The Welshman in France eager to plunder Wales' shrinking URC talent pool

Gareth Baber, who led Fiji to a remarkable Olympic sevens gold medal defence in Tokyo, has his own personal experience of a Welsh Rugby Union shake-up of the domestic game, having been told he had failed to make any of the four regions that are now in danger of being cut to just two.

Baber was the Pontypridd scrum-half when the WRU created the Newport Gwent Dragons, Scarlets, Cardiff Blues and Ospreys, and believed his part-time job away from the game was suddenly about to be the focus of his post-rugby career. That changed when Mike Ruddock called to offer him a contract with the Dragons in what turned out to be a crucial sliding doors moment for the 53-year-old, who has been closely watching the latest WRU proposed panacea for the game.

Baber is the head coach of Nissa Rugby, the Nice-based Nationale (third division) outfit that has big plans to regain the ProD2 status they lost last season and then bid for inclusion in the Top 14, arguably the toughest club league in the world. To achieve that, Baber knows he will have to strengthen a professional squad that is spearheaded by Owen Williams, the former Ospreys and Wales outside-half, who has just moved his young family to the Côte d’Azur.

With the WRU bidding to axe two of the regional teams, there will only be 46 players involved in match-day squads in the URC and European matches going forward instead of the 92 currently on match duty for the regions. That means talented players will be coming onto the market, and the Nissa hierarchy, headed by club president Jean-Baptiste Aldigé, the former Biarritz Olympique owner, are monitoring the situation closely, hoping to convince other players to follow Williams’ lead and join a squad that also includes former Fiji captain Waisea Nayacalevu.

Baber, who took charge of a Nice squad that jettisoned 27 players after relegation, told RugbyPass: “We have had that conversation (about Wales) as a management and coaching staff already in terms of recruitment. Barry Maddocks (ex-Dragons, Bath, Biarritz and Agen) is the attack coach here and also has good connections in Welsh rugby.

“I remember what it feels like because when we went to the four regions I didn’t have a region and basically semi-retired. Then Mike Ruddock called and I had four years at the Dragons. I would love to give other Welsh players an opportunity to be part of a good project like this one at Nice.

“Owen (Williams) really stands up and leads the team and is building a new life in Nice. He is healthy and playing well. It’s a long season and all the early signs are he is enjoying the challenge. Waisea is here and close to playing, having had some knee and ankle problems and didn’t have a lot of rugby at Sale and Ospreys. There is a good crew of Fijian and Pacific Islands players around him, and that kind of mutual support is important.

“There are great players performing in Fiji for the Drua and in other parts of the world. Here the sun shines a lot of the time and that makes a difference, and I will be looking at that kind of talent. We would be fools if we didn’t utilise my strong links. One of the obvious benefits of coming here is the weather, with sunshine for 11 months of the year.”

Baber, who works closely with Nice sporting director Matthew Clarkin, has a trophy-laden sevens CV and is relishing the challenge of leading Nice, having gained XVs coaching experience at Cardiff and Edinburgh. So how did he end up in Nice? “I was at Cardiff Met University as director of rugby systems, including the men’s and women’s teams along with the player development centre run in conjunction with the WRU women’s section,” he explained.

“I was there for about two years, which included a period as consultant to the Fiji sevens for the Paris Olympics. The president of Nice is someone I coached when I was in Hong Kong, and over the last 10–15 years he has been involved in different projects. Previously we have had conversations about potentially doing something. It didn’t happen as things changed, and then he put together a group to take over Nice and contacted me with a view to being the head coach here.

“I coached XVs at Cardiff and head coached the northern tour by the Fiji team in November 2021. There is obviously a different way of thinking and skills compared to being involved with sevens. I was skills coach with Edinburgh under Mike Blair, who was very forthright about attack, and that appealed to me. I thoroughly enjoyed working in Scotland for 18 months. My family was still in Cardiff, and the Met role came up.

“Here at Nice, the president has the ambition to be in the Top 14 and there is a business to be built as Toulon have done. Nice is a very attractive part of the world and there is good financial stability. The project is to get back into the ProD2, consolidate in what is a very tough competition, and then potentially move into the Top 14. There is no fixed salary cap in the Nationale division and there is quite a variation in budgets. We would be at the top of that, having just come down from ProD2. We have 40–45 professionals in our squad along with the academy, and the limit on non-French players is more flexible in this league.

“We have just one home game in the first five and have won one and lost one so far. We go to Bourgoin at the weekend. We were consulted on the programme and it’s a challenge, and we are bang in the middle of it at the moment, having won at Tarbes and lost to Périgueux.

“This is a new experience for all of us and the first home game with Massy will be good for the region. We have a stadium that holds 3–4,000 but they are looking to redevelop it to 15,000 capacity in the summer of 2026. Up the road we have the Nice football stadium where Wales played some of their World Cup games. We need to find what this project can deliver in this region, where our nearest team is Toulon while Provence are in ProD2. Jamie Cudmore (former Canadian star) is part of the academy set-up and there is a lot of talent in this region, which has traditionally looked to Toulon, and we want to hold players in this area.”

Baber admits his French needs work, which makes getting his message across a daily challenge, and he is taking inspiration from Ronan O’Gara, who has come up with a unique vocabulary of English, French and expletives in his head coach role at La Rochelle. “How do you get your message across and build those relationships when you cannot get your message across in French? A lot of it is body language and utilising the players with some translation. I am very apologetic to the boys but they can see I am trying and learning. I haven’t got an Irish accent like ROG but if I can get to that level of French then I will be happy.”