It is the Welsh rugby story that perhaps rocked the game in Wales more than any other. Mike Ruddock's shock Valentine's Day resignation in 2006 left so many stunned, less than a year after a historic Grand Slam success that made him a legend.
The rugby mystery has gripped Wales fans for 18 years now, with the truth slowly emerging as time went on but some questions remaining unanswered.
As for the day itself, it was a cloak and dagger affair - one that resulted in a late night bombshell press conference, the likes of which had never been seen before. SIGN UP: Get the new exclusive Inside Welsh rugby newsletter for full insight into what's really going on around all the big issues. This special offer will get you full access for the entire year for just £10 instead of £40.
The Western Mail was ready to run a story on the morning of February 15 revealing Ruddock's sensational plan to step down, only for events to overtake those plans during a quite astonishing 24 hours beforehand.
Even by Welsh rugby's soap opera standards these were events that left the rugby public open-mouthed in disbelief.
How could a coach who had presided over the first clean sweep by Wales since 1978 just months earlier be already leaving his post?
Here, in an article originally published in 2016, we try to make sense of a saga that for all the wrong reasons will live long in the memory....
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By royal appointment...
Nine months had passed since that glorious Millennium Stadium day against Ireland when Wales completed the most unlikely of Grand Slam triumphs and delivered one of the greatest moments in Welsh rugby history.
It was in December that news emerged Ruddock was to become an OBE, a reward for a quite remarkable achievement.
Though he was quick to thank his players and staff for his day at Buckingham Palace, the recognition is said to have heightened resentment towards him among elements of the squad.
He had turned Wales from also-rans to champions within 12 months as his side won a first Grand Slam in 27 years and accepted the honour “on behalf of the entire Welsh team and management”.
“I know we all feel huge pride in a brand of rugby that brought a smile to a vast number of people in Wales, the UK and around the world,” said Ruddock.
“The fact we brought the Grand Slam back to Wales after 27 years is truly down to every member of the team and backroom staff.”
Admirable sentiments but all was not as it seemed.
Cracks appear at a press conference...
When Wales convened a press conference ahead of the second round clash with Scotland at Glamorgan CC's Sophia Gardens HQ - the Swalec Stadium had yet to be re-developed - it quickly became apparent that there was trouble in the camp.
Captain Gareth 'Alfie' Thomas was seen emerging from a room with Ruddock but then there was no sign of him as the coach addressed the media at the top table alone.
It later emerged that Thomas had taken exception to the presence of then BBC journalist Graham Thomas, who had written an article in the England v Wales programme a week earlier that had dredged up the players' disquiet about claims Gavin Henson had made in his book 'My Grand Slam Year', which Thomas had ghosted.
Thomas stood his ground when asked to leave by team manager Alan Phillips, but by the time the conference went ahead Thomas was gone and it was clear all was not well.
Beginning of the end...
The start of the 2006 Six Nations Championship didn’t exactly go to plan as Wales were thumped 47-13 at Twickenham with skipper Thomas declaring in the aftermath: “Wales could still be siting at the top of the table by the end.”
Next up Wales were helped by the dismissal of Scotland lock Scott Murray for their 28-18 victory in Cardiff.
Little did the Welsh fans know as they filed out of the Millennium Stadium that within 48 hours of the final whistle Ruddock would be gone.
The Valentine's day shock
Media Wales rugby correspondent Andy Howell hadn't been sat at his desk for long before he received news that almost left him choking on his early morning cuppa.
Mike Ruddock, just two matches into the Six Nations Championship that followed the Grand Slam, was on his way out. Simply unbelievable.
Howell went into conference with bosses at the paper and, in the days before news was routinely broken online as and when it occurred, plans were made to unveil the exclusive story in the following morning's paper.
Yet as the day wore on, it became impossible to keep a lid on such an explosive development.
Journalists at other newspapers and media outlets were beginning to hear rumours, calls were being made to the WRU hierarchy - chief executive Steve Lewis and chairman David Pickering.
The WRU gradually realised that unless they took control of the story there was a chance they would be fighting a rearguard action the following day, with the news of Ruddock's departure having overtaken them.
Many in the media were out enjoying romantic Valentines meals with their partners when their phones buzzed with text messages at around 7.30pm on February 14.
The WRU would be holding an impromptu press conference at 9pm, the message read. Instantly nobody was in any doubt that something major was afoot.
And so it came to pass.
In the cramped confines of a hospitality box at the Millennium Stadium Pickering, Lewis and Scott Johnson, the assistant coach who had agreed to lead Wales in a caretaker capacity and a man many held responsible for the apparent split in the camp that led to Ruddock's departure, addressed journalists with the news that head coach was going.
It was scarcely the end of the matter though, if anything it was just the beginning.
The mysterious reasons behind Ruddockgate
It took nine years before the man at the centre of the hullaballoo would break his silence to outline in detail why he suddenly quit just 11 months after leading Wales to a first Grand Slam in 27 years.
Ruddock admitted there were “tensions” in his Welsh management set-up and said he walked away because of what he dubs a “lack of support from the WRU.”
He detailed concerns about having to inherit predecessor Steve Hansen’s entire Welsh backroom team but insisted on bringing back defence coach Clive Griffiths, but claimed even that was frowned upon by others within the Welsh set-up.
Ruddock told the Sunday Times: “I didn’t have a signed contract during my time as national coach and, although a contract had been agreed verbally, the WRU wrote to me via my solicitor to advise me they were suspending negotiations so I could concentrate on the 2006 Six Nations.
“Given the contract discussions had been going on post-the Grand Slam since the summer of 2005, I took that as a lack of support from the WRU.
“This was a decisive factor in my decision to stand down. The ongoing contract saga, combined with tensions in the management team, meant the position became untenable.
“I hadn’t been permitted to pick my own management team at the outset. That’s why I originally didn’t apply for the position.
“Clive Griffiths had previously been released to the Dragons by Steve Hansen and Scott Johnson, so some weren’t best pleased when I brought Clive with me.
“Clive’s contribution justified my confidence in him, but it didn’t help cohesion within the management team.”
‘Alfie’ on Scrum V
Watch the full Scrum V showdown here
In the aftermath of Ruddock’s exit and rumours rife of player-power within the Welsh camp playing a major part in his departure, skipper Gareth Thomas appeared on BBC’s Scrum V programme to put the players point across.
What was to unfold was pure TV gold as ‘Alfie’ was forensically quizzed on air by the late Eddie Butler about the resignation of Ruddock and accusations that player-power had forced out the coach.
Butler and Thomas exchange lively words, with presenter Gareth Lewis struggling to keep order and Jonathan Davies looking on.
Later that evening, Thomas was due to go for a quiet meal with family and friends.
Instead he suffered a mini-stroke at his home in St Brides Major, later attributed to a damaged neck artery suffered during a match for Toulouse.
Ruddockgate brought to book...
In November 2007, Thomas gave his inside story for the first time on the circumstances which led to the controversial departure of Ruddock.
In his book ‘Alfie’, Thomas gave a blow by blow account of what happened behind the scenes, culminating in Ruddock’s exit.
Thomas bristled at suggestions of player-power forcing out Ruddock. But he did claim the coach lacked authority. Alfie also claims that when Ruddock took over in the summer of 2004, “the team was more or less running itself”.
He wrote: “It was credit to Mike that he did not come in and introduce change for change’s sake, but it was almost as if there was very little for him to do anyway.”
Thomas outlines the bad habits he says players had been permitted to slip into on and off the pitch.
“And, yes, the role of Mike was, in my opinion, becoming a problem that would eventually need to be addressed if nothing changed,” he wrote.
Thomas admitted he raised the issue with Ruddock himself and with the WRU’s then chief executive Steve Lewis. Thomas said he wanted Ruddock to lead Wales to new heights, but admitted, “The whole way we were functioning was, to be blunt, confusing.”
He reveals how the Welsh players were ready to ignore an order from Ruddock, who had asked them not to attend a night out in central London after defeat to England in 2006.
“Discipline was crumbling because it had been permitted to crumble,” he added. “If Steve Hansen had made the call that we weren’t to go out, it would have been accepted without a single murmur.
“Mike’s authority was being challenged, leaving me to wonder whether he had properly exerted it in the first place.”
‘Bomb’ blows story wide open...
Prop Adam Jones brought a whole new take on Ruddock’s departure in his hard-hitting 2015 book.
In it ‘Bomb’ revealed what REALLY went on behind the scenes, named the players who were particularly pro-the previous Steve Hansen regime and disclosed how some in the dressing room scathingly called Ruddock “the bus” behind his back... they reckoned he wasn’t a coach.
“Mike’s departure was a huge shock to the rugby public. It wasn’t to me. Throughout his entire tenure, there had been a continuous backdrop of sniping. Certain senior players who’d bonded with the previous regime constantly questioned Mike’s methods, undermined his authority and made things awkward,” wrote Jones.
“I was aware there had been clandestine meetings going on at the Miskin Manor Hotel between some of the senior players and the chief executive of the WRU, Steve Lewis.
“Among the chief detractors were Gareth Thomas, Martyn Williams, Stephen Jones and Brent Cockbain. I’m not saying these guys were especially disruptive or manipulative, but it was clear they were still in thrall to Hansen and Johnson. I’m pretty sure they liked Mike as a bloke, but they didn’t rate him as a coach.
“Those players I’ve mentioned weren’t actively trying to start a revolution, but they’d ask you what you thought about certain sessions.
“Did you think they were effective? Were they worthwhile? With every negative thought, and every question raised, they were chipping away at the foundations. The cracks grew wider, and those foundations eventually started to crumble.”
The unanswered questions
To this day there are few beyond Ruddock himself and a small circle of then senior players who have anything like an accurate knowledge of the extraordinary story of Ruddockgate.
Questions remain and probably always will.
For example, some players have told how Ruddock had very little actual input on the team's tactical blueprint and been adamant that assistant Johnson called all the shots.
Others though have rejected that claim, saying Ruddock WAS heavily involved and delegated in a way that was normal for a head coach. It is also abundantly clear that, despite rumours some players resented the praise Ruddock received for the Grand Slam and the recognition he received in the honours list, many of the squad had the utmost regard for him.
Shane Williams and Adam Jones are among those who have said as much in their respective autobiographies.
The precise nature of a meeting between senior players and the WRU hierarchy, said to have taken place at Miskin Manor and to involve a call for Ruddock to be replaced, has remained steadfastly stuck behind a smokescreen with none of the protagonists inclined to expand on it.
Furthermore, had Ruddock truly lost the support of his WRU paymasters? He believes he had, but if Wales had enjoyed a good 2006 Six nations, would the WRU have backed him with a new and improved deal?
In deciding to jump before he believed he was going to be pushed, did Ruddock act with ill-advised haste?
The verdict
With 18 years worth of dust having settled on the saga, Ruddockgate appears more than ever to have been an unfortunate coming together of events.
There is little doubt the playing squad was factionalised. Ruddock HAD lost the confidence of some but by no means all.
External events combined to inflame the situation however. The Henson business, the fact that Johnson became something of a Svengali-like figure in the eyes of important members of the squad and the emergence of Thomas as a warrior-like captain the players were prepared to follow into the most dangerous trenches there were, contributed heavily.
And the refusal by the WRU to tie Ruddock down to a concrete long-term contract was another trigger.
Ruddockgate will go down as one of sport's most salient examples of how coaches can be the surveyors of all before them one minute to being a figure of ignominy the next.
