Connolly backs Welsh change even if overhaul claims his job

Swansea's Australian coach is convinced that the ailing state of the game in the Principality demands radical surgery

John Connolly, every bit as accomplished a purveyor of the Australian sporting barb as Bob Dwyer or Eddie Jones, gazed across the broad, windswept expanse of the St Helen's rugby and cricket pitches, where Haydn Tanner and Mervyn Davies once weaved their spells, and Gary Sobers famously smacked Malcolm Nash for a full house of sixes. "Look at that old grandstand," he said, his voice a rich mixture of growl and chuckle. "People could die by the dozen over there, and not be noticed for years."

Connolly had been discussing the current circumstances and uncertain prospects of Swansea RFC, whom he has been coaching since last summer and, unless the parish-pump politicians of Welsh rugby decree otherwise, will continue to coach until the end of next season. But his pointed remark about the St Helen's facilities, or lack of them, might equally have been applied to the Red Dragon game as a whole – a game at death's door, paralysed by small-mindedness, self-interest and rank bad management.

The debate over the future shape of professional union in Wales is now properly underway: David Moffett, the new chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union, lit the blue touchpaper by publicly backing the creation of four southern hemisphere-style provincial teams, one of them in the football-dominated north of the country, with the players operating under central contracts. The leading clubs believe Moffett's plan borders on madness – they are not far wrong – and have rejected it out of hand. While they acknowledge the need for a smaller, higher-quality élite, they are equally certain of their ability to deliver it without propelling the baby in the same direction as the bathwater.

Everyone has his axe to grind, not least Connolly, who would be one of the first salaried professionals to be pointed in the direction of the exit door if the Welsh Rugby Union opted for a quartet of provincial teams staffed not only by Welsh-qualified players, but by Welsh coaches. Yet he is prepared to take the broader view, to cast an educated eye over this battlefield of a rugby landscape and bring a lifetime's experience in a variety of contrasting environments – Queensland, the Wallaby Test side, the Old Belvedere club in Ireland, Stade Français in Paris, and now Swansea – to bear on the hot topic of the season.

"You might describe union as the national game of South Wales," he said. "People should remember that as they map out the future of the sport because it really is a huge advantage. Union isn't the national game of Australia or Scotland, and it isn't the main game in big chunks of England and France. In South Wales it really matters. The most important thing in all this will be getting the numbers right, because until you do that, it will be virtually impossible to put the correct structures in place, to tap into the improvements in sports science and bring the facilities into the modern age.

"Look, it is no secret that the game here has failed to move with the times. Rugby advances at a rate of knots every year, and the Welsh haven't kept pace in any of the vital areas. Why? Because the numbers are all wrong. I've come here from Paris, a city of God knows how many million people. How many major rugby clubs are there in Paris? One. I coached it. Wales is a country of a few million people, with hundreds of clubs, all of them taking money from the union and most of them paying players.

"Wales cannot compare itself to, say, England. I come from a provincial set-up in Australia – a set-up that has worked tremendously well – but I know enough about what is happening in England to understand that 12 big-time clubs in a population of 60 million is a reasonable formula. Gloucester is almost a province in itself, in terms of catchment. And it has worked fantastically for English rugby. You can see the benefits of it at Test level. But Wales isn't England, is it?

"I have no idea whether it will be provinces or super-clubs, but the WRU will have to go down one of those two roads. I think it could work either way, especially if there is a proper partnership between the union and the owner-investors. A big team, with top-line players and a strong academy underpinning it... mate, that's an expensive business. There may not be much change from £4m a season, when everything is taken into account. So we're back to the figures, aren't we? The figures need to be right."

It could be argued that Swansea's decline over the last 18 months, more a headlong plunge over the cliff than a slip down the hillside, has been one of the factors behind this latest political upheaval. This time two seasons ago, they had put 50 points on Wasps, beaten Connolly's Stade Français with 14 men, scored 140-odd points in two matches against the Italians of L'Aquila and looked every inch Heineken Cup semi-final material. Tomorrow, when they travel to Bristol in the same competition, they will be playing for pride alone. Desperate performances against Montferrand and Leinster, the latter in front of their own St Helen's faithful, and a spectacularly indisciplined effort in the Celtic League derby with Llanelli sent a tremor through the valleys. If a club as great as the All Whites can be reduced to this, said Joe Public in every newspaper and on every phone-in, what hope is there?

If those humiliations shook Connolly, he does not let on. "I call them the three disasters," he said. "But I'm a career coach, not a young guy just setting out on the road, and I understand that a big job like this one takes time. What did I find when I first got here? Bad attitude, for a start; the general attitude was a nightmare. Some of the senior players hadn't set the bar high enough, hadn't appreciated one of the great truths of rugby: that you train more as you get older, not less. Some of the younger talent – and there is a lot of rugby talent in this area – were caught up in the bad habits they saw around them, and it had all come crashing down.

"Is it changing? Yes, I think so. We don't have the great facilities you find in Australia or France, or at some of the English clubs, and the sports science side of things is fairly prehistoric. I don't need a brilliant 28-year-old player with the body of a 50-year-old; I want him to have the body of a 28-year-old. But when the club game shut down for the autumn internationals, we were able to take a pull back, look closely at ourselves and address some issues. We're playing better rugby now, definitely.

"Also, this whole discussion about the structure of the game is having an effect. The players know that next season, there may be five teams rather than nine, and that nine into five won't go – they are looking over their shoulders and playing for their futures. This will be an unsettling time for them, but equally, they will have a massive incentive to produce something every time they run out of the tunnel."

And Connolly? Does he fear the sweep of the new broom? There are, after all, enough good Welsh coaches – Gareth Jenkins, Mike Ruddock, Lyn Jones, Leigh Jones, Lynn Howells – to staff a five-team élite. "There are going to be some trade-offs," he acknowledged. "They might well go for local coaches, and it would make perfect sense. But the process is just beginning, so we'll see what happens. The important thing for Welsh rugby is that it makes the right calls, not just in coaching but in facilities, competitive structure, finance, everything. Only then will the Welsh play their rugby at 100 per cent. This is their best chance to make it happen, and probably their last chance, too."