn being poured on them Down Under in the World Cup in the autumn and many more after that?

It's going to be a long, hard process, and it ought to start in the schools, once the jewel in the Welsh crown.

But those were in the days of the grammar schools when discipline was paramount and when respect was all-important; they were in the days when rugby was virtually on the curriculum; they were in the days when masters freely gave of their time after lessons and on Saturday mornings to take charge of rugby training and then accompany the teams to matches.

Just about every school worth its salt had not just one rugby team representing them, but three or four, a junior colts, a senior colts, a first XV and a second XV.

And every one had pupils bursting to get into it and each one had a master in charge of it.

Into a mini bus we piled on a Saturday morning and then up the valleys to places like Abertillery, West Mon and Pengam or out to Chepstow, down to Cardiff, Swansea and Neath, all of whom had successful teams, and a mighty battle ensued with everyone busting a gut for his school.

Woe betide anyone who perhaps didn't turn up or let the side down, it just wasn't the done thing.

And at my school, Newport High, there happened to be a very useful footballer, a goalkeeper who wanted to play for his team on a Saturday morning, but as a useful lock and line-out jumper he had to play rugby for his school even if it was out of normal hours.

Those days have long gone, sad to say. Meaningful schools rugby has long since vanished – how many play rugby now never mind run three or four sides?

Where are the teachers who voluntarily give up their time to run teams out of hours?

Furthermore, where is the discipline and respect?

So many schools, more particularly inner city ones perhaps, collapse under the weight of disruption and aggression from pupils and even parents that there is little hope.

Imagine a return to the days when prefects, never mind teachers, used to dapper us for minor acts of disobedience. It never did us any harm.

But today? There would be riots if anyone so much as attempted to lay a hand on a boy in school, never mind caned or dappered him.

What chance, therefore, for anything as organised as a series of school rugby teams?

The WRU have to an extent had to take it over in the form of academies coaching not just the sport but things like lifestyle and nutrition.

But that goes only so far down the age scale. We need to be starting on boys as young as nine or ten, maybe younger than that, if there is to be any hope for the future of our national game.

The odd super sportsman will always come through, people like Rory Mcllroy for example.

But there needs to be a restoration of fully subscribed team sports with a proper competition (a word that incredibly tends to be despised nowadays by the liberal do-gooders in our society) and the restoration of pride in representing your school.

Everyone has got to buy into this from head teachers down, for in that way success all the way up the ladder may just be restored.

If we simply sit back and rely on the governing body to do it for us (a bit like expecting the state to rear and feed us) we will never get back to where Welsh rugby should be – at or very near the top of the tree.