Welsh rugby looks for new year lift after grim 2024

Many observers predicted it would get worse before it got better. Welsh rugby in 2024 backed up that assessment.

The Latin term "annus horribilis" meaning "horrible year" was used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1992 to describe a disastrous 12 months for the royal family.

In recent years, the saying has often been rolled out to describe the game in Wales. Each summary becomes more depressing and this one is no exception.

There was a time when Welsh rugby was among the envy of the world and we have said goodbye to 1970s legends JPR Williams, Barry John and Geoff Wheel during the last 12 months.

At the end of 2024, the game in Wales is battling for survival and relevance.

Both Welsh national senior sides have regressed, there are continued financial concerns within the professional game and further scandal at the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU). Standard fare these days.

Warren Gatland's Wales men's team played 11 Tests and lost 11 Tests in 2024.

Their overall international losing sequence now stands at 12, stretching back to October 2023 when Wales lost in the World Cup quarter-final to Argentina in Marseille.

It is the first time since 1937 the national side have gone an entire calendar year without winning a Test and they occupy their lowest ever world ranking position of 11th, just above Georgia.

After the loss of Louis Rees-Zammit to American football, experienced campaigners like Dan Biggar, Leigh Halfpenny and Tomas Francis through retirement and unavailability, along with injuries to Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and Taulupe Faletau, an inexperienced side, led by Wales' second-ever youngest captain Dafydd Jenkins, suffered five Six Nations losses.

This resulted in a first Wooden Spoon in 21 years as Wales finished bottom for the first time since 2003.

After George North also announced his international farewell and Ken Owens revealed his retirement, a summer loss against South Africa at Twickenham preceded a 2-0 series defeat in Australia before a solitary success in an uncapped match against Queensland Reds.

A dire autumn brought defeats to Fiji, Australia and South Africa which extended Wales' losing run to that round dozen and put them in the record books.

Despite the dismal record, head coach Gatland remains in charge for the 2025 Six Nations. It begins with a trip to face France in Paris on Friday, 31 January without injured captain Lake, one of the few success stories of a traumatic year.

Gatland is contracted until the 2027 World Cup but with a success rate of only 25% for his second spell in charge, he has been given the Six Nations to instigate a revival.

It has also been a year to forget for women's rugby in Wales, on and off the pitch.

After the progress of 2022 and 2023, it seems as if Wales have slipped back into an era where players were made to fight for every inch of their worth.

After two successive third-place finishes in the Six Nations, Wales were optimistic of at least repeating that feat this year.

But like the men's side they finished bottom of the table, claiming just one win over Italy which sparked over-exuberant celebrations at the Principality Stadium.

Wales saw off Spain in a play-off to secure their place at WXV2 and next year's World Cup, but players were later threatened with withdrawal from those tournaments amid a row over contracts, at one point given a three-hour deadline to sign new deals.

It was a bitter dispute which had the players considering strike action and the WRU having to again apologise to the women's squad.

Head coach Ioan Cunningham's departure followed, along later with the resignation of executive director of rugby Nigel Walker.

The Union is expected to announce Cunningham's successor in the new year, with Gloucester-Hartpury's Sean Lynn among the favourites, while a head of women's rugby has been promised.

Whoever takes the role will have a huge job to galvanise a team who have been through so much in the past 12 months, and in time for the World Cup which starts in England next September.

The WRU suffered a damaging 2023 which saw allegations of sexism levelled at the governing body and a threat of the home Six Nations match being called off against England because of issues over player contracts.

With a new independent chair in place in Richard Collier-Keywood, a more diverse board and chief executive Abi Tierney officially starting in January 2024, there was optimism there might be improvements from the organisation that are the guardians of the Welsh game.

Those hopes have not transpired with little evidence of change, while Walker has departed.

Tierney came in and made creating a new Welsh rugby strategy her central focus, saying that would be delivered by the end of the first half of the year.

What followed by the end of June, was a bullet-point wishlist of things which included wanting the two national sides to be in the top five of the world, with the professional sides competing for trophies in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and European tournaments.

It was hoped the exact details of how this would be achieved would be delivered later in the year but that has been delayed until 2025 because the new deal with the four Welsh professional sides is still being discussed.

The WRU have also found themselves facing negative headlines with the Welsh women's contracts controversy, although they reject further sexism allegations.

Tierney has also consistently kept faith with Gatland, first turning down his resignation offer following the Six Nations in March and then giving him an end of year vote of confidence.

The 2024 year of Welsh rugby has been dominated by reviews. It has been hard to keep track of what is being reviewed.

The WRU started the year measuring its progress against an independent review in November 2023 which found aspects of the governing body culture were sexist, misogynistic, racist and homophobic and not properly challenged.

There was the usual inquests into the failed Six Nations and summer campaigns for the men's side, while a review was announced in October into the handling of the women's player contracts saga.

After some details were initially unveiled, the full document - with some names redacted - was published in full at 16:00 GMT on Christmas Eve. An opportune time to bury bad news.

A week earlier, an independent assessment, carried by an outside company called Portas Consulting, completed a report into Wales' failed men's autumn campaign where a range of contributors, included current players, were consulted.

Expect more reviews in 2025. Hope for some credible changes. Maintaining the status quo will not suffice.

Wales' four professional sides have spent the year battling for survival on and off the field.

For the first time, no Welsh team qualified for Europe's elite Champions Cup tournament - with the final being held in Cardiff in May.

Instead, Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets are all competing in the second tier tournament of the Challenge Cup.

The financial climate continues to bite with squad sizes diminishing after the budget for the 2024-25 season dropped from £5.2m to £4.5m.

There have been some success stories with Ospreys reaching the Challenge Cup and URC quarter-finals in the 2023-24 season, although head coach Toby Booth has since departed, while Cardiff are flying the flag during this current campaign.

The latest negotiations with the WRU will be crucial and are hoped to be completed early in the new year.

Modest increases in budgets are expected with all parties committed to keeping four professional sides.

However, if failure on the pitch continues, the debate on whether there needs to be a reduction in teams will remain on the agenda, alongside the merits of continuing in a URC tournament Welsh supporters struggle to identify with.

There is plenty of action to look forward to over the next 12 months. In the men's game, Wales will aim to end their losing sequence in the Six Nations with new faces promised in Gatland's coaching staff.

There is the expected return of experienced performers like Josh Adams, Liam Williams, Faletau and Morgan as individuals try to impress in the tournament to make Andy Farrell's British and Irish Lions squad that travels to Australia in the summer.

The players who do not make that trip Down Under face a two-Test series in Japan in July.

Wales women need a new coach before they face a Six Nations in March and April with the main World Cup event looming in the autumn after a summer series in Australia.

Europe's showpiece club finals will take place at Cardiff's Principality Stadium in May with Welsh sides hoping to make the Challenge Cup final, while Ospreys are planning to return to the St Helen's ground in Swansea.

We await to see whether performances improve and if tough but necessary decisions are made in the boardroom.

Welsh rugby will do well in 2025 to top the misery and avoid the mistakes made during the past year. Nobody associated with the game in Wales will hope they are repeated.