-Credit:Huw Evans Picture Agency
Toby Booth’s fifth and final season with the Ospreys didn’t end with a flourish or a victory lap, but with four abrupt paragraphs.
Just months ago, the Welsh club had gone out of their way to break the news that Booth would leave at the end of the current season as part of some joined-up succession plan, putting together an 11-minute video video interview with yours truly to make the announcement.
Now, after a record defeat in Europe, all it took was 121 words to bring forward Booth’s exit by half a year. Just days away from a west Wales derby at home to the Scarlets, former Llanelli wing Mark Jones will step up to the head coach role earlier than expected.
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It was all, even though the outcome was known for some time, a little sad.
Perhaps, ever since Booth and Ospreys CEO Lance Bradley made the announcement back in September, an early split has been inevitable.
Sat at opposite ends of a sofa, in a room decorated for a wedding the following day as rain hammered down on Mumbles’ Bracelet Bay in the background, the imagery was striking.
In a room made up for the happy couple, this September scene was all about the parting of ways – if, at least, one that seemed amicable on the face of it.
But, ever since that moment, the subplot of Booth’s departure has always been the elephant in the room. Rarely do such telegraphed exits go well, even when the good intentions have been made so painfully obvious.
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Regardless of the actual truth of the situation, speculation will always be rife over how much of an impact the early announcement of Booth had on everything, from the Ospreys’ form this season to what was on the lunch menu at their Llandarcy training base – it is all to easy to point to the fact their coach is set to leave.
Wales internationals Alex Cuthbert, Jonathan Davies and Ellis Jenkins all raised his impending exit as a potential issue after a tough start to the season for the Ospreys. The suggestion was that Booth had “jumped from the trench”, a remark that disappointed the Ospreys coach.
Conscious or not, Booth has done virtually every press conference this season. Forwards coach Richard Kelly has done one, but every other pre-and-post-match media briefing – most notably all of the ones after those “trench” comments – has been done by the head coach.
The notion that Booth has been anything other than committed to the cause will have bristled the man himself. The ex-Bath head coach, who was mentored by the late Wales coach Kevin Bowring, had a mantra of ‘Find a way’ on the front of his notebook.
From the moment he arrived in Welsh rugby, that’s been easier said than done. The Ospreys were in disarray back in 2020 when Booth took over, but even with various hurdles and challenges, he’s made them a team greater than the sum of their parts.
In his third season in charge, Booth’s Ospreys completed a Champions Cup double over French champions Montpellier, before beating English champions Leicester at Welford Road, to set up a last-16 clash with Saracens.
Then, last year, Booth once again defied the odds – guiding the Ospreys to their first-ever European knockout stage victory on their way to the Challenge Cup quarter-finals, before helping his side sneak into URC play-offs.
All the while, the Ospreys were losing established players – with Alun Wyn Jones, Rhys Webb, George North, Tomas Francis, Nicky Smith, Gareth Anscombe and Cuthbert all departing during his stint in charge. Yet, at his peak, he was able to meld a gritty, hard-nosed side that stayed in each contest and had two sets of forward packs to dominate the set-piece.
It wasn’t always fashionable, with much of his side rarely getting their dues when it came to Warren Gatland’s Wales selections, but it was undeniably effective.
That is perhaps, more so than the coaching upheaval, what has hindered the Ospreys this year. Three wins in nine matches has been capped off with a record defeat to Montpellier in the Challenge Cup, but the truth is the Ospreys haven’t had the foundations they could rely on last year.
Granted, the casualty list – as is the case across the board in Welsh rugby – has been chronic. But this year, a host of injuries in the front-row, as well as the loss of Wales loose-head Smith to Leicester, has hit them particularly hard.
Some will bemoan their lack of attacking style, but Booth’s Ospreys have always been an unashamedly set-piece-heavy side. Even when the gainline was failing them, the scrum and lineout kept them in with a shout.
At a time when the Welsh sides have been blessed with a shoestring to work on, the results of Booth’s ‘find a way’ were, frankly, miraculous. A 45 per cent win record does little to convey what Booth actually achieved in the job.
But, after defying the odds for so long, there was always the likelihood that lightning wouldn’t strike twice. Without Adam Beard, Huw Sutton, James Fender and James Ratti for different parts of this current campaign, their second-row stocks has taken a hammering.
Away to Ulster, they had to name a hooker in the back-row. To compound matters, it was just Lewis Lloyd’s second start for the Ospreys.
That was the resources Booth was working with. It’s to many Ospreys fans’ chagrin that he never got the chance to work without one hand tied behind his back.
When his departure was announced, Booth himself admitted to WalesOnline that five years in charge was “probably short” for him. He claimed the time was right, because they’d managed to get things right quickly – harvesting successes that were impressive relative to the resources and other minefields of Welsh rugby.
It was that, along with his nature – a cerebral coach with a touch of philosophy in his answers, yet someone who relates strongly with supporters – that has endeared him with the Ospreys’ faithful.
“They said they’d like to thank me for what I’ve done,” he told WalesOnline about one supporters’ evening shortly before his departure was announced. “Obviously, they didn’t know about all this, but I did so it was nice to enjoy that moment.
“But they said the biggest thing was that we’d reinstalled hope. That’s quite a powerful thing. It just happens to be rugby, but when you think about the sentiment of reinstalling, reinforcing or growing hope, that’s a good thing.”
The man who reinstalled hope was always going to be tough to replace. There are some in Welsh rugby circles who always felt former Wales wing Jones was a future Ospreys coach in waiting when he joined Booth’s coaching ticket.
How far the Ospreys’ succession-planning goes back is only known by those in the building. Were it in place prior to last year’s successes, as some believe, then the Ospreys’ overachievements on the pitch last season will only have served to make that transition all the more difficult.
Just as, once the succession plan was revealed to the public from a wet and windy Bracelet Bay, an early exit only seemed increasingly likely as the Ospreys struggled for results.
Now, the club have been hit with the reality of moving on beyond the Toby Booth era. Probably the most popular coach the Ospreys have ever had. Maybe their most successful too, depending on how you define success.
It’s a change that will take some time, even with the months of knowing, for Ospreys fans to get to grips with.
It shouldn’t affect Jones or the soon-to-be defence coach Justin Tipuric too much in the long-run. The mid Walian is an affable up-and-coming coach who has earned the respect of most Welsh rugby fans by working his way up the coaching ladder in a variety of jobs, while Tipuric – the man in the blue hat, as Booth called him – is revered by supporters.
What happens next will be interesting. Booth shouldn’t struggle to find work elsewhere, while Bradley will have to reconcile with supporters over the departure of the man who brought back hope.
From the moment the two men sat there, at opposite ends of a sofa in a wedding venue, there was always the distinct possibility this is how it would end. Not with a farewell tour, but just 121 words.