Leave URC, scrap regions – Butler calls for radical revamp of game

RESPECTED Welsh rugby figure and broadcaster Eddie Butler has insisted the regions must consider pulling out of the United Rugby Championship, with the game here at a crossroads.

Going one step further, Butler also believes the regional model, which has been in place since 2003, should be scrapped in favour of a return to a more traditional club structure.

In recent months, the future of the professional game in Wales has been hotly debated. None of the four Welsh regions finished in the top half of the URC and the financial implications of the Covid-19 pandemic are stark.

Proposals to slash a region appear to have been scrapped and while everyone, seemingly, agrees that change is required, a workable plan is yet to materialise.

Giving his views to The Rugby Paper Podcast, Butler, who is the voice of the URC in Wales as the lead on Premier Sports’ coverage, said: “It’s a real problem. The creation of the regions was a short-term fix for a longterm financial problem. But you have to recognise at some stage that the fix doesn’t work.

“On the other hand, we’ve got two standalone regions – Llanelli, the Scarlets, and Cardiff, formerly known as the Blues. They are still basically standalone clubs and they can’t cut it. What’s more, they can’t deliver a crowd and that’s the huge thing, if you don’t have a sense of theatre.

“One of the reasons the Gallagher Premiership looks better is because it plays to full houses and you get that full sense of theatre and drama that goes with the full-on sporting occasion. In Wales, wherever the television camera pans and whatever angle you try, you’re always conscious that there are rows and rows of empty seats, and it simply doesn’t help.

“So you’ve got to look for a new model. Then you come slap into the problem of ‘okay, if you bring down the regional system, what do you replace it with?’ And nobody is really clear.

“You could say that Cardiff and

Llanelli are the standalone models and they’re not working. So what does work? I think we’re reaching the point now where Wales has to contemplate just leaving the URC.

“If South Africa is forced to go it alone, it goes back to the Currie Cup. Well, Wales might have to contemplate just going back to being Welsh.”

Butler also bemoaned Welsh rugby’s decision to turn down the opportunity to join the English league when it had the chance in 1999 having been offered six places.