In what has been a season full of lows, coaches leaving, wooden spoons, records broken, contract issues, and administrations it has certainly been a season to forget.
However, there was a glimmer of hope after a strong end to the season by some of the regional sides, but that seemed to be short lived as yet again the Welsh Rugby Union landed another huge bombshell.
Normally turning on your TV after 8 o’clock you’ll find your respective dramas, however the Welsh Rugby Union this season gave the likes of Eastenders and Coronation Street a run for their money. The men’s national side are without a permanent head coach as they go in search of a first win in 17 Test matches in Japan this summer under interim boss, Matt Sherratt.
If you think that was bad enough, you’re wrong. The WRU were forced to make apologies to the women’s team over contracts, like the men they went on to secure the wooden spoon
To make matters worse, it was announced that Cardiff Rugby were going into administration, but were quickly saved by the WRU.
They then announced on a Sunday morning after earlier reports by WalesOnline that the Union is looking at cutting a region, with both the Ospreys and Scarlets in mind. And that’s just about it, for now.
2025 Men’s Six Nations- Rock bottom again
For the men their Six Nations campaign began in Paris, where they were given a rude awakening as they were thumped 43-0. This was the first time that they failed to score any points in a Six Nations match.
After training in the sunshine of the Côte d’Azur, Wales travelled to Italy and this time they weren’t nilled as Ben Thomas slotted the opening points of the championship early in the contest. However as the rain continued to fall in Rome, Wales fell to another heartbreaking defeat in front of a strong travelling support.
In between then, Warren Gatland departed in February and in came Cardiff’s head coach, Matt Sherratt who took charge of the remaining fixtures.
This saw a switch in the style of attack Wales were playing but it was the same old story as defeats to Triple Crown foes Ireland, Scotland and England saw Wales claim their second consecutive wooden spoon.
That result against England was probably the toughest to take and after a heavy defeat like that, some would think Sherratt wouldn’t had comeback as head coach.
New performance director Dave Reddin has been unable to find a permanent replacement for Gatland and on the same day as the summer tour squad announcement, Sherratt was handed the interim head coach role for the second time.
There is some hope as Richard Whiffin’s U20’s side probably had the best moments across the season.
This of course topped by beating world champions England at the Cardiff Arms Park which then denied England another Grand Slam.
Whiffin’s men tomorrow play their final warm-up match against Italy before heading to Italy for the upcoming World Championship where they’ll be hoping to create even more positive news.
The regions- Was it all gloom and doom?
Moving away from the national side, both the Ospreys and Scarlets secured knockout rugby in both the Challenge Cup quarter-finals and the URC play-off’s.
Before Christmas both Toby Booth and Dai Flanagan were replaced by Mark Jones and Filo Tiatia, with Jones guiding the Ospreys to knockout rugby in Europe.
So with that, there was a little improvement with the biggest plaudits going to the Scarlets and Cardiff as they were the most improved, despite the Ospreys also having a strong showing throughout the URC campaign.
For the Dragons, let’s keep this short.
A calamitous season which saw them again be the disappointment as they equalled a record for the worst URC run as they concluded the season on nine points.
That doesn’t paint the whole picture as the Rodney Parade side was hit with many injuries, and had to rely on several young and semi professional players stepping up.
A saga that has considerable uncertainty
One of the last big announcements that was made, was that from next season the WRU would not have four evenly funded regions.
This is of course contradictory, as Abi Tierney insisted and passionately talked about having four equally funded regions being the way forward, but that now seems a long distant memory.
There is talk that a region will be cut, this is despite the WRU not confirming or denying it. Wales will have two Champions Cup representatives with both the Ospreys and Scarlets waving the flag but they are the two teams in conversation.
Their East Wales rivals have signed a new PRA agreement but they have failed to and this has led to even politicians getting involved in the saga.
Back in the summer of 2024, the WRU launched its One Wales strategy, which was meant to be signed by all regions. This has led to back and forth between the WRU and both Ospreys and Scarlets, as concerns have risen over the WRU turning Cardiff into a super club. Both regions declared they were not given guarantees about this after the Union took over Cardiff in April.
With the deadline missed, that new model is no more and as the WRU has announced that there will no longer be four evenly funded regional clubs as a new tiered funding system will be introduced.
The WRU has now served a two-year notice period on those clubs and that will be hugely disruptive for the game in Wales moving forward.
There’s never a dull moment in Welsh Rugby. So as we go into the summer, where players (supporters) will be jetting off on their holidays or Japan, perhaps a song that they may find themselves listening to is D:Ream – ‘Things Can Only Get Better’.
Surely the 2025/26 season is going to be better for the game in Wales.
Words by Harry Tovey
HTSPORTSNEWS 