by The Welsh Rugby Union estimates that the reduction of its elite clubs in half as part of a radical national overhaul is the best way to achieve its objectives of “winning the six nations” and becoming “real winners of the Joker World Cup”.
On Wednesday, during an emotional press conference at the Stade de la Principality, the WRU executive unveiled its “optimal system proposed” for the future of the elite game in Wales, with a talent development path partly inspired by Athletic Bilbao at La Liga. The proposal, which was presented to the WRU board of directors, will enter a consultation period with stakeholders through the Welsh match until the end of September, as well as four possible models, with an upcoming decision at the end of October.
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Wales underwent successive laundries in the six male nations, and in Japan in July ended a record series of 18 consecutive tests. The four models identified to save the future of sport in Wales, which currently manages four regional elite clubs which are also funded, are:
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Four professional clubs with unequal funding (two elites and two development)
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Three professional elite clubs with equal funding
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Three professional clubs with unequal funding (two elites and development)
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Two professional elite clubs with equal funding.
An adapted version of this last model is what the WRU executive offers, the two clubs organizing a professional and female professional team. The locations and names of these clubs and teams, given no decision on the future structure of Welsh rugby, have still been decided, must be confirmed. They could be made up of existing regions where they could be new entities.
If the WRU proceeds with two existing regions and identities, the executive revealed that it would not be part of the two remaining parts which apply to reach the English pyramid. However, Abi Tierney, the CEO of WRU, said that it would always be “very difficult” for the remaining teams to skip the ship in England, due to minimum standards criteria, the current salary ceiling formula and the fact that they would not be financially supported by their own union.
“All options [for the unwanted clubs] are open, “said Dave Reddin, director of rugby and elite performances of the WRU.” It will be someone else’s decision, of course, but all the options are open. We have thought about this reflection, but we want to hear the reality of that. The transition would be a much more important and detailed process in which we must enter. It is not as easy as deactivating something and a thing on simultaneously.
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“We want to win the United Rugby championship. This is ambition.”
Whatever option the WRU decides – Either to continue with existing entities, or create two new brands – The two clubs will be based under the same roof under the proposed optimal system, with a new national campus to become the training base of national teams in Wales, their national academies and the two professional entities.
How centralization would work
If the WRU moves on an adapted version of the model to two clubs, each will have their own stages, identities and separate tactics and will train separately, but could share gymnasium installations as well as other amenities of the new campus. All elite contracts and the management of the academy will be centralized by the WRU.
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Given that at least two of the Welsh regions will cease to exist if the optimal system proposed by the WRU is lit in green, Reddin admitted that the executive had discussed the prospect of a strike action.
“We talked about it,” said Reddin. “But the first indications, chatting with a group of players in a pre-consultation last night, are positive. I experienced a typing action with the rugby team in England [in 2000]. It would be a disaster for everyone. »»
Tierney added: “People will be bad today, but I encourage everyone to enter the future.”
The consultation report, presented Wednesday by the executive of the WRU, explains how a new competition of domestic women and an improvement in Super Rygbi Cymru, the level below the elite, are part of the proposal. The report admits that “in a nation where proximity should be a force and that professional game has a structure that requires teamwork, it is clear that we have not managed to collaborate” while describing four performance teams: “from the last place in the World Cup World Cup and Well’s Systems for the Wild-Cup of Gérined. The world at the top of the development of talents. »»
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How the financing will break down
On the men’s side, WRU’s proposal expects each club to have 50 senior players with a team budget of around 7.8 million pounds sterling. Hope among Reddin, Tierney and the Richard Collier-Keywood chair was that the teams would be “mainly qualified Welsh” with only the “high standard” of unskilled players.
Each of the four models of the WRU proposal was designed using a three -part framework – financial viability, commercial opportunity, feasibility – while developing players, sustainable growth and projects that could reinvest Welsh rugby funds. Reddin, Tierney and Collier-Keywood revealed that they had started discussions with interested investors.
Reddin was a central figure in the triumph of the World Cup in 2003 in England and also played a central role alongside Sir Gareth Southgate with the football equivalent. However, a greater parallel with the Wales project can be taken from his time with CD Castellón, the Spanish football club he took from the third to the second division. Throughout 2022 and 2023, Reddin was a visitor of Bilbao, in the Basque Country, while CD Castellón played the second team of the city’s sports club in La Liga. The WRU rugby director was struck by what had been built in northern Spain.
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“If you look at someone as a athletic bilbao, who chose many years ago to recruit only Basque players,” said Reddin Telegraph Sport. “One hundred percent – throughout their academies and the first XI. They developed a remarkably successful system in a small environment, which managed to succeed in terms of international market; They were a La Liga team for as long as the League was invented. Is the Basque region special?
“There is a little bit about it on identity, what you could say is similar to Wales, but what they have benefited extremely to invest in the path, systems, pedagogy, coaching; To make it as well as possible. It’s tiny, concentrated – How do we make it a strength?
Does something like this proposal occur before?
Losing a professional team is not new in Welsh Rugby. The Warriors Celtic was a team formed in 2003 from the merger of Bridgend and Pontypridd, but were dissolved after a single season while Welsh rugby reduced a model with four regions.
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As for falling into two elite teams, they can turn to Scotland.
When the Borders Pro team was dissolved in 2007, there was a big reshuffle of Scottish rugby. Hysure on the side had been expected for a long time – especially by those who operated outside the gala – but the Scottish game was reduced by three teams for two. This in a system that once praised four at the start of professionalism.
In a centralized academy, the young perspectives contracted in Edinburgh, Glasgow and the borders – with the exception of those who were considered good to go full time with Glasgow or Edinburgh – and they largely operated in Murrayfield.
From this initial cohort, some continued to win test ceilings. Richie Gray and Ruaridh Jackson were the most notable. The system would not last, and today Edinburgh and Glasgow have their own higher academies (although there is a national talent course for those under 18).
