No domestic bliss for ongoing Welsh rugby soap opera

So there it is, folks. The United Rugby Championship (URC) quarter-final defeat for the Scarlets was followed by another turbulent campaign both on and off the field.

Resignations, administration, wooden spoons, caretaker coaches, contract controversies and more Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) disputes with the regions.

The most recent entry in the tumultuous world of Welsh rugby.

We were concerned about how much Welsh rugby could lose on both the national and international stages when the four professional sides launched the campaign last September.

While there has been a slight improvement from the regions, the dire Dragons apart, the latest campaign has been a disaster on the international stage and in the boardroom with influential figures like Warren Gatland and Nigel Walker departing.

Before a two-test tour of Japan in July, the men’s side are without a permanent head coach. Only two of the 18 internationals were won by the two national sides.

The WRU, who had to apologize to Wales women over player contracts, has had more off-field controversy.

10 games and 10 losses That was Wales’ two national teams’ worst performance at the 2025 Six Nations in 86 challenging days.

From the 43-0 Friday night Paris mauling dished out to Wales ‘ men’s side in January to the 44-12 hammering inflicted by Italy’s women in late April, it proved a miserable three months as both sides finished rock bottom.

Following another clean sweep of Six Nations defeats, Wales men have lost all eight of their matches this year. This is the 17th consecutive time the team has lost.

So it was no surprise when two players, captain Jac Morgan and scrumhalf Tomos Williams, were chosen as part of the British and Irish Lions’ tour group in Australia, setting a record low.

Gatland departed in February, Cardiff coach Matt Sherratt taking charge for the rest of the Six Nations which finished with the record 68-14 home loss to England in March.

Sherratt continues to be in charge of Japan while new performance director Dave Reddin, who may wonder what he has let himself in, is in charge of the selection process for Gatland’s permanent replacement.

After Ioan Cunningham paid the price for the contracts dispute at the end of 2024, the Welsh women have also hired a new coach.

Ironically, Cunningham was the only Wales national coach to gain victories in the regular season with a 19-10 win against Japan in the WXV2 tournament in South Africa and a warm-up win for the tournament against Australia.

Sean Lynn, who helped his club win three successive league titles, took over from Gloucester-Hartpury just one week before the Six Nations began.

As his team became the first women’s team to lose all five of their matches at a Six Nations tournament, Lynn was quickly exposed to the harsh realities. He will expect more during the World Cup in England later this year.

There is some hope. Blair Murray, the find of the season, has been the stoic figure of Wales’ captain Morgan in the face of hardship, whereas Murray has been the stoic figure in Scarlets and Wales.

Wales Under-20s provided arguably the performance and occasion of the campaign.

Results for the Welsh teams were comparable to those from the previous campaign, with one team reaching the Challenge Cup quarter-finals and the URC play-off final eight.

Under the direction of Toby Booth, it was Ospreys who accomplished both of those feats in 2023-24.

This season – with Booth departing just before Christmas and replaced by Mark Jones – Ospreys managed the European knockout stages again but it was Scarlets who reached the league play-offs with a storming finish to the regular campaign before a last-eight defeat at Leinster.

Despite the salary cap being reduced to £4.5 million, there appeared to be a slight improvement in results. Wales teams won 25 games in the 2024-2019 URC season, up from 22 in the previous campaign.

Scarlets (nine) and Cardiff (eight) were the most improved with their win totals improving by four victories each, while Ospreys had three fewer wins than in 2023-24.

The Dragons were another major disappointment, finishing bottom of a nightmare campaign under Filo Tiatia’s replacement Dai Flanagan and holding the record for the worst URC league season with just nine points.

After only defeating Ospreys on the opening weekend of September 2024, the Welsh side lost 17 straight league games.

This year, Welsh rugby has received twice as many negative off-field headlines as it has on the field. Those hoping fresh faces at the top would signify no more controversies will be disappointed.

The managerial change, which has chair Richard Collier-Keywood and chief executive Abi Tierney as the new boss, has so far failed to alter the dreadful state of the Welsh game or have improved the situation.

Old habits were exposed when contract negotiations between Wales women’s players ended and the women’s teams were threatened with withdrawing from the WXV2 international competition and, in turn, this summer’s World Cup.

They were issued with a “final offer” ultimatum on 2 August, saying if they did not sign within a three-hour deadline, planned matches against New Zealand, Scotland and Australia would not go ahead and the contracts would be withdrawn.

Later, the WRU apologised for their actions but refuted sexism claims. According to Collier-Keywood, the row was a “crisis” that the union could have avoided by failing at governance and leadership.

The WRU’s “One Wales” strategy was first introduced in the summer of 2024, and the new Professional Rugby Agreement (PRA) that was promised to follow soon thereafter will be a key component of the long-term plan.

That has not occurred. The WRU had to cope with Cardiff going into administration in April before the governing body bailed them out.

The WRU and Ospreys and Scarlets are currently at odds with the new PRA due to that incident.

Despite Dragons and Cardiff signing the new agreement, Ospreys and Scarlets failed to comply with Welsh rugby’s deadline of 8 May.

Ospreys and Scarlets say they asked the WRU for assurances the takeover “will not disproportionally benefit Cardiff and disadvantage the independent clubs” but claim they were not given guarantees.

The WRU announced that it would abandon its traditional four-part professional sides and would switch to a new two-tier funding structure after the deadline was missed.

According to Ospreys and Scarlets, this choice has “made our game more destabilizing and debilitating uncertainty”.

Tierney had continually talked about four equal regions being the way forward but the goalposts have moved with the governing body also having to refinance its debt with the bank.

The governing body hasn’t confirmed or refuted the claims that the cash-strapped WRU intends to cut a team from its professional ranks.

Although they hope to have a long-term decision by September, Ospreys and Scarlets, who will represent Wales in the Champions Cup next season, will be on lower terms than their rivals in East Wales.

These events have caused another rift in Welsh rugby that has seen Ospreys and Scarlets ‘ local politicians get involved and could ultimately end up with lawyers.

Players and supporters are more uncertain about what the future holds, with little transparency in Wales and survival battles.

With Welsh rugby’s reputation once more being exposed in public, there are no winners.

Not many dull days in Welsh rugby then with more upheaval to come, which some argue is essential for an upturn in the flagging fortunes.