Whatever Happened To Accountability?

"We didn’t perform well; we let ourselves down and we let the supporters down. Each of us has to take a hard look in the mirror and see where we went wrong and what we need to do to put things right. It’s difficult but we need to man-up."

Who said that? Was it Danny Wilson after Cardiff Blues defeat to the Scarlets? Or was it Gregor Townsend after Glasgow’s surprise hammering from 14-man Munster following the tragic death of Anthony Foley. Well, it was neither of them. In fact, nobody said it. But somebody should.

The people who should have said it were the respective Chief Executives of Pro-Rugby Wales (PRW), the four pro-teams and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU). Why? Because each of them is culpable to some degree in the mess that was created by the scheduling of big derby games during the Autumn Internationals training camp. Leadership isn’t a position or a title it’s action and example and being accountable when things go wrong.

Is that a bit harsh? Well reading the contributions from fans on Twitter it is rather tame. The social media tool was apoplectic with rage at the number of players not available for the two big derby games on Friday and Saturday prior to the international the following week. One of the biggest regional fixtures of the year had been dramatically affected by poor scheduling by our administrators.

As fans vehemently expressed their annoyance about the situation, what was the response of our six leading administrators? Nothing, zilch, de nada. The silence was deafening. In fact, it was so quiet I thought at one point they may all have taken holy orders and a vow of silence at Caldy Island.

You can hear PR people in their respective office saying, ‘Don’t worry, best not to say anything. It will blow over. They’ll have forgotten about it next week’. To a degree they are right. We will have forgotten about the shambolic events. But that will be at a cost and a very expensive one at that. Something which is difficult to measure but that everyone desires: trust and confidence. Some of that ebbed away during the week and it’s a difficult task to get it back in the short term.

But it could have been so different. We all make mistakes and I include myself in that category. He who hath never made a mistake hath never achieved anything. This isn’t about blaming people, it’s about our leaders taking responsibility, being accountable for their actions and those of their staff.

To quote Roy T Bennett: ‘It takes guts and humility to admit mistakes. Admitting we’re wrong is courage not weakness.’

If individually or collectively the big 6 had come forward and said they had made an error or explained their thinking then we could have moved on quickly. A modern day equivalent of ‘I’m Spartacus’ would have done the trick.

Before my retirement I insisted on meeting every person we employed. I didn’t care if they were a Domestic assistant who cleaned the bedrooms at the National Centre or a Director in the Senior Management Team, they all got the same speech. I emphasised that we were all fallible and all of us make mistakes. All I asked was that they put their hand up when this happened so that we could deal with it (not them). The worst thing that could happen would be to pretend that everything was fine because as sure as ‘eggs is eggs’ something brushed under the carpeting would emerge and cause us even more problems.

And that’s exactly what happened last week. Something which had its roots 10 months earlier emerged into the light.

I think it was Simon Thomas the excellent Walesonline journalist who asked Rob Howley during a press conference was he surprised that the derby games were being staged during the Wales training camp? Rob helpfully told us that the Australia game had been announced on 2 December 2015 while the Pro12 fixtures were announced on 13 July 2016, ‘Make what you want of that’ he said, throwing a hospital pass in the direction of PRW and the four pro-teams.

So, it’s pretty clear that Rob felt that Mark Davies, CEO of PRW, and the four Pro12 CEOs are to blame for not checking the international fixture list when they were given the draft Pro12 fixture list in July, and to a degree he’s right. On the face of it, it appears an elementary error which they should have picked up or at least one of their colleagues. Has any one of them put their hand up and said we should have done better? No.

But there are mitigating circumstances. The fourth AI which is outside the World Rugby window is usually at the end of November but this year it’s at the beginning. There is an argument to suggest that the WRU at minimum should have flagged this up with regional colleagues but I suspect they didn’t think about it either. So we end up with an unsatisfactory situation which was about to get worse.

But to be fair to Rob he also said in the press conference that they would be in discussions with the four regional coaches about the release of players. Some very sensible decisions were made: Rhys Gill was released back to Cardiff Blues, as we only had Brad Thyer as a loosehead; Lloyd Williams also returned to cover on the bench because Lewis Jones was injured and Tavis Knoyle had left for the Dragons.

This could have been really good news for the WRU but the rest of the week they handled things poorly; in fact they didn’t handle things at all. They let social media speculate which is probably the most dangerous thing to do as a PR professional.

People questioned why the squad needed three No10s and couldn’t they release one back to the Ospreys. The oddest was the retention of Ellis Jenkins who had joined the squad not as a member but to assist with training or as some said on Twitter ‘to hold tackle bags for Tips’. Why couldn’t he be released given that Cardiff Blues didn’t have a genuine No7 available (which incidentally proved crucial in the game against the Scarlets).

I am absolutely sure there are very good reasons for the retention of each player and I have no doubt that each case was looked at rigorously by the Wales Team Management and that appropriate discussions took place with each of the club coaches. What the WRU should have done was to explain their decisions. Everyone is aware about injuries in the camp and the need to cover players and explore different combinations so tell us. They do it in American Football and that’s far more tactical than rugby. An argument that these things need to be confidential is simply silly in this day and age.

Nothing was told to supporters who pay a lot of money each year either through their season tickets or pay-as-you-go. We are a major stakeholder in the game and we were treated with contempt by our leaders. Communication wasn’t just woeful it was non-existent. Supporters got more and more emotional and comments became angrier and some insulting. In this regard, I probably should put my own hand up and say that I wasn’t immune to tweeting a stupid comment or two, so apologies for that.

George Bernard Shaw said, ‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place’. In this case there was no communication at all. The 6 CEOs need to learn from this but so do supporters. To their credit, Crys16, the Scarlets Supporters Trust issued a statement condemning the poor handling of this issue and expressing concern about the treatment of Pro12 teams and their supporters. The other three Supporters Clubs remained silent. That’s why we need bodies like CF10 Arms Park Trust who will represent supporters and not be afraid to criticise and hold the Cardiff Blues and WRU to account when necessary.

We want to be a ‘critical friend’ not groups having a rant from the touchline. But to do that we need our CEOs to engage with us and explain their thinking. This blog may be way wide of the uprights but we won’t know unless people communicate with us.

On a personal note I have been supportive of the change which Richard Holland has started to put in place at the Arms Park. My blogs for Llanishen RFC have also been complimentary and supportive of the culture change which Martyn Phillips is making at the WRU. But the support for both is not unconditional and neither should it be. You only get high performing organisations when you have a culture of both high support and high challenge. You can’t be excellent some of the time.

I’m not looking for anybody to be embarrassed but I do expect a degree of honesty from those who lead our great game. They need to be held accountable. If they communicated better and were open with us then we could trust them and move on.

When that happens my response will simply be ‘Thank You.’

Huw G Jones is now retired but was Chief Executive of Sport Wales for 15 years where he made numerous mistakes including not communicating better.