WRU community director Geraint John has acknowledged the union needs to make decisions "very, very soon" amid fears a proposed new league will cause further disruption to the grassroots game in Wales.
There has been growing concern over the state of the community game in Wales in recent years, with a number of matches being postponed and resulting in 20-0 walkovers, while clubs have struggled to retain players, with more and more drifting away from the sport to pursue other opportunities.
And despite WRU figures showing that 90 per cent of grassroots matches went ahead this season - the first full campaign for four years due to the extended break around the COVID-19 pandemic - a proposed shake-up is set to have a major knock-on effect on the community game as it tries to get back on its feet.
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A new 10-team 'elite' league to bridge the gap between the regional and semi-professional game is expected to be greenlit for the 2024/25 season, with the majority of clubs in the Welsh Premiership expected to participate. Controlled by the Professional Game Board, it will provide the regions with a condensed, consistent talent pool with regional players from academy level to fully professional all playing.
You can read more about the plans here, but those in the community game will be all too aware of the inevitable knock-on effect it will have on leagues further down the pyramid.
With 10 clubs being pulled out of the 14-club Premiership to join the new league, most clubs in the Championship will get promoted as a domino effect is created at every level of the community game.
And while insisting that no decision has yet been made on the proposed new competition, John is all too aware that clubs are looking for clarity after a turbulent few years and says that "key decisions" about the future of the grassroots game need to be made in the coming weeks.
"We need to be looking at what should happen below regional rugby," he said. "That's a discussion that has been going on for some time. How do we support the next 17-23 year olds that are playing the game? How do we develop our players and coaches to support the regional game, to support our pathway, to make our regions more successful, to make the national team more successful? Those are the questions we need to be asking.
"But it's not just about that top end and we have to look at what the adverse effect will be right down to the bottom. We can't just look at the Elite League in isolation. We know what that could look like and there's discussions to be had there but we have to look at what the knock-on effect will be on the lower leagues.
"I've sent out a letter to clubs explaining that we have key decisions to make," John added. "But we're conscious that we have to make those very, very soon."
Those decisions don't just relate to the proposed league, however, with issues surrounding game cancellations, travel and player retention all set to be addressed by the WRU ahead of the new season. Despite 87 per cent of community games going ahead in the last campaign, 330 fixtures were forfeited and John says there is plenty of room for improvement.
"We've got to be better than that," he said. "We're hoping to have a bit more of a structured season without as much disruption. But people forget this was the first full season we've had since 2018/19, we hadn't played in full for the last four years.
"There were still a lot of games cancelled and rearranged near the end of the season and we know there are certain times of the year where the weather disrupts the schedule. So we need to ask, what is the right programme? What is the right structure below the elite game?
"Again there are a lot of questions to answer. We've got more players playing than we've ever had before, but we're also conscious that people are making different decisions, they don't want to play every single Saturday. And then we need to make sure we're doing all we can to give young players the best experience in the game, so we've got work to do there too."
