Rob Howley interview: How Wales' new pathway is working - we have five who will be Lions
It has been just over a year since Rob Howley returned to Welsh rugby following an extended period outside of the game.
The former Wales scrum-half is best known for his role in Warren Gatland's coaching team but that is only half of Howley's remit. Over the past year Howley has been working tirelessly alongside the Welsh Rugby Union's talent and pathways manager Andy Lloyd and Wales U20s head coach Richard Whiffin, among others, laying the groundwork to put the game back on a firmer footing.
Yes, times are very tough at senior international level but the WRU's plan is to create more and better players for the professional game. Wales won't see the benefit for a good few years, but the hard yards are being put in in a bid to put a stop to the current malaise which has paralysed Welsh rugby.
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There are never any guarantees but Howley is quietly confident Wales have the talent within its pathway to achieve success at senior level in the future. "I think there are probably four or five players who are currently in age grade who will go on and become British & Irish Lions players," Howley tells WalesOnline.
"It won't happen next year. It'll take a few years before we see the benefits of the work we are doing with the pathway.
"I think all of us within the coaching team of Wales and the U20s want to create the next talent of Welsh rugby who go on to wear the three feathers at senior international level. I love working with young talent. When you work with young talent you don't know their ceiling and they don't know their ceiling.
"I think that's the great thing when you are working with young players. They've got no inhibitions, they've got no baggage and they just want to be the best they can be."
There have been some significant changes to the Welsh rugby pathway over the past two years. The Dewar Shield has moved from U15s to U16s, while Wales' four professional clubs - Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets - are confident there is some real talent in the Emerging Player Programme (EPP).
Howley is heavily involved in the WRU's Wales Pathway Players (WPP) programme where a group of up to 60 players of national interest between the ages of 15-24 have been identified as potential stars of the future. WPP status players will receive access to nationally-run group clinics to work on their technical, tactical and physical development; locally-delivered position-specific coaching sessions; regular one-on-one support and advice from S&C specialist coaches and nutritionists; and mentoring from current or recently retired senior professional players.
The Wales Pathway Squad (WPS) will be selected on an annual basis and will consist of no more than 60 players. Identification and selection will be based on future potential rather than current performance and made by a panel of WRU senior and pathway management staff in consultation with the Regional Academies.
Howley is confident this will bear fruit in the near future but he believes the biggest challenge for the pathway is developing players between the ages of 20-23 who have just graduated from the U20s programme. But he is confident the new Super Rygbi Cymru competition is a step in the right direction, with Wales age-grade players getting significantly more game-time than they would have playing in the old Welsh Premiership.
"I think what we've tried to do is identify from the age of 19 through to 22-23 about 60 players," he said. "Between myself, Andy Lloyd and Richard Whiffin, that contact whether that's week-to-week, bi-weekly or monthly we are talking to the players, looking at their games and I know Richard has done a number of sessions individually with players.
"I'm looking at the older element of players like Bryn Bradley and Louie Hennessey. So, those who have left the U20s and are in that big world of rugby who are based in England are not getting week in, week out rugby.
"These players sometimes feel like they are lost. We don't want that to happen to our players.
"That relationship, not only with the players, but speaking to the likes of Lee Blackett at Bath or Danny Wilson at Harlequins regarding Bryn Bradley. Those relationships are really important to us.
"That's something that hopefully has added value with the player being watched by the national coaches which is really key from our perspective. It's all about communication, talking and looking at their game.
"For example, Ieuan Davies at number nine who was in the U20s last season and is at Bath. Last season he was playing for Wales U20s every week and at Bath University playing in the BUCS Super League.
"He was training every week with Bath. It's a challenge for any young player when you are coming out of age grade and you are in the big world of rugby.
"You aren't playing week in week out and how you motivate yourself and keep on that track of player development. Hopefully, we are adding value with our relationship with the coaches and players as well."
Howley is also encouraged by the recent creation of a Regional Academies U23s side which he hopes will become a permanent fixture in the calendar and potentially lead to a Wales A side.
"There's no doubt the A team has merit," said the former Wales scrum-half. "When you look at other countries like England, Scotland and Ireland they have A teams.
"The top echelons of the WRU will make that decision but we are all aware there is a want out there about having an A team, 100%. I've had a number of conversations with Huw Bevan about the A team and we understand that having an A team would no doubt help us internationally in terms of preparing those players.
"Maybe we will pick a squad where they've already played in an A team because of the increase in standard, the speed of the game, the decision making under pressure. The A team was hugely beneficial many years ago.
"There's no doubt there's a want for an A team and at some stage we will have an A team."
There is no doubt Howley's experience as a man who has coached on three British & Irish Lions tours and four Six Nations-winning campaigns is benefiting the pathway.
The one thing Howley, in conjunction with Whiffin, has pushed is a greater alignment between the senior men's team and the U20s. The likes of Howley, Gatland, Jonathan Hunphreys, Mike Forshaw and Alex King regularly attend Wales U20s training, while the senior coaching team have held regular skills clinics with a number of young players within the pathway.
"It is about trying to upskill those players through technical and tactical influences with the national coaches," he said. "So, there is now an alignment between the senior national side and the U20s programme.
"That was a significant step forward where we had our national coaches, Jon Humphreys, Alex King and Mike Forshaw on Monday nights. Our process was identifying a wider group.
"Those evenings were probably between 50-60 players there. That allowed us to identify earlier in the selection process and look at those players who we might have not seen.
"It gave us a closer insight to those players understanding the skills required for international rugby from a scrummaging perspective and a lineout perspective with Jon Humphreys. It enabled us to prepare better individually and collectively for our age-grade players for competition.
"That alignment, whether it's a calling system, a couple of calls, not that the U20s have to play the same way as the senior national team and vice-versa but there does need to be alignment. The transition for those players coming out of the U20s is going to be an easier transition because they'll be used to the vocabulary coaches are using and then when they come into the national team it is the same language.
"Hopefully that makes the pathway and the transition much easier for the players. Then hopefully these players will come out of the age-grade programme and stay in the player pathway to hopefully strengthen the regions.
"That then in terms of numbers within the region will put pressure on players to perform because you've got a young buck coming up through the U20s who is hugely talented and understands the game. Hopefully he will put pressure on other players within the regions.
"We will then benefit at senior international level because hopefully we are increasing the numbers in the regional game in terms of the talent."
There is a real dearth of experienced players who know how to win big games in Welsh rugby as it stands. The worry is players have become accustomed to losing and failure has been normalised. This is put to Howley and he reveals the WRU have created a mentoring programme by asking members of Welsh rugby's most recent golden generation to work with players.
"The one thing we were really keen to put in place was mentoring of those players and in particular the boys who played in the last U20s Six Nations and the World Cup," said Howley. "We've got a strong product of players who have been Grand Slam winners.
"We looked to put some mentoring in place. Last year before the Six Nations we had Ken Owens talking to our hookers and Alun Wyn Jones talking to our captain Ryan Woodman and your second-rows.
"We also had Mike Phillips talking to our young nines, Rhys Priestland talking to our 10s while Jamie Roberts and Foxy (Jonathan Davies) talked to our centres. Halfers (Leigh Halfpenny) talked to our back-three and helped out with the kicking.
"Hopefully that sort of involvement from our former players will have achieved a lot of success. The way they can aspire and articulate what international rugby is about while talking about their process and their mindset would have added value to some of those players who have been in the U20s programme."
Last year a number of promising players who had just graduated from the U20s were invited to train with the senior national side. Dragons full-back Huw Anderson and Scarlets centre Macs Page are two examples and Howley is keen for this to continue during the Six Nations.
"It's our ambition to identify those young players who are coming out of the U20s," he said. "Huw Anderson and Macs Page came into training in the autumn. Dan Edwards was also going to come in but unfortunately he had an injury so he couldn't prepare with us but we are looking to identify three to six players again to come in.
"Once again it's always a conversation with the regions because they've got their own games. Last year for example Morgan Morse had an accelerated ladder for a period of time but then got injured.
"Morgan will possibly be one of those players we bring in. But we will have to have a conversation with Mark Jones because ultimately playing for the region rather than training with Wales might be better, so there is a fine balance."
Welsh rugby still has many problems in need of fixing but the process of producing more and better players for the professional game is well under way.
