West Wales Raiders have a ‘crisis board and staff meeting’ over current situation with no head coach and only six previously contracted players

West Wales Raiders owner Peter Tiffin has given an update on the club following a crisis board and staff meeting after the Welsh club went out to the Challenge Cup to Swinton Lions on Sunday.

It’s been a difficult route into the sport for the Raiders with the club going professional in 2018 and the loss of players and coaching staff in recent times.

Tiffin said: “The past ten days have been very difficult for everyone at the club and I would like to be honest and transparent with all of our supporters and followers.

“Last Monday we held a crisis board & staff meeting on not only the season ahead but the future of the club. It was an unanimous decision from all that nobody wanted to see the club finish after all the hard work from everyone at the club currently plus everyone who has gone but done so much to get the club to where it is in such a short space of time.”

“Even though everyone was fully on board to continue as a club and to progress with our plans set in place when we moved from amateur to professional four years ago it was going to be a massive task to get our challenge cup fixture to go ahead. With no head coach in place, the loss of both our assistant coaches a few days earlier, only six contracted players and our irreplaceable team manager in hospital it was going to take everyone to work together to get everything needed to fulfil our Challenge Cup fixture.”

Tiffin also took responsibility for the issues facing the Raiders and insisted that he is doing all he can to take the club forward.

“As part owner I take full responsibility of the situation we were in last week, each year we seem to lose our head coach and this year was no different, we should have appointed a head coach straight away to support the staff we had put in place but left it and left it, after our board and staff meeting we then wanted to invite all players past and present to our training facility in Bridgend to allow them all to speak up and feedback to us all on areas they wanted to see improving, from this meeting we went from six contracted players to 28.

“Following this we then employed a full time doctor, invited 4 of the head coaches that applied previously for an interview, three of the assistants who had been involved in the game in Wales plus other key areas within the club to support and guide the club in the right direction.”

Tiffin then explained how financially precarious the club has been in previously and how they have turned it around.

“It hasn’t been easy for any club to have their funding cut but to rely on one revenue of income is ludicrous, we as a club are financially stable with numerous sponsors & partners supporting the club year on year, we also have our own bar on site which runs seven days a week plus a bar in the ground.

“At our training ground in Bridgend, we have added a large size gym to make sure the boys have everything on site, our home ground of Stebonheath Park is one of the best in the league and we want to utilise this more for all the community and international sides in Wales by offering any event they wish to hold to be funded by the Raiders so they can make more money to support the development in Wales, we as a club want to see more internationals, grand finals & women’s super league fixtures in the West and Stebonheath Park is available at WRL’s peril.”