RUGBY UNION: Delay in selection spells doom for Davies
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BY STEVE BALE
If the Wales coach, Alan Davies, and the rest of the team management have not jumped by next Monday they will be pushed. Yesterday the Welsh Rugby Union ordered deferment of the choice of squad for the World Cup from tomorrow night in the wake of the defeat by Ireland which gave Wales a Five Nations whitewash for only the second time.
In a statement Edward Jones, the WRU secretary, said: "The selection and announcement of the Welsh squad to take part in the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa have been postponed for a short while, pending consideration by the WRU general committee of a number of matters of concern arising from recent performances of the Welsh team and the selection of the side that played against Ireland."
This was a reference to the infuriated response of at least one selector, Geoff Evans, to the team for the Irish match - which Evans thought was one thing when the eight-hour selection meeting ended but turned out to be another when the announcement came the next morning. Evans is threatening to resign; JPR Williams, a selectors' advisor, has already done so.
Jones's statement implicitly sounds the death-knell for the management team of Robert Norster, Davies and the assistant coach, Gareth Jenkins, who will consider their positions before next Monday's meeting of the WRU's powerful national player development committee, which is likely to be immediately followed by a special meeting of the general committee.
The leading option for change is simply to promote Kevin Bowring and Dennis John, who have had some success as Wales A coaches, initially for the World Cup in May and June. Bowring is already a selector for the senior team; John has coached Pontypridd into second place in the Welsh League this season, behind Cardiff only on try count.
Davies and Norster were temporarily appointed for the 1991 World Cup after Ron Waldron's resignation but stayed on, despite Wales's premature dismissal from that tournament, after the Welsh squad had persuaded them and the WRU that they should do so.
Yesterday Davies said: "I have been informed by the Welsh Rugby Union that they don't wish the selectors to meet this week to choose the World Cup party. I am waiting to hear further when they wish us to proceed." The unanswered question is: to proceed with what, selection or resignation?
England's World Cup assault,
Alan Watkins, page 38
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