Tonight its been leaked that Scarlets have jumped ship and blues very close to joining them. With WRU owning 50% of dragons you have to assume that they will toe the line also. Ospreys are the black sheep of welsh rugby and wru would gladly bury them.

Disappointed but not surprised. Scarlet's make sense they've had tiny crowds since they moved to there new stadium and must be in a ton of debt paying it off also. Getting bigger crowds in the door and given a chunk of cash to pay of their creditors was probably to good an opportunity for them to pass up. Will be interesting to see how the others go.

Bit like Celtic Warriors but SRU were broke at that time and felt that the 2 big cities had the best chance of making it. Tbf since Glasgow moved to scotstoun their attendance's have grown dramatically. They have over 5k for most games now and are looking at 7500 for tomorrow night .

On the welsh front the first chinks in the armour of regions are appearing tonight. It was leaked earlier today that WRU had given regions 2 weeks to sign participation agreement. If they didn't wru were launching 3 new regions under their control. One called east valleys, 2nd called west valleys and finally north Wales. These would be based in pontyprydd, Neath and colwn bay. It was further leaked that wru would take RRw to the high court if they applied to join a viva.
Tonight its been leaked that Scarlets have jumped ship and blues very close to joining them. With WRU owning 50% of dragons you have to assume that they will toe the line also. Ospreys are the black sheep of welsh rugby and wru would gladly bury them. Their CEO is a close friend of mcclafferty and a royal thorn in side of roger Lewis so could be an interesting few days yet

Slightly off topic but always thought it is a shame that Borders Reivers was disbanded in Celtic League

They used to get decent crowds and that area of Scotland has a much more rich rugby history than Glasgow

rossie wrote: Wru have statement up now. It basically says they aren't going to comment St this time other that to say they are hopeful of agreement before deadline of 31/12.

Sounds like a "take it or leave it" type discussion.

Wru have statement up now. It basically says they aren't going to comment St this time other that to say they are hopeful of agreement before deadline of 31/12.

Meeting ended after 2 hrs. Not sure what to make of that. WRU left without making a comment. Peter Thomas , chairman of blues, made a statement. He said that meeting was amicable but nothing was resolved. He said that no increase in money on offer was made but that they were going to meet again for the good of the game in Wales. He made no comment on joining a viva.

If they do go down this route then Wales should refuse to pick any of the players for their international team. Any player worth his salt whose in it for pride rather than a fast buck would then go back to the WRU.

More desperate posturing from the English. As if Gloucester v Dragons is going to be a major money-spinning event.... No harm if the WRU go the centrally contracted route, it's the only model that will keep rugby's future out of the hands of the millionaire club owners.

It appears that the nuclear button has been pressed in Wales.
Net is a buzz with rumours that RRW have been offered 5m a piece to join A viva. BT putting up the money apparently

WRU preparing to launch 2 new WRU owned regions in east and west Wales with centrally contracted players in addition to their north Wales development region already in existance.

I stress that there is no confirmation of any of this but the forums are awash with it. Its a classic PRL move on the eve of a meeting though

On the welsh region investors , lewis has said that he wants a 50% stake in all 4 regions if WRU are to invest more in them. iRFU apparently invest 22m pa in the provinces. RRW want similar levels of investment but do not wish to grant levels of control similar to what irfu enjoy for that money. IMO that's an unreasonable position. They have refused central contracts and in fact introduced a rule banning centrally contracted players from representing the regions should WRU bring them in. They just want the money for player release. currently RFU pay 150k per player pa for that access and that will rise to 170k next season. I'll let you do maths as to what regions get.

The 1.7m offer is from before the FFR intervention. They are using it as a barometer as to what their participation in the HEC is worth. A bargaining ploy if you like. The PRL are playing them ATM to test the waters. Its hard to call as to whether they are desperate enough to go to court with WRU or not but PRL are encouraging it with an unofficial offer by personalities within prl of a brighter independent future on their side of the Severn. There has been no official offer from PRL AFAIK to join the premiership. Neither has there been an application to join the A viva. Any application would require the WRU and RFUs approval and IRB sanction.
To answer your question one current idea( Its not a proposal yet AFAIK) is a revamped LV/ RCC played on the Heineken weekends. Thats isn't enough to get the welsh to jump ship. It has to be all or nothing for them.
They believe that games v gloucester , bath etc will generate greater interest and revenue.

rossie wrote: They have been offered 1.7m per region by prl to compete in RCC which is up from 1.1m that they get in etc ATM. They currently get 4m per region from WRU.

I've got to be missing something here, Rossie, fill me in.

Cutting out the fluff and getting to the numbers: PRL are offering them 1.7 million as opposed to 1.1 milion from the ERC to compete in what? the PRL? a second or replacement LV Cup dressed up as the RCC? or both?

And how exactly will an extra 600K compensate for the loss of 4 million from the WRU? I can't see where the money's coming from to make this work, what with the PRL losing 19 million last year and the regions being in a worse state.

AFAIK (from reading Thomas and others) the only reason the Welsh regions were able to hold on to players as long as they did was director loans and the owners pumping in money. They've stopped doing so in recent years because they've had enough of plugging the dam (which is fair enough). This leaves the WRU and regions in a chicken and egg scenario where the WRU will not give a penny more as they're afraid the money will be used to pay back the directors what they're owed (these are not Wray and Craig types btw), and the regions won't invest unless the WRU stump up some more cash as they're afraid they will go bust or get taken over by the WRU.

Am I missing something here? Each region gets close to 4mil (Pounds, I assume) p.a. and want to raise it to 5 mil? Grand, fair play to them and all that. I assume they also retain their gates, sponsorship? I also assume that TV rights for the rabo and for HC go straight to WRU and are doled out as part of the £4 million (over €5 million)?

And we get €2.5 million?

Jesus lads, after Saturday maybe we should be splintering off with the WRU and the Premiership!

RRW and WRU meeting tomorrow. From reading simon Thomas on this the WRU will have to substantially raise their offer if regions are going to sign up for a new participation agreement. They have been offered 1.7m per region by prl to compete in RCC which is up from 1.1m that they get in etc ATM. They currently get 4m per region from WRU. That would have to touch 5m IMO to gey t them on board with WRU. Trouble is WRU will want a share of each region for that kind of investment and Scarlets, blues and ospreys don't want that. They already own 50% of dragons and want a similar share in the other regions .
If they did go the nuclear route the dragons would remain. In addition WRU have already set up a development region in north Wales and playing out of Colwyn bay. A 10 team league as long as Hec survives is viable IMO especially if the 2 welsh regions are top heavy with centrally contracted players.

Adding London Irish and London Scottish?

WRU contracted to provide 4 teams to Rabo or equivalent Celtic League for next 2.5 seasons. Regions have no such contract.
Recent speculation that WRU will cut regions free and let them sink or swim and submit 4 new teams (or 3 new teams plus Dragons)