EDC will bridge the gap better than the Premiership – Bevan

WELSH Rugby Union performance director Huw Bevan is confident the controversial new Elite Development Competition will do a better job at developing players than the Premiership.

The WRU’s decision to create a new 10-club competition to sit between the Premiership and the professional game has split opinion, with famous club such as Neath, Pontypridd and Merthyr not involved.

But the purpose of the EDC, which will come under the remit of the professional game, is primarily to bridge the gap between the semiprofessional and regional levels of the game.

And Bevan insists the EDC will provide a far higher standard than the Premiership could. “What we’d like to see is a game that is of a higher intensity than the Premiership has been previously,” Bevan told the Welsh Rugby Podcast.

“We’ve done a comparison of the intensity of games and when you look at the progression from age grade to U20s there’s an increase of intensity but then there’s a drop when they play at Premiership level.

“There’s then a massive ramp up in intensity to the URC and then up to international.

“We are trying to make that a smoother curb so the intensity of the games in this EDC is something we really want to increase and make the gap between the EDC and the URC less of a jump for our young players. So, what this competition has is the agreement between region and the clubs to play a specified number of games and minutes for academy players whereas previously it was a little bit more ad hoc.

“Now we’ve got a bit more structure so each player will have an individual development plan agreed between the region and the club in terms of what his playing plan will look like. So, that’s the first thing.

“Previously maybe some more mature players were being selected over up-and-coming development players who were of a high potential. So often a player’s development would be limited as a result of that so we’ve done away with that.

“Also, it’s important to recognise we need some of those more mature players to make this league competitive and to expose these players to a higher level of competition. They will get to experience playing against stronger opposition than they have done previously in their age group competitions.”

One of the biggest reservations surrounding the EDC is how financially viable given some clubs may go a relatively long length of time without a home fixture. But Bevan did confirm the WRU were looking at introducing a cross-border competition in the future.

“We are looking at all options currently to make sure that this level of competition is as exciting as it possibly can be,” said Bevan. “I’m sure people would be interested in an Anglo-Welsh competition because that always has been an attractive proposition for Welsh clubs and English clubs.

“That’s a work in progress. That’s not going to happen next year but that’s something we should pursue if an opportunity arose.”