Former Wales centre Gavin Henson has directed the blame for Wales’ current woes on the players rather than Warren Gatland and his coaching team.
Wales are currently on a 12-Test losing streak heading into the Guinness Six Nations, and Gatland is understandably under pressure ahead of the Championship opener against France in Paris.
But Henson laid the blame on the current Welsh player pool when joining Jim Hamilton on The Big Jim Show recently, saying “they’re not at the level” of their rivals.
While the former British and Irish Lion admitted that Gatland’s style did not get the best out of him during his playing career, he recognises that the Kiwi has the tactics to get “normal-type” players in a good place, and was blessed with some “specimens” early in his Wales career. Unfortunately for Henson, those players are few and far between now.
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“Welsh rugby is a mess at the moment,” the 33-cap Wales international said. “I don’t think we’re going to get out of it for a while, looks pretty bleak to me. We don’t really have any players that get you out of your seat, that’s what I’m struggling with.
“Gatland, I liked playing for Gatland. He has his way, he didn’t get the best out of me the way he plays the game, but it gets normal-type players in a good place and creates a game where you either lose within seven or win by seven.
“He’s got that type of tactics, which is fine, it’s competitive and he had a group of specimens, like Sam Warburton, Alun Wyn Jones, Taulupe Faletau, Dan Lydiate, Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies. They were specimens, but they were intelligent rugby people as well. They didn’t have the most skill, they weren’t like Shane Williams or potentially myself, but it didn’t matter. They were intelligent people and knew how to play that game plan and because of their size, it was very effective.
“The problem is now, we don’t have that and we don’t even have the players like Shane or myself. So I just don’t know how we’re going to get a tune out of the Welsh team at the minute. I am a bit bleak looking at it at the moment.
“Is Gatland the right one for it and Rob Howley? I don’t know. Obviously, it’s not looking good at the moment but I don’t know who else wants to step in. They are probably looking at the player pool and going ‘there’s not much going on’.
“Instead of blaming the coaches, I’d rather blame the player pool because I don’t know what’s going on there. I don’t know why they’re not at the level of these other teams. They’ve had academies, we didn’t have that back in the day, we just had to get on with it ourselves and try and figure out a way and try and be the best every day. That was my mindset, someone like Shane Williams was the same. But I don’t set it with these players. I want to blame the player pool at the minute because it’s just not good enough.”
