The WRU has been criticised for scrapping its exiles programme but insist better times are ahead
The Welsh Rugby Union is changing its long-running Exiles programme — but performance director Huw Bevan insists the new version will be more effective at keeping the best Welsh talent in Wales and convincing those lost to the English system to return.
In the past the WRU’s exiles programme has been responsible for identifying Welsh qualified talent in England and further afield. But the WRU believes it has replaced it with a superior system, with the aim of retaining players in Wales and repatriating those who are based in England.
This will be the aim for both the men’s and women’s game.
“We are trying to restructure the emphasis of the programme to focus more on retention of players within Wales and the repatriation of players who are primarily in England,” Bevan told WalesOnline.
“We believe that the majority of the players capable of playing professional or international rugby have already been identified by us or elsewhere.
“This is because the best players are already identified, in England either by a public school who are linked to an academy or directly from Wales, by academy people recruiting them back home from across the border.
“They have either leaked out of our system to attend public schools, or been recruited by academies in England, or we already know about them through the Welsh academy system
“So, our renewed focus is on retaining and also identifying players based across the border, together with supporting people who are already known to us. .
“We need to make connections with them and engage with them to come back into the Welsh national age grade programmes. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
“We think that the more often we get players who are currently across the border in a Welsh shirt the more chance we’ve got of recruiting them at senior level back into our system at national level and also for the regional clubs.
“What we’ve done is given the responsibility for retaining our high potential players to specific WRU staff within our pathway who focus on our U18s on both the male and female side..
“So, they’ll know all our players at U18s level and will connect with them, support and educate them about the options available to them in Wales in a way that will encourage them to stay in Wales or give them incentive to return.
“To do that we are working closely together in the professional clubs to create a collective One Wales offer which includes all aspects of the professional game.
“We have spent a lot of time with the regional clubs recently specifically on this topic of retention.”
There are a number of Wales internationals over the years who were born outside the country but qualified courtesy of a family connection, both in our age grade and senior teams
Steff and Ioan Emanuel, Harry Beddall, Sam Scott, Louies Hennessey, Louis Trevett, Luke Evans, Aidan Boshoff and Jonny Green in the WRU pathways, along with the likes of Blair Murray and Ellis Mee at international level are good examples in recent times.
The WRU is putting more of an emphasis on senior academy level and above with the aim of repatriating these players to Wales.
This includes the Wales Pathway Players programme (WPP) where a group of up to 60 players of national interest between the ages of 15 and 24 have been identified as Wales internationals of the future and as a result will be given additional support.
“In terms of identifying players who are Welsh qualified who have left our system and are in schools or academy systems elsewhere, we’ve now got people who are well placed and who have established connections with academy staff, in Richard Whiffin (Wales U20s coach), Andy Lloyd (talent and pathways manager) and others,” said Bevan.
“They will speak regularly with these academy managers and have strong relationships with them that we are already utilising.
“If you look at the relationship with Harlequins, Bristol and Gloucester as examples.
“Look at the number of players who are coming back and playing for Wales age grades because of the strength of those connections.
“We need to continue to capitalise on those relationships. We feel the people we’ve got are best placed to do that. In terms of the wider identification of Welsh qualified players, each of the regional clubs have a recruitment manager who are connected to agents.
“Using that is a much wider network to utilise, these are people who are going to be proactive in finding opportunities for Welsh-qualified players within Wales.
“There’s been several of late who have been found.
“There’s Levi Douglas at the Dragons, Ellis Mee, Blair Murray and Ioan Jones, who the Scarlets have signed, these players were identified through agents and recruitment managers that will be part of our system.
“There’s also a network of about 20 coaches and teachers who are Welsh connected.
“These are people who have strong connections to Wales but who are embedded in the English system who we have identified.
“They’ve stepped forward to say they would like to contribute and support a Welsh-qualified scouting network.
“That’s the proactive approach we are going to take.” Join WalesOnline Rugby’s WhatsApp Channel here to get the breaking news sent straight to your phone for free
Undoubtedly one of the biggest threats to professional rugby in Wales is the high number of talented young players who take up scholarships in English public schools and are picked up by the academies of Gallagher Premiership clubs.
The WRU believes its new system will help prevent this from happening as much as it used to with a huge emphasis on retaining players in Wales.
The retention drive is based on creating an improved understanding of the opportunities available to players in Wales from a rugby, academic and welfare perspective.
“Certainly from an academic perspective, we are competitive and we believe we have a good all round offer, we just need to give the players the information they need to make an informed decision,” said Bevan.
“If players do choose to leave we have to continue to stay connected with the players if they do leave to make sure the are still linked to the club they come from.
“If they go, what we have done previously is largely ignored them.
“We’ve previously had the attitude of sometimes thinking, that’s it you are out of the system, but you can’t afford to do that.
“We have to work with our schools or academies that they go to and make sure that player feels connected to whatever club they come from.
“We need to go there, visit them, encourage them to be part of the Welsh system and make sure the allegiance is with Wales.
“They are selected and encouraged to come into the Welsh Player Pathway (WPP) programme, they are encouraged to play at every opportunity at our U18s, U19s and U20s programmes.
“I don’t think we will stop everyone leaving but the first thing to do is say, this is what we can offer you in terms of academic support and this is what we can do from a rugby perspective.
“If you are in Wales you are going to have more opportunities to work through the WPP programme, however you made the decision to go but we are not going to let you feel isolated by that, we still want to stay connected with you and we want you to come back.”Bevan is confident this new strategy will work and believes young players have greater opportunities in Wales and this will persuade players to return to this side of the Severn Bridge.
“What we’ve got at the moment in Wales is opportunity,” he said.
“Our young players are getting more opportunities than the ones in England. Get the latest breaking Welsh rugby news stories sent straight to your inbox with our FREE daily newsletter. Sign up here.
“Look at Macs Page and Huw Anderson. Look at the game time Macs has had for the Scarlets which has now got him on the Wales tour to Japan.
“There’s a couple of signings coming to Cardiff now who are not getting opportunities in England.
“Look at Louie Hennessey. He came on loan to Cardiff and went straight into the first team.
“We just need a collective effort.
“We can’t afford to let people slip through the net as easily as we may have done previously.”
