Will everyone be happy? but we must find out what
IT’S one of the biggest issues in Welsh rugby... what to do about the tier below the regional game. At present, it’s all a bit of a mishmash, with three different competitions operating at the next level down from the Guinness PRO14.
You’ve got the Anglo-Welsh Cup, which the two countries approach in very different ways, with our four regions putting out development teams and getting thumped by strong English sides.
Then you’ve got the much-maligned British & Irish Cup, where Premiership clubs were controversially replaced by regional select XVs as Wales’ representatives, which led to poor crowds, poor results and the Rugby Football Union, deciding to ditch the tournament.
And then there’s the 16-club ringfenced Principality Premiership, which has undergone yet another structural change this season amid the creation of east and west divisions.
The general consensus is the gulf between the PRO14 and the Premiership is too great for it to serve as an adequate stepping stone.
Some argue we should go for a regional A-team set-up, utilising the £1.7m which the Welsh Rugby Union currently spends on the Premiership, which would then become the top of the amateur community game rather than the bottom of the professional tier.
Others feel it would be better to have an elite Premiership made up of fewer clubs, maybe as few as eight, thereby raising standards.
With all this in mind, the WRU has decided to undertake a competitions review to determine the best way forward.
Rugby correspondent SIMON THOMAS is one of a number of members of the media who have been asked to give their views as part of the process.
After doing so, he sat down with the Union’s head of rugby performance GERAINT JOHN to find out exactly how the review will work and how soon we may see changes as a result.