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Several senior Ospreys players have been linked with moves to England as speculation swirls around the region’s future
Former Ospreys coach Sean Holley says there is a feeling the region has “always been the target”, with fans left angry and in disbelief as uncertainty over the side’s future continues.
After announcing plans to cut the number of Wales’ professional sides from four to three, the Welsh Rugby Union has given the regions until the end of the year to agree upon their futures, but if consensus is not reached, it will immediately go out to a tender process.
The WRU hope to reach a decision on who the three teams will be by the end of the current campaign, with the Ospreys and Scarlets deemed most at risk after the union revealed plans for one team in Cardiff, one in the east and just one in the west.
While fans remain in the dark, speculation is rife over the Ospreys’ owners, Y11, having submitted a bid to buy Cardiff, although no official confirmation has been offered on the identity of the bidders.
But this week has seen several senior Ospreys players – including Wales captains Jac Morgan and Dewi Lake – linked with moves across the border to England, fuelling speculation further that Mark Jones’ side may be the ones on the chopping block.
Morgan and Lake are set to join Gallagher PREM side Gloucester, with the Cherry & Whites reportedly in pole position to pull off the double deal. Meanwhile, Ospreys fly-half Dan Edwards has been heavily linked with Leicester Tigers, with prop Gareth Thomas and scrum-half Kieran Hardy also receiving interest from England.
Appearing on BBC Scrum V on Thursday night, Holley – who won five major trophies during his nine years in charge of the Ospreys between 2003 and 2012 – said the departure of Morgan and Lake “probably confirms to Ospreys fans what is going on behind the scenes that is not being made public”.
Opening up on the current mood in the region, he continued: “There is an air of sadness, a lot of anger, disbelief as well. Your average fan takes things on face value. Who has been the most successful region? Let’s talk hard facts.
“There’s anger that the idea is the Ospreys will go. The thought of the average fan that it’s going to be the Cardiff Ospreys, or the Ospreys will now own Cardiff and still remain as the Ospreys, even those 40 miles up the road, they won’t entertain that.
“They are die-hard people who have gone through the hardships of the early 2000s, to have established a brand and have maybe two generations of supporters who have only known Ospreys now. They’re doing good things in the community and, let’s face it, on the field are still reasonably competitive, because they have that culture.”
Fellow pundit and former Wales and Lions star Jonathan ‘Fox’ Davies agreed that the region “never get blown away,” adding: “I know it happened at the start of the season against Glasgow, but if you look back across years and years of work, they never get 50-pointers [put on them]. They play for each other, there’s always a strong team that rolls their sleeves up and plays.”
Reflecting on the Ospreys’ history, Holley said that fans would argue that they are “the one true region”, with anger rising amid a feeling that they have been targeted as the professional side to go.
“You could argue there wasn’t a region and we were charged with developing a new region and a new brand,” he said of the team’s formation in 2003. “It took a bit of time but we did it.
“What you had to do then was create a culture, so you had good young players who became Galacticos, became internationals and Lions. There was a lot of hard work by a lot of people to create that culture.
“You would argue – and this is what Ospreys people say – they are the one true region. That should count for something as well as the success. But there is also a feel that the Ospreys have always been the target, the ones to go and that creates a little bit of anger down in the region.”
However, Holley is not only concerned about his former side, but Welsh rugby as a whole, as he warned viewers that “we are on the precipice” in a impassioned speech. Fearing that those in Wales are dangerously close to “losing our game”, he called for rugby to be made part of the curriculum, admitting that “desperate times call for desperate measures”.
“I think it’s bigger, I’ve been banging on about this when we go around the clubs to do our talks and things,” he said. “We are on the precipice. We don’t realise how close we are to losing our game.
“If it’s that important to Wales, the culture, the socio-economic status of Wales… let’s face it, it is, we lose 73-0 on a Saturday, what are people like in work on a Monday? What does it do to the clubs, bars, restaurants and shops in Cardiff. The socio-economic, the climate and mood, why don’t we make it part of the curriculum, if it’s that important?
“Learn the national anthem, learn Hymns and Arias, learn the complexities of the game and the culture surrounding it. Everything about discipline, officials, behaving like a Welsh person, supporting your team and then the effect it has on our country,” Holley added. “It’s extreme, but desperate times call for desperate measures.”
