WRU plan huge player scouting network in England as 20 coaches come forward

The Welsh Rugby Union have outlined their plans to grow a scouting network in England - with 20 coaches across the border offering their services to help find Welsh-qualified talent.

The battle to win over dual-qualified players has previously been described as a "race to the bottom" by Wales U20s coach Richard Whiffin, with English clubs and schools snapping up a number of young Welsh players.

Cardiff-born Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, capped by England during the Six Nations, has been the highest-profile loss recently, while the Welsh-born trio of Kane James, Luke Evans and Josh Hathaway have all represented England at age-grade.

The WRU are aware that half the battle is retaining those players before they head across the border, but the other half is down to identifying dual-qualified talent in England and getting them to put their lot in with Wales.

In that sense, the Exiles programme - currently headed up by National Exiles Officer Gareth Davies - is vitally important, but there's room for growth. That, according to WRU performance director Huw Bevan, starts with the creation of a scouting network outside of Wales - with some volunteers having already come forward.

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"What we'd like ideally, and we do have an element of it, is creating a scouting network," Bevan told WalesOnline's Welsh Rugby Podcast, which will be published next week. "Particularly in England, but also further afield.

"We can certainly look to turn over every stone we can to find high-quality players. But currently, within English schools and the English rugby set-up, there's at least 20 coaches - 20 people - who have come forward who are Welsh and want to be associated with creating a network of scouts to help us identify potentially talented people.

"So rather than Gareth being on his own, we can have a network and evolve that to across the world. But I think if we start closer to home initially.

"If we do have people saying there's a player at Auckland Blues or Melbourne Rebels that is Welsh, we do follow up on that. And there are people working on that."

And once that growing scouting network does find dual-qualified players based in England or further afield, the next step is making them feel part of the Welsh system, rather than just simply Welsh-qualified.

"Once we've identified them, or players who have left to go to public school, we maintain contact with them and support them, making sure they still feel connected with the Welsh system," added Bevan.

"Then the final part of it is engaging with them players to play in our age-grade teams and then eventually our national teams so that they think of themselves as Welsh players, not players who have Welsh eligibility. Those are the elements we need to focus on."