WALKER HOPEFUL WALES CAN STOP AN EXODUS OF LEADING PLAYERS
WELSH Rugby Union acting chief executive Nigel Walker hopes a trickle of high-profile players leaving Wales won’t turn into a flood. The game in Wales is in the throes of a financial crisis with wages getting aggressively pushed down while playing budgets will eventually drop to £4.5million per region.
Many of Warren Gatland’s squad are the subject of offers from outside of Wales, with the likes of Josh Adams, Liam Williams, Ross Moriarty, and Ryan Elias among others attracting interest from clubs overseas, while Will Rowlands has already signed for Racing 92.
“There is a possibility some players will leave Wales,” said Walker.
“It’s a complicated eco-system. We want as many Welsh internationals playing in Wales as possible but it also has to be sustainable and affordable, and that’s the equation we are trying to battle through.
“Welsh players plying their trade in other countries has always happened.
“We’ve managed to control it to a trickle, and we would hope there’s not going to be a flood of players going abroad but it is inevitable if you are trying to cut costs some players will decide they can get a better offer by playing abroad.”
While all four regions are being negatively impacted by the pay cuts and the falling budgets, the situation is far more acute at Cardiff due to the fact they added an extra year on many of their players’ contracts during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic.
There are cases of players earning £250,000 a season being asked to take an 80% pay cut to remain at Cardiff. You can read the full story here.
But Walker insists these pay cuts are essential to avoid a situation similar to what befell both Wasps and Worcester Warriors in the English Premiership, who both went into liquidation. He also confirmed players are currently in negotiations over new contracts with a the long-form agreement with the regions close to getting signed.
“I am not in those negotiations with the regions,” said Walker.
“I have read the same headlines and that is why we are talking to see if we can alleviate the pressure that is being felt. I don’t know which players are being offered which contracts.
“There is always a finite pot. Sometimes you can tinker with phasing and that’s a possibility.
“We know that position is more acute at Cardiff than anywhere else and I am talking and consulting with Cardiff to see what we can do to try and ease the difficulty they have got.
“I have spoken with colleagues at Ospreys, Scarlets and Dragons and the problems are nowhere near as acute there.
“They (Cardiff ) have got 23 players who are in contract and a large part of their budget is taken up with those 23 players.
“We are talking about it and we will find a solution because we have to. We will work collaboratively and I have had conversations with Richard Holland, Alun Jones and Dai Young in the relatively recent past to try and ease that situation.”
Under the current payment model the Welsh Rugby Union pay for 80% of a Wales National Squad 38 (NS38) player’s salary with the region picking up the remaining 20%.
Moving forward, the regions will have to honour the contracts of the NS38 players with less money in the pot to pay them, although there will be some contribution from the WRU next season, meaning there’s very little left to contract others.
This has proved to be a significant problem for the regions, who it could be argued would benefit from getting some of their former NS38 players off their wage bill.
At Cardiff, Wales wing Josh Adams is attracting interest from wealthy French club Lyon, who are prepared to offer a transfer fee, while Liam Williams is wanted by a host of Japanese clubs.
However, as part of the new Welsh rugby agreement about to be signed, a region could lose funding if they let a player who is in the “national interest 60” move on without having made “reasonable endeavours” to retain his services.
“There will be a conversation if it comes to that between head coach Warren Gatland, myself, the region in question, and the player’s agent,” said Walker when asked if the WRU would block a region selling or releasing a player like Adams.
“The player always has a choice. “That (NS38) no longer exists, we
have moved to a different system. So the allocation is not 80% WRU and 20% region.
“All the money has been allocated to the region and they spend it as they see fit.
“Anybody who is in contract and is a player of national interest who has got a contract through until June 2024, if they wanted to get out of that contract it would be a conversation between a player or a player’s agent, the region and the WRU.
“I would say to that player continue to talk to the region and I will be involved with that conversation. We will just be honest, open and transparent about the position.
“We want as many Welsh international players staying in Wales as possible and that is the aim but not at all costs. There will be some cases where it will be in the player’s best interest and might even be in the national interest, we will have that conversation.
“If Warren Gatland said to me player A was a Welsh international with a contract through until June 2024 and he says he is central to my plans there would be a conversation whether it would be in the player’s best interest, in the national interest to exit that contract.”
Regional coaches have raised concerns about squad sizes being pushed down to as low as 36 with many suggesting it could be a player welfare issue, but Walker refutes such claims.
“I can understand concerns of player welfare,” he said. “Those conversations are ongoing and player welfare goes at the heart of what we do.
“We are not going to have a position where during the Six Nations next year where there are 10 senior players and going to be 10 0r 12 Under-20s making up the numbers.
“Clearly that would not be the right thing to do. We have some work to do in certain situations but our intention is to make sure those squads are sufficiently deep to ensure regions can put our a senior team when they lose players to the national squad.”