Wales legend’s stark warning as 20,000 tickets remain unsold and the ‘quickest fix’ they must find against France
Tom Shanklin fears for Wales ahead of Six Nations clash with France.
Tom Shanklin fears Wales is in grave danger of losing “a generation of fans” as their Six Nations winless run approaches its third anniversary.
Nearly 20,000 tickets remain unsold for Sunday’s Principality Stadium clash with France as Wales, whitewashed in 2024 and 2025, bid to avoid a 13th successive championship loss.
The Dragons’ last Six Nations win came against Italy in March 2023. They have lost 22 of their last 24 matches overall at a time when the national football team is resurgent under manager Craig Bellamy.
“We could lose a generation of fans,” says Shanklin, the 70-cap former Wales centre. “With everything that’s going on in Welsh rugby – with politics, with losing a [regional] team – no-one knows where they are.
“It’s turning people off. Especially the rugby flirt, the people that aren’t hardcore fans but would turn on and watch Wales play.
Stark warning
“We’ve got the issues with the domestic league. Then we get hammered [by England] at the weekend. Now people are like, ‘Right, I’m not going to bother’.
“We’re not attracting enough supporters or enough fans. And without fans, without supporters, the game won’t exist.”
One Welsh fan, speaking to Wales Online after leaving Twickenham early last weekend, agreed. “At the moment, all the schools are football, there’s no real interest like there used to be (in rugby), no passion for it,” he said.
“They need that back. If they don’t get that, they’ve got nobody coming through the ranks. Absolute joke.”
As Wales slip ever further down rugby’s world rankings, their football counterparts have won 12 of 16 games under Bellamy. They have a World Cup play-off next month and have gained promotion to the top flight of the UEFA Nations League.
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Wrexham, complete with Hollywood glamour, are riding high in the Championship play-off positions; Cardiff City are top of League One.
“Maybe it’s what is happening in Welsh football,” adds Shanklin. “Maybe it’s the fact we haven’t now got as many [rugby] superstars for these kids – 14, 15, 16 year-olds – to look up to.
“I look back to when I was a fan and Wales weren’t winning Grand Slams but still had Scott Gibbs, Scott Quinnell, Neil Jenkins, Allan Bateman. They were still a team full of stars, a lot of really good quality players that went on Lions tours.
“The Welsh players in the current team would have grown up watching Dan Biggar and Jonathan Davies, they would have got inspired by Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric, Leigh Halfpenny, Jamie Roberts, all these types of players.
“Yet last summer Wales only had two Lions, Jac Morgan and Tomos Williams, and Tomos got injured very early in the tour.
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“In terms of all the professional players we’ve got in Wales, we are below the level needed to compete at the top tier of international rugby. We are way off England, Ireland and France in terms of our professional group of players. We’re just not up to the standard.
“Part of me feels we’ve been let down by the system because the guys [in power] haven’t been focused enough. We focused so much on the national team for such a long period when it was going strong to the detriment of producing new talent.
“The positive thing is we realise this now. But it is a little bit too late and we’re going to have to go through a few years of tough times until the next group of players come through. There’s no quick fix. I think people understand that.”
Shanklin will be at the Principality Stadium as part of Premier Sports’ live coverage of the match. He admits there is a “big fear factor”, given the quality of opposition.
“Probably the biggest issue is that Wales weren’t competitive last weekend and now they’ve got France, who looked like they didn’t get out of third gear against Ireland.
“These Welsh boys will know what they’re up against. They’ll know the quality of France, the players they’ve got, how well they’re playing. We just don’t have the players they do.
“It’s going to be tough, because they are obviously the better team on paper. Wales are going to have to find some sort of inner belief.”
Shanklin continues: “Emotion only gets you so far but that’s basically what we’ve got to pull on. I think this weekend it’s about pride, passion, playing at home.
“There’s different ways to get the crowd involved. Just as making a break gets the supporters excited, so does a big tackle, a big turnover. For me that was the most disappointing thing against England. On both sides of the ball, we were poor.
Invites trouble
“We didn’t have any dominant hits. We didn’t have any big turnover moments. We had no big moments in the game in which the team could come together and feel galvanised.
“The quickest fix this weekend will be discipline. There were 10 penalties in 21 minutes [against England]. That just invites trouble.
“Often, when you lose heavily in such a way that we did against England, you see a reaction. The boys have to draw on the Principality factor, putting in a performance for themselves, for their families, for the fans.
“They have to draw on these things emotionally. And if they can get emotionally up to a level to compete with France and they still don’t win, I’ll be happy.
“If I walk away from that game, seeing a Welsh team that is competitive, then I will be happy and I, for one, will go watch them again.”
Tom Shanklin will join Andy Goode and Simon Zebo at the Principality Stadium for Premier Sports’ live coverage of Wales v France on Sunday starting at 2.30pm on Premier Sports 1, with the new innovation of a dedicated spider cam aerial view showing on Premier Sports Rugby.
For the first time, in a new partnership with Six Nations Rugby, Premier Sports is broadcasting one live match per round from the 2026 Guinness Men’s Six Nations Championship across the UK – further strengthening its position as the home of elite rugby for rugby fans which includes EPCR rugby, Top 14 and URC. To join in visit www.premiersports.com from £11.99 a month.
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