| You are in: Rugby Union: International |
| Saturday, 1 February, 2003, 14:29 GMT Hansen my only concern
I was disappointed to hear that Gwyn Jones thinks I should be stripped of the Wales captaincy. Gwyn was a professional player himself, captaining Wales and playing in the back row like I do, and everyone is entitled to their opinions. But unless the criticism comes from the Wales management, my club coach John Connolly, or my fellow players it doesn't really bother me. My main worry would be if Wales coach Steve Hansen or his assistant Alan Phillips were worried about what I was doing on the pitch. I speak to Steve at least twice a week and obviously the situation at Swansea is a concern for everybody, but there's no crisis as far as he's concerned. John Connolly is very frustrated that what we produce on the training ground is not being translated into competitive matches. Yes, we do need better application on the pitch, but everybody's confidence is quite low at the club and sometimes it's hard to put that aside.
Confidence is something that rocks virtually everyone - but Gwyn's decided two weeks before the start of the Six Nations to put the boot in. But if you took everything to heart that everyone had said against you over the course of your career, well... Swansea have struggled lately but it was only at the end of December that we beat Neath at St Helen's - and they made it through to today's Celtic League final! There's also some disquiet at the proposed regional plans that could see a 50% reduction of professional players. It's difficult when you've been playing with people for five years or more who could conceivably lose their livelihood. But sometimes hard decisions have to be made for the greater good, even if not everybody agrees. |
Top International stories now: Links to more International stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Links to more International stories |
![]() | ||
------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |