The chairmen of the four Welsh regions will on Tuesday morning confirm that they will not be meeting the midnight deadline to sign a five-year extension to their participation agreement with the Welsh Rugby Union and are prepared for a high court battle to preserve their independence.
The chairmen, who between them have pumped a seven-figure sum into the professional game in Wales, feel they have no choice because, as things stand, there will be no Heineken Cup next season and Italy still have to confirm they will be taking part in the RaboDirect Pro12, a tournament that needs a new title sponsor.
Signing the participation agreement would lock the regions into the Heineken Cup and Pro12. It includes £2.9m for each of the four from the tournaments they play in and they face losing more than 50% of it. Unless the WRU makes contact on Tuesday and asks for further talks or even postpones the deadline until the Heineken Cup dispute is resolved, the two sides will draw up contingency plans and take legal advice.
The WRU’s board meets on Thursday. Its options include offering central contracts to leading players whose regional deals end this summer, such as Sam Warburton, Leigh Halfpenny and Alun Wyn Jones, and either setting up new teams for them to play in or sub-contracting them to clubs in France and England.
The regions have been in talks for the last five weeks, including over the Christmas period, with Premiership Rugby about forming a 16-team Anglo-Welsh league. The negotiations have reached an advanced stage but the English clubs first want to make one final push to salvage the Heineken Cup. They are pressing for talks next month involving a small group of stakeholders in Europe, which would not include the current organisers European Rugby Cup Ltd, to discuss a formula drawn up at the end of October that would see the Six Nations committee take over the running of the tournament, with clubs put in charge of the commercial operation.
France’s involvement is unclear. The French Rugby Federation is in a huff after its plan for the Heineken Cup to be run next season by Fira, a body made up of the developing unions in Europe, was rejected by the Celtic and English unions at a meeting in Dublin earlier this month. The Top 14 clubs have said they will not think about Europe until March, ruling themselves out of a tournament that did not involve the English.
If the Celtic unions refuse to concede commercial control to the clubs, a move that would mean BT televised the tournament, not Sky, the English clubs would then focus on the Anglo-Welsh league, a competition the regions believe would increase their turnovers.
“The regions have been put in a position where their entire business platform in just six months time is completely unknown, with a combined revenue risk of £16m, yet they are being pressurised by the WRU to sign a five-year extension to the PA immediately!” said Regional Rugby Wales in a statement on Monday.
“In addition to being unable to confirm the structure of their European competition, the WRU are unable to fully confirm the number of teams competing in the Pro12 between 2014 and 2019 or the revenue from the league in that period. There is currently no sponsor for the Pro12 next season and the television deals are not confirmed. We are continuing to work hard to find solutions but the commitment to the participation agreement cannot be defined.”
The Ireland flanker Sean O’Brien could miss the entire Six Nations after his club Leinster warned he faces a long lay-off with a dislocated shoulder. The 26-year-old, who made his British and Irish Lions debut in the second Test against Australia in June, suffered his injury setback during Saturday’s Pro12 match against Ulster.
Leinster forwards coach Jono Gibbes said, according to the Irish Rugby Football Union’s website: “The time frame to return to play hasn’t been set in stone but it is significant enough for surgical intervention, which means six to eight weeks minimum.
“It looks like that [he will miss the entire Six Nations] but they are not going to put an absolute line in the sand for him. They are just going to see how it goes.”
Ireland begin their Six Nations campaign against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, February 2.
Article source: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/deported-rugby-star-still-in-uk.22205031
Chairmen of four Welsh rugby regions will not meet participation deadline
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