Rugby Union: Wales dismiss coach Bowring

THE odds were always against Kevin Bowring staying for the duration of his contract as national coach and yesterday he and Wales parted company.

The Welsh Rugby Union has now lost six coaches in 10 years, an unstable situation which has been mirrored by some dire performances on the field.

Two days before his 44th birthday, Bowring was informed that a list of demands he had presented to the Union in a bid to improve his position were unsuitable and the technical committee had no option but to bring his tenure to a close.

Now the search begins for a replacement but, barring the highly unlikely scenario of a World Cup triumph on home soil in November next year, the new incumbent may also find himself on shifting ground.

By then Wales will have a new 75,000 all-seater stadium, but the question all rugby fans in the principality will be asking is: can they produce a team to match their luxurious surroundings?

In a statement, Bowring was said to have "no regrets about being national coach, and only wishes that better results could have been achieved".

Record-breaking defeats by New Zealand before Christmas and England and France in this season's Five Nations' meant that, although he had achieved his objective of two wins in the championship, he was no further down the road to developing a side to cope with the world's best.

Bowring's demand that he be allowed to keep the players away from their clubs during the duration of next year's Five Nations was something that the Union could never adhere too without provoking the ire of the Premier Division elite. There were other unsatisfactory demands, too, which Bowring had little hope of seeing met, particularly when negotiating from a position of weakness.

The speculation has already started about who will take over, with Bob Dwyer, the man who took Australia to the World Cup in 1991 and parted company with Leicester recently, being seen in Cardiff this week.

Although Terry Cobner, the Director of Rugby, denied Dwyer was in the frame the Union's technical director Geoff Evans spent a good hour recently grilling a Welsh journalist about the Australian's credentials.

"We are after the best available coach in the world and, if required, we are prepared to invest significant financial resources to ensure we get the best," Glanmor Griffiths, the WRU chairman, said.