Ireland, Wales and Scotland turn down breakaway European rugby league

26/09/2013 – 12:39:11Back to Sport Home

Ireland, Wales, and Scotland have all made clear statements that they will not take part in the new European rugby competition planned by English and French clubs.

The IRFU released a statement today saying that neither clubs nor provinces would participate in a tournament that did not “have the full approval� of the International Rugby Board or national unions.

The announcement followed the stated intention of English and French clubs to pull out of negotiations with European Rugby Cup over a new tournament agreement for the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup competitions. The current accord expires next summer.

“The IRFU and its clubs remain fully committed to the development of a pan European Rugby Competition and we welcome the recent comments made by the IRB Chairman, who confirmed that a pan European tournament remains the goal of the IRB,� the union said in its statement.

“We are confident this can be achieved.�

The Welsh Rugby Union issued a near-identical statement that it remains committed to the pan-European tournament and “will not sanction any of its clubs or regions participating in future tournaments which do not have the full approval of the IRB and WRU.�

Scottish Rugby also followed suit in supporting the existing tournament style.

England’s Premiership Rugby and France’s LNR, though, plan to finalise structural detail of the new “Rugby Champions Cup� when it knows who will be involved.

Speaking earlier this week, Premiership Rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty said: “Before we can release more information we need to know over the next few weeks which other teams will be joining the competition.

“Once we know the final, or close to final, numbers then we’ll settle on the competition formats.

“Various people have approached us about the possibility of joining and we’ve indicated to them that we’ll keep their names confidential.

“We’ve heard that other people want to be involved in European competitions, that’s why we’ve left the door open and expect it to be more than an Anglo-French competition.�

Ireland, Wales and Scotland turn down breakaway European rugby league