Mistaken identity?
Watching the Deacon Manu saga unfold, things didn’t seem quite right.
To recap, the tight-head prop was born in New Zealand, played for the country’s
under-21 team, and ultimately moved to Wales to play for Llanelli in 2006.
Then it all got weird. Having lived here for three years he became eligible
to play for Wales under the IRB’s residency rule. Presented with the
option earlier this year, he said it would be a “huge honour”.
A few days later he was named in Fiji’s squad to tour Europe and Manu,
whose mother is Fijian, became, errr, Fijian. I can understand Manu’s
perspective, taking whatever option was best for him. And you can see from
his Scarlets’ form why national sides would want him. But the whole situation
makes me think the IRB’s eligibility laws need to be reviewed if international
caps are not going to be devalued down the line.
Time for a change?
He asked to be judged on the World Cup campaign. Hmmm, John Toshack probably
should have kept quiet. To be honest, fourth place is pretty ordinary and so
is his record over the last five years. The 3-0 win against a weak Scotland side
was his 50th game in charge and so far his record amounts to 21 wins (the best
results coming against Norway and Denmark), 21 defeats (including 5-1 at home
to Slovakia) and eight draws. Robbie Savage might have an agenda but he was right
to imply in this issue that Wales have not improved since Mark Hughes left the
job – he would have also been right if he’d pointed out that we have
got worse. Of course, any comparison with Hughes is unfair: several quality players
have retired from the game and the injury record in recent years cannot be overstated.
And, in further defence of Toshack, his brave strategy of blooding youngsters
will, ultimately, leave Wales with a group of players with a large bank of top-flight
experience between them. But Toshack was the man who said this would be the time
to assess him and, to be frank, the results have not been good enough. Why? Maybe
it’s the overall lack of experience in the team. (To several minds, driving
Savage away was an error of judgement given the absence of other top flight players.)
Maybe it’s the tactics. (Craig Bellamy should not be playing as a lone
striker. Toshack is far too cautious.) Maybe it’s a generational thing.
(Toshack suggested to RedHanded in 2008 that he sometimes struggles to relate
to the young millionaires of today’s game.) All or none of these points
could be relevant, but the bottom line is Wales are underachieving and it’s
been more than two years and 11 home games since 30,000 people bothered to turn
up and watch them. I've got plenty of admiration for John Toshack but maybe someone
else should lead the Euro 2012 campaign.
Bunker mentality
Wales’ Bradley Dredge will have to dig deep (see what I’ve done there?)
if he is to play in next October’s Ryder Cup, but spare a thought for people
wanting to watch the Celtic Manor showpiece. Some 45,000 tickets have been sold
for each of the three competition days. I did some looking around to see how
the locals plan on capitalising on the mass influx. It would appear that 'property
letting' (cough-extortion-cough) is the name of the game. Houses have been made
available to rent on a number of websites, with upper scale prices ranging from
roughly £5,000 for a week (in a two-bed semi more than 10 miles away in
Caldicot) to £28,000 for seven to ten days in a four-bedroom Edwardian
house in Penarth Town. Before you dart off to join the gold rush, be warned that
many of these entrepreneurs, including former Scarlets No.8 Alix Popham, have
reported very slow business so far.
Riath Al-Samarrai beats the offside trap and shoots on target