Deadline for Welsh Regions

CatFromHue

There are reports on both Planet Rugby and ESPN that the Welsh Rugby chief has given the regions a year to sort themselves out and become more competitive.
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"The minimum to me must be three teams. Two is far too few and four is preferable," he told The Sunday Times.

"We must ensure a far better Welsh performance in the Heineken Cup and one of the things we should be looking at is funding one or two Welsh regions to a greater extent. Instead of an equality of funding, we could move towards a situation where not everyone is equal," Lewis said.

"In 2009 we gave the four regions a financial landscape that was more than sufficient to survive and prosper and to be successful in their competitions. We committed to give them £6m a year for player release and £9m per year for participation in the Heineken Cup and RaboDirect PRO12. That is £75m in total over the five-year period. We funded their academies."

http://www.espnscrum.com/rabodirect-pro12-2012-13/rugby/story/174902.html

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The article implies that the Dragons would become a development region, I didn't know they got equal funding as it is!

Realistically all the Welsh teams are out of Europe completely though the Ospreys have a slim chance of getting into the Amlin. In the Rabo Lanelli and Ospreys are in the mix but Cardiff are way off the pace.

I wouldn't want to see them reduce their regions to three but I can't see any improvement in Cardiff for the foreseeable future. At the start of the season I thought the Dragons could finish third in Wales but they also have been poor this season. The only hope I would see for Cardiff is that the young players still with the club take ownership of the team and go for it.

irishbucsfan

They should follow our off-field examples and we should on their on-field examples!

Edit: And we can start this new partnership by offering them the opportunity to appoint Declan Kidney this April

Digifriendly

CatFromHue wrote: »

Realistically all the Welsh teams are out of Europe completely though the Ospreys have a slim chance of getting into the Amlin. In the Rabo Lanelli and Ospreys are in the mix but Cardiff are way off the pace.

I wouldn't write the Ospreys off yet as they still have Leicester at home and if they win that and Treviso away they could yet go through to HC knock out stages although they will still be depending on other results.

CatFromHue

Digifriendly wrote: »

I wouldn't write the Ospreys off yet as they still have Leicester at home and if they win that and Treviso away they could yet go through to HC knock out stages although they will still be depending on other results.

Yeah it's a tough group.

It could actually work out that Ospreys (2 bonus point wins against Leicester and Treviso), Leicester (bonus point loss against Ospreys and a win against Toulouse), and Toulouse (bonus point win against Treviso and a bonus point loss against Leicester) will all finish up on 19 points!

Mal-Adjusted

What's the deal with the regions? are they half owned by the Union and half owned by the Welch premiership clubs or something like that?

there seems to be a lot of friction between the clubs and the Union.

Anyway, it'd be a terrible shame to see Dragons (because we all know it would be NGD) go the way of Borders, Aironi and Celtic Warriors. Too many PRO12 clubs have gone under as it is

leftleg

bath sniffing around faletau

http://planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_8364148,00.html

thomond2006

Are transfer fees included in the English salary cap? If they're not then Bath definitely have the resources to pay a six figure sum. Whether Faletau is worth that sort of money just to get him to the club is debatable...

It's a shame what has happened to Dragons, their loss of Heineken Cup rugby has hurt them. I once thought Dragons were being used the way Connacht should have been, at one stage they had three starting internationals in the squad: Charteris, Lydiate and Faletau with Aled Brew also making occasional Welsh appearances.

CatFromHue

My understanding of the Welsh regions is that they are privately owned but get money from the WRU. The players are signed to the regions with no central contracting and that there is now a salary cap of approx £3.5m in place.

The Dragons was formed/run by Ebbe Vale and Newport (I think Ebbe Vale dropped out after a season or two) and The Ospreys by Neath and Swansea. Ebbe Vale, Newport, Neath, and Swansea were all Welsh clubs. Lanelli and Cardiff were formed/run by their own clubs.

beaner88

Can the fans be blamed at all? 20K came out the other night for a local derby with the Ospreys yet they only get 7-8K for a top Heinken Cup game with rugby of the highest quality. I don't buy this about their national side being the main focus due to their success. They've been hugely patchy over the past decade and have lost far more games than Ireland. They have the player talent, nice little stadiums and play in a good league setup against similar nations. It really pisses me off because the league really needs the Welsh sides to be strong on and off the field. Its not good having a few Irish teams pulling the crowds and the rest of them pulling in 4,000 a week.

wadacrack

This isint good for a country where Rugby is their national sport