Cardiff director of rugby Dai Young has expressed his concern over the state of Welsh rugby, saying he feels the country’s four professional sides are “20 points behind” their United Rugby Championship (URC) rivals.
After just four rounds in the 2022/23 campaign, the Welsh teams are struggling again and, like last season, they occupy positions in the bottom half of the table.
Overall, the Welsh sides have won three out of 12 encounters against teams from other countries in the URC. Of those nine losses, seven were by margins greater than seven points and five by margins greater than 14.
Welsh regions of a similar standard
With Cardiff set to play the Dragons at home on Saturday, Young said there wasn’t a big difference between the standard of the Welsh regions although they struggled against the other clubs.
“I don’t think there is much between any of us four regions, really, and I think we can all beat each other on the day. That game last weekend could have gone either way,” he told WalesOnline. “The last couple of games we’ve played against the Dragons, certainly at the end of last season at Rodney Parade, is a game we could have easily lost.
“There is nothing in these games and it is very much on the day.”
But he added: “To be quite honest with you, the bigger issue is that the four of us are 20 points behind most of the teams in this league at this moment in time.
“That is the concern and it’s what we’re all struggling to put right.”
Young has bolstered his squad with seasoned internationals like Liam Williams – who sustained a collarbone injury on his debut and is sidelined for between 12 and 16 weeks – and Taulupe Faletau.
But he feels it’s still difficult to improve fast enough to catch up with their rivals.
“Let’s just talk about Cardiff for a second, we’ve got the same squad and we’re constantly trying to get better but our rate of improvement has to be greater than the rate of improvement of teams above us for us to close that gap,” he said.
“When you look at the teams above us – this week Edinburgh have signed a British Lion, Ulster have signed a British Lion – it’s very difficult to close that gap when they keep on improving.
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Improvement is crucial
“All we can do really is try to get the best out of the squad and keep improving, and I think that will be right across the four regions really. There’s not much between us but the major challenge for Welsh rugby is closing the gap on the teams above us.”
When told that he was brutal in his assessment, Young replied: “Well, just look at the facts. When we play teams outside of Wales, we’ve all struggled.
“It’s not my opinion, it’s factual.”