Welsh rugby's academy system and the overall pathway has come under intense scrutiny over the past year.
Between 2005-21 Wales were crowned Six Nations champions six times with four Grand Slams but over the past few years even the smallest modicum of success has fizzled out. Warren Gatland's current squad are currently in the middle of the worst run of results in Welsh rugby history, with 13 defeats on the bounce.
Such an abysmal run would have been unthinkable just six short years ago, with Wales ranked number one in the world for a short period of time off the back of a Grand Slam-winning campaign. But the dam has finally burst and those with an attachment to Welsh rugby are desperately trying to find answers.
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Roughly 20 years ago the Welsh system began producing a golden generation of players not seen since the halcyon days of the 1970s. Many former players have put this down to the so-called 'national academy' system.
So, what was the 'national academy', what did they get right and what has gone wrong? Rugby correspondent Steffan Thomas takes a deep dive into Wales' academy system.
What went right between 2003-12?
When the game went regional in 2003 the five - soon to be four - regions had their own academy systems but the WRU's then-head of S&C Andrew Hore pushed for an elite 'VIP' level above the regional academies. You may have heard people use the term 'national academy' to describe this period but this is actually a slight misnomer.
However, there was a big change in 2005 to Welsh rugby's development pathway which proved to be ground-breaking. There were four distinct academies which were very well resourced at the time but there was a formalised system from above.
In 2005 the WRU announced it had secured £1.62m in Objective 1 funding from the Welsh Assembly Government which would go towards a £3.66m project to establish the four Regional men’s Academies and one Women’s National Academy. One of the leading figures at the time was the WRU's elite performance manager Mostyn Richards who helped to establish and oversee the four regional academies, the restructuring of age-grade rugby and the re-establishment of the Wales Sevens squad.
At the time the WRU saw it as the best way to develop future internationals 'through the core elements of being a professional rugby player, which include conditioning, tactical skills, technical skills, sports nutrition and sports psychology.'
Objective 1 - a grant from the European Union passed through the Welsh government and WRU - paid for 45% of the academy costs. With the help of Objective 1 funding, the WRU employed an academy manager, a conditioning coach and a skills coach in each academy.
How did it work on a day-to-day basis?
At the height of the academy system there were 70 regional academy players on the WRU's watchlist. There were extra skills coaches along with S&C support for those players.
All players were contracted to the four regions but a lot of it was coordinated by the WRU. For example, the former head of S&C for the men's national team, Mark Bennett, would go around the four regions offering extra support to the academy players, while the likes of Gruff Rees, Danny Wilson and Neil Jenkins, among others, helped oversee the skills curriculum across the programme.
These coaches were employed by the WRU but sent out to the regions. The four regions, with significant support from the WRU, did a fantastic job in developing their own players, but there was a level above that was reserved for the very best prospects.
This created an aspirational culture among the players. It was one thing getting into a regional academy but being included on the WRU's watchlist was another thing entirely.
Coaches like Rees, who was a skills coach, would go down to Llanelli and work with a promising teenage centre named Jonathan Davies on a one-to-one basis one day, before working with an up-and-coming back three player called Leigh Halfpenny the next day.
Then the likes of current Harlequins head coach Wilson would work with Ken Owens or Huw Bennett on their throwing skills, or with Sam Warburton on his skills at the contact area. There were some outstanding coaches involved at the time working closely with the players, such as Aled Walters, who is now head of athletic performance with the Ireland national team, and has held similar roles with South Africa, England and Leicester Tigers.
Gethin Watts, currently senior academy manager at Bristol Bears, was the national academy manager and played a crucial role. Watts fostered strong relationships with the regional coaches at the time before inviting Wales' elite-level talents in to train at the National Centre of Excellence.
But, crucially, these players were never contracted by the WRU and were aware they would be dropped from this elite group if they were not up to standard. It was very much an invite-only club and there was far more emphasis on the quality of players rather than the quantity.
A promising player like Halfpenny would train with the-then Cardiff Blues academy doing his weights and fitness along with a skills session. He would also train with the senior side two or three times a week and play for Cardiff RFC in the Welsh Premiership before getting invited away to train on national academy camps.
As a result Halfpenny was fully prepared to become a professional player of the highest order. The academies were operated and run at regional level but the WRU supplemented a lot of it.
The likes of Jon Daniels and Kevin George at the Scarlets, along with Mike Rayer and Justin Burnell at Cardiff, among others, played crucial roles.
Role of the regions and overseas players
These days it is rare to see Wales' four professional clubs challenge in the play-offs let alone win any silverware, but it wasn't always like that. In the early years of regional rugby at least three of the Welsh sides could compete with the best teams in Europe.
The Ospreys had a squad the envy of most sides and were dubbed the 'Galacticos' by the Welsh press at the time. When the likes of Halfpenny, Warburton, Jamie Roberts, Justin Tipuric and Dan Biggar were in the academy system they graduated into club teams who were significantly stronger than they are now.
A player who was involved at the time told this writer the price of entry into the regional squads, let alone the first team, was far higher than it is now. When a Welsh side announces the signing of a non-Welsh qualified player the social media comment sections underneath the announcement is usually littered with fans concerned at how the individual in question could be blocking the progress of home-grown talent.
But top-end overseas players were invaluable in developing Wales' golden generation of talent. The likes of Justin Marshall, David Lyons, Xavier Rush, Filo Tiatia, Percy Montgomery and Marty Holah, among others, set incredibly high standards.
When Halfpenny came through the system he was learning from Ben Blair, while Warburton worked closely with former All Blacks No 8 Rush, and Kiwi openside Holah helped Tipuric enormously. Back then Cardiff and the Ospreys were among the best club sides in Europe, while the Scarlets also had their moments.
To break into the first team, players had to reach higher standards and for the most part were involved in winning environments which prepared the likes of Halfpenny and Tipuric far more effectively for the demands of Test rugby than if they'd come through in 2025. One coach who was involved at the time told WalesOnline the likes of Warburton and Halfpenny had to reach international level to get into the Cardiff side let alone the Wales squad because the standards were so much higher.
"It was an amazing time. You don't appreciate when you're in it, what we had at the time," former Wales and British & Irish Lions hooker Richard Hibbard told the BBC back in 2023. "We were about three deep on internationals in every position at one point, the likes of Stefan Terblanche, Justin Marshall, Filo Tiatia, Jerry Collins, Marty Holah - world-class players.
"I do genuinely believe, from those foreign imports, that's what gave us that golden era that followed Wales across the board. You had such good senior pros, they guided you, setting their own examples."
To produce a conveyor belt of talent you need investment post-16 in the regional age-grade system, followed by extra investment into the academies and then into first-team squads, so the youngsters learn quickly from the best.
But then the WRU and the regions began to clash heads as the so-called 'civil war' with former CEO Roger Lewis began to take its toll. Apart from the odd season, the professional game has never reached the same heights.
It's important to note this centralised model wasn't solely responsible for developing Wales' golden generation of players. It was multifaceted and without strong professional sides it wouldn't have worked.
What went wrong?
The WRU owned the regional academies until 2012 because it could gain Objective 1 funding to pay 45% of the costs of the academies. This was the case until the Objective 1 funding ran out and as a result it created a 'national academy' in 2012, long after the so-called 'golden generation' of player had graduated, while Mostyn Richards was deemed surplus to requirements and briefly went to work for the Ospreys as team manager.
The official national academy was then set up under the reign of former WRU CEO Lewis to mirror a similar system which the New Zealand Rugby Union had in place. Under former WRU head of rugby Joe Lydon this included 27 players between the ages of 18-21, with only six of those going on to win more than 10 international caps before it got disbanded in 2014.
The glory days of Welsh rugby's academy system had come to an end. At this time Wales' regions were locked in a destructive political civil war with Lewis. After a long, drawn-out process the four regions signed a new Professional Rugby Agreement with the WRU.
In the 2014 PRA the WRU transferred the management and responsibility for the four regional academies over to the regions themselves, with £600,000 of support each year from the WRU. This period resulted in a significant breakdown of trust between the WRU and the regions.
On top of that, neither the pathway or the senior squads were funded to an adequate level. Wales' golden generation of players, topped up by a handful of players who came through in the interim period, carried the national side to unprecedented levels of success, while the regional game was not given the support it deserved.
Despite the hard work of numerous individuals, the academies as a whole never functioned to the same levels as they did between 2005-12, while with the exception of the odd season, the performances of Wales' four professional clubs has never consistently reached the same heights.
The WRU have historically argued its professional sides have not spent their money wisely, while the regions would argue the governing body has underpaid its supply chain. Whatever side of the fence you fall on it is clear Welsh rugby has never fully recovered from the damage done in 2014.
What is being done to fix the problem?
To everyone's credit, Welsh rugby are putting plans in place to improve the pathway. The likes of Rob Howley, Andy Lloyd and Huw Bevan, along with the regions, have been working very hard to improve the volume and standard of player coming through the pathway.
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.
On top of this, the WRU hold regular skill clinics where Gatland and his assistant coaches work with the best academy players. There is also a greater synergy between the senior national side and the U20s, while there are plans to further improve the academies of all four professional clubs.
But the real secret behind the success of the academy system which led to the development of a plethora of world-class players was the close working relationship between the four regions and the WRU. This is something that has to finally improve going forward.
