A radical new plan has been drawn up for a 10-team Welsh Premiership - but it is running into opposition.
Reducing the semi-pro league from 12 to 10 clubs from the 2023-24 season is the preference of the WRU executive. They want to see the creation of an elite competition that would play a key role as the stepping stone to regional rugby.
Under the proposal, the 10 teams would be selected based on both geography and set criteria. There would be two clubs from each region, plus one from north Wales and a tenth side chosen via the criteria, which would include factors such as population, facilities and performance.
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That would create a situation where some well-established Premiership teams would miss out. In the Cardiff region, you would have three recent champions - Pontypridd, Merthyr and the Cardiff club side - vying for the two definite spots.
There would be the same three-into-two scenario in west Wales, with Llanelli, Llandovery and Carmarthen Quins in the mix, while in the Ospreys region you have Swansea, Bridgend and Aberavon.
Clubs who have the A-team criteria would be eligible for consideration. That’s the 12 currently in the Premiership, plus some four or five sides in the Championship, including the likes of Pontypool and Neath.
If the 10-team league is set up there would then be a ring-fenced period - potentially three years - where there would be no relegation or promotion. The money currently allocated to the 12 existing clubs would then go to the remaining ten, along with a redistribution of some of the funding that has been going to the Championship sides.
The aim of the WRU executive is to raise playing standards in the Premiership and for it to serve as a kind of finishing school for future stars of the game. They see it as the platform that would provide rugby for young talents such as Wales U20s internationals who aren’t yet figuring regularly at regional level.
It is very much a key part of their future strategy. But the plan has some major obstacles to overcome.
The preference of the Premiership clubs themselves is to stay at 12 clubs. Moreover, the reduction to 10 would need to be approved by the 21-strong WRU Community Game Board (CGB) and it’s understood they are opposed to the move. That body is chaired by WRU chairman Rob Butcher and features community game representatives, including those who sit on the full WRU board.
The majority on the CGB actually want to see the Premiership increased to 14 sides from 2023-24 - which was the original plan agreed upon last year - with the long-term structure of the league to then go under review. This means everything remains up in the air with the start of the new season just 20 days away.
The WRU executive, including Performance Director Nigel Walker, now face the challenge of persuading the CGB that a reduction is the right way to go for the good of Welsh rugby and, in particular, the development of young players.
It’s understood there is also talk about arranging games against English Championship sides to supplement the planned 18 home-and-away league fixtures and Welsh Cup matches.
Asked for a comment, Premiership clubs chairman Jonathan Jones said: “There are ongoing discussions between ourselves and the WRU. We have moved forward on a number of issues. We pretty much agree on probably 85-90 per cent of things on the table. There is 10 per cent left to resolve, albeit it’s the trickier end of things.”
By that 10 per cent, Jones is referring to the pivotal aspect of cutting to 10 sides.
“That’s the preferred proposal of Nigel Walker’s performance group. We don’t agree on that. We still believe it should be 12. We maintain that is the right number,” said the Ebbw Vale chairman.
“One of the things we are keen on is we don’t make a decision in haste that we later regret. The decision which was taken previously to say we weren’t part of the pathway was done in indecent haste and was a complete shambles. What replaced it, in terms of regional A teams, fell apart within months. Quite blatantly that was the wrong decision and it was proved wrong within three months.
“We would like to slow things down so we are not making decisions in haste again. We need to get the right result for once and for all because change has been almost a circular feature of the Premiership. We regularly, every few years, go through a cycle of ‘What is the purpose of the league?’ and we change direction. At the end of the day, we want to get this right and we should not be involving time-scales that could lead to the wrong decisions being made.”
Speaking recently to WalesOnline about the Premiership, Nigel Walker said: “The key is making sure there is a continuous supply of quality players at 21, 22 and 23. That’s what my deliberations with the Premiership have been about because that needs to be the finishing school for those players.
“Not everyone is going to be like Joe Hawkins (Ospreys and Wales U20s centre), who is going to play his fair share of games for his region. The majority of our U20s are going to need to play at Premiership level. The only way you can do that is if the quality of the Premiership is high enough. Discussions on that are ongoing.”
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