Welsh clubs leaving URC for an Anglo-Welsh league could get messy

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has asked to join the English Prem and form an Anglo-Welsh league – thus breaking away from the URC – confirming what has always been the case. Since the Celtic League’s inception there has been a misguided preference within Welsh rugby to join the English.

“We have received a formal approach,” the RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney told BBC Radio Four.

“We asked for that and we wanted it in writing. We wanted to understand a few points and that has been submitted to us.”

A week previously, the WRU chief executive Abi Tierney addressed a meeting of the PRB (Welsh rugby’s professional game board) and reportedly revealed she had been in negotiations with PRL/RFU over two Welsh teams entering the English Prem. That scenario would mean two of the four regions entering the Championship and becoming part-time, which would cause uproar in Welsh rugby.

There has also been an exodus across the Severn Bridge to the Prem by players such as Aaron Wainwright and Jac Morgan, who have gone from playing in front of 4,000 at Rodney Parade or in Swansea to playing in front of 25,000 and 16,000 at Welford Road and Kingsholm.

The Welsh were among the founding members of the Celtic League in 2000-01, but they have never seemed to possess a strong affinity compared to Anglo-Welsh fixtures for reasons of history and proximity. Ticket sales for the Cardiff-Bath Champions Cup game at the Arms Park next month have increased since this story broke. The demand and appetite for Anglo-Welsh games is enormous, but in Wales more so than in England.

Indeed, for some within Welsh rugby, one other thing hasn’t changed. There is no great desire among the English clubs for them to come aboard for an Anglo-Welsh League, not least as the Welsh regions don’t bring enough financial weight to the party.

This makes the timing of Sweeney’s confirmation more curious. It could be that the Welsh are being used by the RFU and the Prem clubs as a means of making the latter more coveted for a prospective buy-in by new club rugby backers in England, such as a mooted club in Birmingham backed by investors including Tom Brady. This is despite the financial losses of the 10 Prem clubs rising from £34m to £36.5m over the 2024-25 season and combined debt levels increasing from £342.5m to £366.1m.

Furthermore, the prospect of Welsh regions effectively being allowed into the Prem fold would have clubs such as Worcester, Wasps and London Irish outraged. Each were forced to fold during the 2022-23 season when the Premiership was reduced to 10 teams and each covets a return and along with others who harbour such ambitions, would not take kindly to two places in the Prem being allocated to Welsh regions.

One also can’t help but wonder is the WRU approach to the RFU also part of some power play within Welsh rugby given the desire of all four regions and their supporters, along with business interests, to stave off the Union’s attempts to trim the regions to three.

However, these announcements won’t help the URC in the context of TV contracts and sponsorship negotiations, where uncertainty is never helpful.

There is also the vexed question of the WRU’s contractual obligations to the URC. Depending on who one talks to, this is akin to a rolling contract rather than a fixed term one, or rather simply an indefinite contract.

Either way, you would imagine there would have to be some form of mechanism to give notice. The WRU have said they are committed to provide four teams to the URC up to the end of the 2027-28 season and seemingly believe they could then extricate themselves from the URC.

The other stakeholders in the URC – namely the IRFU, Scottish Rugby Union, SARFU and the Italian Federation – are less than amused by the WRU machinations and The Irish Times understands that for several weeks they have been seeking legal advice. This looks like becoming very messy.