WRU should have 'fronted up' after England loss - Davies

Former Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) chair Gareth Davies feels the governing body should have "fronted up" after Wales hit "rock bottom" following their Six Nations defeat against England.

Wales were thrashed 68-14 at the Principality Stadium as their record losing run was extended to 17 Test matches - the worst run of results for a tier one nation in rugby union's professional era.

And Davies says the WRU should have addressed Welsh rugby fans in the wake of what was the national side's second successive Wooden Spoon.

"I think they should have fronted up," former Wales captain Davies told the Scrum V Podcast.

"I think it's pretty poor show, really. I know it's a difficult one, but I think that's part of the responsibility because [interim head coach] Matt Sherratt really was, you could say, thrown under the bus.

"I know the coach always does the post-match reaction, but obviously the post-match reaction on the weekend was 68 points.

"Where are we going from here? He (Sherratt) is not not going to be in charge, he's made that quite clear."

Despite major upheaval at the top of the WRU over recent years, concerns remain over the governing body's strategy to ensure Welsh rugby can drag itself out of the doldrums.

And Davies, 69, felt Wales' humiliation against England exemplified the "big underlying issues" facing the WRU at present.

"Listening to English friends, not even laughing at us, but basically almost feeling sorry for us, which is probably worse than if they were really critical of us," said Davies, who won 21 caps for his country.

"That was pretty rock bottom in many ways, and you've got to rank it as probably one, if not the worst performance by a Welsh team. There's no hiding from that."

He added: "There are obviously big underlying issues facing us in Wales.

"When the difficult situation that was two years or so ago, the issue of sexism and misogyny, the Welsh Rugby Union were forced into making proper changes.

"A new board have to stand up. They were put in place at the behest of the clubs and the general public.

"I think the board have got to really show some leadership now, because I think they've got the license to do that.

"I'd like to think that they can move away from the small minded petty local sort of parochialism that has dominated our game for so long and make some strong changes."

Former Wales captain Sam Warburton suggested the WRU need to axe one of the four Welsh regions in a bid to help solve the rugby crisis in the country.

It comes amid an ongoing debate over how Ospreys, Scarlets, Cardiff and Dragons should operate in the future.

But Davies believes the regions better-placed to challenge in Europe should be allocated greater finances by the WRU as opposed to funds automatically being split evenly between the four sides.

"Four Welsh regions aren't going to be competing for the top side in Europe," explained Davies.

"I think there should be some judgments made as to who is a serious contender to do well in Europe, and the payment should be graduated.

"Now, if the union decide to go with four (regions), I think they've got to seriously consider what that distribution is, because to just divide up by four I think is just spreading things through too thinly across the board."

Warburton hinted that Dragons would be the side to "suffer" should the WRU opt to axe one of the four regions.

But the Gwent region's co-owner David Buttress feels the WRU need to increase investment into Welsh rugby rather than "shrinking the game".

"I think for 10 years Welsh rugby has been embarrassingly underinvested in," he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

"In the last 10 years, we've built a hotel and a roof walk and Ireland have been building world-class rugby academies, and we're seeing the consequence of it.

"We talk about solutions like cutting teams when other nations are talking about investing in their professional game.

"I understand where people are coming from, but unless we start thinking a little bit more of how we grow the game rather than shrinking the game, Welsh rugby is going to condemn itself for a long-term decline. It needs a turnaround now."

Former Sport Wales chief executive Huw Jones said he was "absolutely livid" that WRU chiefs have not publicly addressed the Welsh public following yet another wretched Six Nations campaign.

He also says WRU CEO Abi Tierney has "a huge amount to answer for" after sacking Warren Gatland having previously backed him to continue in the role as head coach.

"It should be the turning point but I fear it isn't," he told Good Morning Wales.

"I was hugely disappointed on Saturday – by today I'm absolutely livid.

"I'm absolutely livid because I shouldn't be sitting here – Abi Tierney should be sitting here.

"She should have been phoning you up and coming out and telling the public of Wales what's gone wrong and what the WRU are actually going to do next – not hiding in WRU towers. It's totally unacceptable.

"When things go badly wrong, chief execs are paid big bucks to come and front up and they're not actually doing that at the moment.

"And when you see the chaos that has been caused over recent months with the Gatland situation, where she backed him on two occasions and then sacked him in the middle of a tournament, it is simply unbelievable.

"She has a huge amount to answer for and turning around and sort of saying 'Well, we've got a plan to 2029 and we'll improve some of the funding situation' – that is not the revolutionary change we need.

"We need massive change and it doesn't appear at the moment from previous statements that's she put out that she's prepared to do that."

Caryl James believes a restructure of each step of the rugby pyramid in Wales is required at present.

The ex-Wales wing also criticised the WRU for their lack of leadership of late.

"They don't share information with us – the fans don't know what to expect and that's probably because they themselves don't know what the vision is and what is the way forward," she said.

"That makes us all very nervous. In any job you need strong leadership at the top and a clear vision which is transparent with all the stakeholders.

"We're not seeing any of that from the union at the moment and that's a big disappointment."

Wales and Ospreys scrum-half Kieran Hardy admits he sympathises with the Welsh squad at present after they suffered a clean sweep of Six Nations defeats for the second year in succession.

But while he is eager to see change in the game, Hardy does not feel cutting a region would help solve the problem.

"I'm not sure going down to three regions is the answer at the moment," he told BBC Radio Cymru's Dros Frecwast.

"I'm speaking from the perspective of a player and a lot of players would lose out on playing rugby.

"But certainly something needs to change – there's too many negatives at the minute and we need to find a way of turning it into something positive.

"I feel for the players because I've been part of the group last year and it isn't easy and a lot of hard work has gone in during the Six Nations.

"When you don't quite get the results and performances – because that's what people are going to judge you on in the Six Nations – then it's hard and negativity comes with it.

"The group is talented, there's good players in the group and some experience in the group too but it's time we took a step up now."