Grand Illusion

Apart from speaking to his team’s head analyst Alun Carter for a 2008 book, he has never publicly discussed his dramatic demise — though anyone else you care to mention certainly has. What was apparent was that his relationship with his players had become seriously strained. Critically, however, the same tension existed with his own assistant coach Scott Johnson, then the players’ friend and now director of rugby at the Scottish Rugby Union.

When the Welsh Rugby Union prevaricated about offering Ruddock a contract, he had had enough. He had not even been given authority to make his own coaching appointments so when he decided to bring back Clive Griffiths as defence coach from Newport Gwent Dragons, where Ruddock had previously been in charge, it was a defiant gesture towards Johnson as much as his employers.

Ruddock had not applied for the vacancy left by Steve Hansen’s return to New Zealand in 2004. The WRU approached him in preference to the more obvious candidate, the Scarlets’ Gareth Jenkins. Jenkins eventually succeeded Ruddock in the summer of 2006.

“I didn’t have a signed contract during my time as national coach and, although a contract had been agreed verbally, the WRU wrote to me via my solicitor to advise they were suspending negotiations so I could concentrate on the 2006 Six Nations,” Ruddock says.

“Given the contract discussions had been going on post-Grand Slam since the summer of 2005, I took that as a lack of support from the WRU. This was a decisive factor in my decision to stand down.

“The ongoing contract saga combined with tensions in the management team meant the position became untenable. I hadn’t been allowed to pick my own management team at the outset. That’s why I originally didn’t apply for the position.

“Clive Griffiths had previously been released to the Dragons by Steve Hansen and Scott Johnson, so they weren’t best pleased when I brought Clive with me. Clive’s contribution justified my faith in him, but it didn’t help cohesion within the management team.”

Ruddock describes Griffiths, who now coaches Doncaster in the English Championship, as an unsung hero of the Grand Slam. Had Ruddock been permitted more of his own coaches, or been given a proper contract, it may have worked out differently.

“We all learnt from it — and when Gareth Jenkins was announced as coach he was filmed signing his contract on TV,” Ruddock says. “It’s the sort of situation that doesn’t happen any more. No smart governing body just throws coaches and managers together. They let the coach pick his management team.

“I guess the legacy is ultimately that. I’m not about the blame game. It’s more about an awareness of trying to do the job you were asked to do but without a signed contract to give you the confidence to carry on with that work. I learnt I had areas to work in and I’ve gone away and tried to work on them.”

Ruddock had intended to walk away after the 2006 Six Nations. In the event he lost patience and left when Wales had followed a trouncing by England at Twickenham by beating Scotland. Johnson took temporary charge and Wales were hammered in Ireland, drew excruciatingly at home to Italy and lost narrowly to France in Cardiff.

Since then Ruddock has coached Worcester and Ireland under-20s, who rose from eighth to fourth in the world rankings under his guidance. His wife Bernadette is Irish and their son Rhys, 24, once a member of the Ospreys academy in Swansea, has five caps for Ireland.

Long ago Ruddock coached Bective Rangers in Dublin before achieving great success in pre-regional days with Swansea, for whom he had also been an exceptional flanker with the remarkable strike rate of 43 tries in 119 appearances before his career was forcibly ended.

Ruddock was an electricity linesman who fell off a pole, fracturing his skull and suffering three compressed vertebrae. He never played again. As a Wales player he will forever be listed, just like Gareth Jenkins, among the finest of the uncapped.

Nowadays he coaches the Lansdowne club, leaders of the All-Ireland league and champions the season before last. He has also coached Leinster in Ireland, Cross Keys and Ebbw Vale as well as the Dragons and Swansea in Wales. By any reckoning he has a unique insight into the comparisons and contrasts between the Irish and Welsh games.

“There is a huge amount of good in Welsh rugby,” he said. “It’s been a magic period over the past 10 years or so, with three Grand Slams, four championships. But the downside is the underlying difficulty with the regional sides. Not everyone has bought into it. It’s worrying there aren’t bigger crowds.

“Look at Leinster: I know it’s a bigger population base but there’s a full house every time, and there’s far less debate about the structure here in Ireland. It’s a bit late to rip it up and remodel it in Wales. Perhaps over time people will forget their biases from days gone by. We can only hope so.”

At 55, Ruddock does not hanker to return to professional rugby. Being reminded of the grim outcome of his Wales tenure in 2006 has picked at an old wound when he would much rather be simply looking forward to next Saturday than back to the last decade.

“I’m not predicting. It’s too close to call,” he said. “But what I can say is Ireland are not giving away cheap points. France are. Scotland are. England did in Dublin. So Leigh Halfpenny won’t get the same number of opportunities in this game as he’s had elsewhere.

“Wales will have to do something extra to go out and win the game, not just rely on Jamie Roberts up the middle. If I were in the Welsh camp I would be looking to play a bit wider, run the Irish front five around a bit and stop them feeling so comfortable.

“They will need to be smart against a coach as smart as Joe Schmidt. Ireland will be confident and rightly so, but Wales can do it. Absolutely they can do it.”