Posted by The future of Welsh rugby has never felt more up in the air than it has become over the last two weeks, which is saying something when you consider the last 30 years of the game in this country.
There was already a big question mark over the direction of the professional game with the Welsh Rugby Union planning on dropping to three teams; one in the east, one in the capital, and one in the west, but then Steffan Thomas at WalesOnline broke the news that Abi Tierney was set to the tell the Professional Rugby Board that moves were afoot to join the English ‘PREM’.
Accompanying that in the article was news that a letter had been sent by the WRU to Swansea Council requesting a pause in their legal proceedings over the plan to cut a team pending the outcome of this move with a future for four teams remaining on the table ahead of a summit in December.
Despite articles attempting to quash the idea of an Anglo-Welsh League in some other media outlets, and a PR exercise of a statement from the RFU and Premier Rugby Ltd stressing the focus was on expanding the PREM with English sides, the noises from RFU CEO Bill Sweeney were certainly intriguing in terms of the possibility of Welsh sides crossing the Severn Bridge being explored.
So what could it look like? Well, there could be two Welsh sides in the PREM and two in the Champ, there could be a cut to just having two professional sides both of which play in the PREM, or there could be two Welsh sides in the PREM and two Welsh sides remaining in the United Rugby Championship.
Mentioning the URC though is bringing up the biggest question mark in regards to every possible future avenue for Welsh rugby. To put it plainly, the URC is an active hindrance to progress in any direction you look at the moment.
Staying at four in the current league is nigh on impossible. Competition income paid through the WRU is down from almost £12m pre-covid to £9m in the most recently published Union accounts, with a further portion of the league sold to CVC meaning that the slice of the pie coming to the clubs in future is further diminished.
The URC can make a song and dance about attendances and TV viewership slightly rising year-on-year but the harsh reality is that it is not turning into much needed revenue. With no sign of an uplift in competition income then it is virtually impossible for the four Welsh sides to be competitive as things stand.
What could be done to change that? The simple answer is a salary cap. At present there is far too much disparity between the likes of Leinster with an estimated playing budget north of €12m and Zebre on barely €4m, with the other clubs filling up the space between.
A lot of comparison is made between the URC and the PREM, but a few English sides going to the wall in recent years is only avoided in the URC by Union ownership. Dragons, Cardiff, Zebre and Stormers have been very close to going under, Ulster and Munster have reported financial troubles while the Scottish sides are cutting down their spend.
There is often talk of Welsh players improving when they cross the Bridge to play in England, but the truth is that the salary cap allows them to demonstrate their talents in a more competitive competition.
The URC has better players and better teams, as underlined by their overall better performance in European competition, yet it is a worse product because of that gap in budgets. Welsh players are generally valiant in defeat, before going to the PREM and getting the chance to compete on an even playing field.
If the URC are not capable of growing revenue, and not willing to implement a competitive leveller, then it simply cannot complain when the WRU has to make moves to reduce the number of clubs in the competition or explore avenues to leave it altogether.
Threatening legal action over the Welsh sides considering a move to the PREM, rather than reaching out and attempting to work through how four teams could become regularly competitive is a sure fire sign of their priorities, and Welsh rugby is not at the top of that list.
Whether you agree or disagree on how they’re going about it, the URC have proved the WRU right in their aim to be selfish and look after Welsh rugby above all else.
