Saracens chairman Nigel Wray claims that the embattled Welsh regions want to join the English Premiership as a move towards long-term salvation.
According to the first of the English club owners, the four Welsh teams have decided that an expanded cross-border League offers them a rewarding escape from the demoralising effects of their cold war with the Welsh Rugby Union
“They'd love to play in the Aviva Premiership,” said Wray, whose proposal for a 16-club Aviva Premiership to accommodate the Welsh was revealed in The Rugby Paper three months ago. “And we'd love it too.
“English and Welsh rugby has an enormous history, a rich culture of big club matches. What could be better than the restoration of the traditional fixtures, guaranteeing massive matches of real importance?”
A week of renewed turmoil for the English game will almost certainly result in the 12 Aviva clubs refusing to do the sharpest of u-turns and play in Europe next season under the banner of the Union-controlled ERC. While they vote on a boycott at a Premier Rugby meeting this week, Wray is in no doubt that the fans would flock to see Anglo-Welsh matches.
“Somewhere along the line in all this is a very important guy called the customer,” he says. “What does he want to see? He wants to see the best. Logic indicates to me that it should be done.
“We play each other anyway in the LV=Cup so why not make the fixtures really meaningful? An enlarged Aviva Premiership can be created with no extra fixtures to be squeezed into the calendar. It would be good for the WRU because it would provide their teams with tougher competition.
“There are fantastic old rivalries there and games would sell-out. Games like Leicester v Cardiff and Scarlets v Northampton would have real bite and meaning, which would appeal to the customers who often get forgotten in all of this.
“Bring in the Welsh, go to 16 teams and play 30 games plus the play-offs. You'd have to agree on promotion and relegation but that's not too difficult, so let's move forward and give our customers meaningful games.”
Wray added: “I wouldn't describe what's happened as a complete surprise as you always have doubts about the French, given their legal structure. However, I would not be in favour of entering into an ERC competition next year.
“ERC is a limited company controlled by the Unions – and why would the Unions care about the financial welfare of English and French clubs when they've got their own interests to serve?
“Going back into the European Cup, as it currently stands, would be a retrograde step.
“Any deal has to be fair and if someone is outmanoeuvred or screwed, the deal cannot work because sooner or later there'll be rancour and it will all unravel.
The Welsh quartet – Cardiff Blues, Newport Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets – are agonising over whether to succumb to WRU threats and sign a new agreement by the end of this month or attempt to go their own way.
Publicly they are saying nothing. Privately, they are dismayed at the crippling blow dealt to the Rugby Champions Cup. With the French Top 14 clubs suffering from a bad dose of cold feet, the Welsh are in danger of losing almost £2m between them in extra revenue from what they saw as a fairer slicing of the commercial cake.
Asked about the English League opening its doors to the Welsh, Premier League chief executive Mark McCafferty said: “It's an obvious option, something which we will listen to if someone comes up with a viable plan.
“There are a lot of challenges to be considered. More matches would mean putting Premiership games into international weekends which is something we have tried to avoid. There is also the question of Premier Rugby shareholders who are playing in the Championship.”
McCafferty believes the Welsh regions will be “short-changed” by staying in Europe under the ERC banner next season. “Under the scenario proposed by ERC, the Welsh teams will not get any more money,” he said. “They should be properly remunerated and they saw the prospect of getting that in the Rugby Champions' Cup.
“The issue for European rugby, in the widest context, is that the French will have significantly increased spending power as a result of their new domestic television deal.”
The French clubs, under severe pressure from the French Rugby Federation under its hardline president Paul Camou, appeared to have left their English colleagues in the lurch by their decision at the Orly Summit to re-enter the Heineken Cup for ‘one transitional season.'
McCafferty admitted that PRL “would have preferred a heads-up about the meeting”.
The issue is further confused by a statement from Paul Goze, president of the French Top 14, LNR, that their participation next season is “on condition that all the deals are signed and that the competition will be staged with clubs from England”. If Goze is true to his word, an English boycott this week would force a French withdrawal.
McCafferty added: “The French Union will have to find six teams which they have promised the four other Unions they will provide for next season.
“Who are those six teams? Where will they come from? If the English clubs are not in, the French clubs say they won't be in.
“Our principles on a better, fairer Europe are important. We are not going to give up easily on those principles. We will talk to our clubs this week and it's their call.”
PETER JACKSON
Additional reporting by Neil Harvey
Now Welsh regions can join the Aviva Premiership says Nigel Wray
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Can’t see the Welsh Regions agreeing to relegation, nor can I see the RFU being enthused about a thirty game season for their international players.
And of course there is small legal knot that the Regions require the permission of the WRU to play in any cross border competition.
Ps. “Any deal has to be fair and if someone is outmanoeuvred or screwed, the deal cannot work because sooner or later there’ll be rancour and it will all unravel” – probably the best quote of the month.
Mr Wray seems to forget a few things:
The entry of the Welsh Regions to the Premiership would make it into a cross-border competition.
Such a competition would have to be approved by the IRB.
The IRB are unlikely to grant approval without the agreement of the WRU.
This is unlikely to be forthcoming.
The Welsh Regions have signed a Participation Agreement which binds them to the Pro12 for the next few years ( not sure how many)
How wrong you are about signing a Participation Agreement. The current PA runs out at the end of the season, and the debate over signing the new one has devolved into a war between the regions and the WRU.
Once again Peter Jackson and the Rugby Paper publish a one sided PRL view of the matter. These articles are embarrassingly one sided, and about as unbalanced as one could ever read. As has already been mentioned, there are a few rather important points that the author has excluded. For the Welsh regions to compete in the Aviva, they require WRU/IRB approval. The WRU are already contracted to the Pro12, so the approval of such a venture is impossible. The authors previous record as a serious rugby journalist, seems to have been reduced to having become the mouthpiece of Messrs McCafferty and Wray. The desperation of their situation is becoming all too obvious, with their constant media releases through their usual outlets.
No they have not, that is the issue.
PRL should go it alone. Premiership games this season have been awesome and I’m very happy handing my money over to watch English club rugby every week, As far as European rugby is concerned, sit it out for a season. I won’t be interested in it, and neither will the companies who want to sell me stuff who pay to advertise to the English TV audience. Fact is, the economics of European rugby without an English TV audience are about as sustainable as a Welsh lead over a southern hemisphere side. English clubs have made the investment to built their market, PRL is absolutely right hold out for its fair share.
Can’t believe the island mentality of PRL. Are you sure it’s not Nigel Farage of UKIP and not Nigel Wray? McCafferty is leading clubs down a blind alley. Do they really really think the LV cup is box office? The England team will suffer as will the Welsh by playing more lower level matches. Most PRL teams consistently lose money, this will only compound issues. I read toady that combined PRL teams have lost £19m combined in last year. Outside of ERC they will lose more. Time for the RFU and WRU to wrest control for the greater good of rugby for all, not just the money motivated like Wray.
How can you compare the LV Cup matches to the potential matches in am Anglo Welsh league? Have you seen the teams fielded in the LV Cup? It is primarily used to blood youngsters and give the old heads a run out. Its only played during the international windows to start, so no big names are available to play anyway, so of course the LV Cup isn’t box office
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