Wales are paying a fearful price for their shambolic start to the Six Nations in lost prize money – £2m and rising.
A week dominated by dressing-room threats of strike action over Saturday's match against England has left the players' employers counting the cost of their most damaging defeats in the championship.
The Welsh Rugby Union, already mired in a scandal over allegations of sexism and misogyny, have been given until Wednesday to prevent the contractual row affecting all four regional teams from escalating into the preposterous scenario of the old enemy arriving in Cardiff with nobody to give them a game.
The usual 74,500 sellout has generated record ticket sales not far short of £10m, a sum made all the more precious to the WRU by their squad's immediate elimination from the biggest sums on offer in the Six Nations' £16m prize money.
Wales' opening flop against Ireland counted them out of contention for the Grand Slam bonus of £1m, an amount raised by the rest of the countries paying £200,000 each to the one winning all five matches as Wales almost did under Wayne Pivac three years ago.
Scotland's landslide win at Murrayfield banished what forlorn hope their opponents had of making a challenge for the title. In hard cash terms that cost them another £1m with three matches to play.
Unless Wales break their losing sequence against England, assuming the home team deign to tur n up, they will finish with trips to Rome and Paris. Finishing bottom for the first time in 20 years would cut their share of the jackpot from a maximum £6m to £1m, at best.
The prospect of a barren tournament comes with the WRU in the throes of a financial crisis which has left some 70 Welsh-based players with no guarantee of employment once their contracts run out at the end of the season.
Their demands include either the scrapping or relaxing of the rule which prevents anyone employed by a non-Welsh club from playing for Wales unless he has played a minimum of 60 Tests. They also want a seat on the Professional Game Board.
The running sore led to the entire squad planning to boycott a sponsors' dinner at the WRU-owned hotel in Cardiff last Wednesday. The black-tie event had been sold out as a ‘Meet the Team' event.
But for frantic negotiations, there would have been no team to greet. They eventually agreed to turn up only to leave the dinner before the main course, an orchestrated their continued support walk-out without an apology or explanation to at least one sponsor.
“The players were seated two per table,” a guest told The Rugby Paper. “They arrived just before the first course was served. They all got up before the main course so it had obviously been pre-planned.
“The two players at my table didn't say why they were leaving. Didn't they realise they were letting down the people who are paying their wages? The sponsors were not impressed.”
