If Wales wants to win it needs to ditch its Lions obsession

It's just a game for heaven's sake and not a reflection of Wales and it's inhabitants.

Now that's a refreshing viewpoint.

The British Lions are an imperialist relic whose time has gone. Why do they not send an All Europe Team south that would actually beat Australia and New Zealand?

Couldn't agree more. What other proud country would sacrifice their head coach to help another team. When he said he wanted to coach the lions we should've wished him all our thanks and best wishes and let him break his contract with no penalty, but we should not have taken him back. I could go on about the contempt with which Gatland holds the Welsh game but that would be off track here. Any Welshman or woman who feels the Lions shirt is "the highest honour" is, of course, entitled to that opinion but they should not play for Wales again.

How did the author come to the conclusion that Rugby Union is Wales’ national sport? All the statistics would suggest otherwise.

As a Gog, I'm a recent convert to rugby, and you have summed up my feelings about the British Lions in relation to our national team. In questioning the relevance of the Lions to Welsh rugby, I thought I was making the ill-informed judgment of someone with less knowledge of the game than others have, but having read this article I feel this is a "Me too" situation. Rugby is indeed an apt analogy of Wales's political situation, but the difference between Gatland and Carwyn is that Gatland sometimes gets results for this country.

It's not the British Lions. It's the British and Irish Lions because it includes players from the Republic. It's unlikely that any Italian would be good enough. So you're basically only missing a couple of French players from your European team. Which probably wouldn't make a lot of difference. It is an imperial hangover, but, as the article said, it's all about the money. No first tier country needs that money more than Wales. All this waffle about it being a great honour etc etc is just part of the marketing. Players want to go because it gives them a certain recognition and status of being one of the best in the six nations tournament. This improves their future job prospects and their current rugby salaries. Which is probably why the poorly paid (comparatively) Welsh players are most keen to go. The statistics are interesting, but I'm guessing that a lot of that is caused by injuries on tour, resting after the tour and the tendency of people to hang on for the Lions and then retire. This probably affects Wales disproportionately as we tend to have a comparatively large contingent and a smaller player base. The problems however also affect other countries and there have been various rumours about the Lions being scrapped, because professional players need rest and recuperation time, which they lose during a summer tour. Also with the advent of the World Cup rugby enthusiasts have other things to concentrate their minds. At the end of the day the Lions might be strangled by the very money tree which nourished them.

That certainly needed writing. We should also ditch a couple of the autumn internationals. Too much rugby leading to too many injuries (but more profit for the WRU - very little of which goes into promoting the Welsh language by the looks of it). I think we can win today and I hope we can do it with flare. We should have dominance up front and therefore a solid platform to provide ball for the backs to work their magic.

I am not a rugby fan but the article hit an important point about the psychology of the Welsh people. It's time we started to believe in ourselves on every level no matter what the subject ! Whatever we aim we will achieve !

Erthygl ardderchog. Excellent incisive article. Sums up much of Cymru both in rugby terms and generally. In both cases it's about money, Lions and Cymru. I've toured with both and they are both rip-offs in favour of the privileged few. The biggest honour to any Cymro should be to represent CYMRU not the Lions.

Completely agree with the author. You don’t see any English/Scots/ Irish wearing imitation lions jerseys butguite a few Welsh fansAnd as for Gatland( Jones refused the lions job because he wanted to concentrate on England’s World Cup bid) he should resign A coach is employed because of the tricks and methods he has in his cupboard so if he gives those secrets away to our normal opponents(Irish/Scots/English rugby players) then he ceases to be of any use to his team. And as for the idiots at the top in the WRU,they are only after knighthoods

Not often you see a point so well made, diolch i Craig. And Gwilym ab Ioan is right to mention the "top 2 inches" also. And no, Martin Harris, its perfectly OK to extrapolate from ruby to the wider Welsh picture. I am most interested in the "top 2 inches" point, which matters for me. Other other rugby nations, not sure about England, but certainly Ireland, NZ and AUS, have very very sharp and clever people indeed. Reminds me of the amateur era when you usually had a couple of bright guys (a doctor or a lawyer, say) as captain or with a lot of influence, as well of course as your proverbial not-so-bright but willing forward. (Yes, a forward is what I was when I played!). Wales does not like this. Dr.(note)Gwyn Jones is bright but also acerbic commentator on rugby as well as a respected former captain. But he is not liked. Gatland glared daggers at him on tv before yesterday's Scotland game. Did Ruddock have the same problem, and does Sean Holley? One leading member of the WRU praised the WRU because a lad from Briton Ferry could us it to get a job with a suit and a good salary. I am all for a lad from Briton Ferry doing as well as he can anywhere. But I don't like the idea of the WRU being about jobs for the boys, like Welsh local government or the police. Back to Gatland. Very glad he's learned from the ways of Wayne Pivac (Scarlets) - what did I say about extremely KIwis? But the thing that holds the Welsh players back is a WRU that (a) reappointed him so quickly (b) let him do the Lions on the second occasion and (c) agreed to far too generous a contract. What has Gatland done in Wales in all these years to instil NZ levels of skill or intelligence right down to the breeding grounds of rugby? What holds Welsh rugby and the Welsh people back is the same thing. A herd mentality well illustrated by the "Welsh lobsters" joke. But its serious. The Labour Party in particular lives on the same phenomenon in Wales and holds us back without giving or allowing any scope for ambition or change. But do you know what? As things bet worse, and bad enough, and maybe Brexit will be the context, we will get fed up enough and say "Something must be done!". And mean it.And actually do something

Such a bad article. No idea who wrote it, but obviously someone who knows very little about rugby. Everytime this site goes near Sport, it's a disaster!!

I like the bit about we might lose to Scotland and the fact that we have been consistently the best side in the northern hemisphere from 2005 onwards doesn't count for toffee in your book. Welsh rugby has an impressive reputation just because we lose to new Zealand and (just) to Australia suddenly turns us into losers does it???? Almost all countries lose consistently to new Zealand as you state yourself. Why cant the british and irish lions supplement the idea of welshness, it does in my eyes. I feel what has traditionally held us back is the 'we must defeat england' attitude which saw us alter our game style away from the seventies good Pontypool forwards and towards a entirely back orientated game to suit beating and running around englands big forwards. That changed in 2005 with gethen Jenkins, sam warbutton, Justin tiperic, faletaeu etc making us serious competition for any team including new Zealand. That's when we seriously threatened England and became possible world champions. I as a welsh fan want to see nice backplay but its in the forwards games are won at the heighest level, except for new Zealand who have a team of George Norths. I support Wales first like most Welshmen, I agree warburton should be ashamed of himself saying the pinnacle of his career was the lions. And I agree something needs doing at the elite level if playing for wales isn't the number one goal of any welsh youngster-I know I dreamnt when younger of putting on the welsh jersey, I never dreamnt of putting on a lions jersey.