Tuesday, 1 October 2013

Heineken Cup spat leaves Welsh clubs in crisis

Lions player-of-the-series Leigh Halfpenny is being courted by Toulon and Cardiff Blues are unable to offer Lions captain Sam Warburton a new contract with no European rugby in place after the withdrawal of the English and French clubs.


Anyone coming out of contract is about to become a target.


And WRU chief executive Roger Lewis admits the mass migration places the Welsh model of regional rugby on the endangered list.


Lewis’s desperation to find a solution to the power struggle in European rugby was clear at yesterday’s surreal launch of the 24th and undoubtedly last Heineken Cup.


“Sam Warburton has told Cardiff Blues he wants to stay in Wales next season,” said Warburton’s agent Derwyn Jones, himself a former Wales lock. “But the region are not able to offer him a contract at the moment because of the mess that exists in Europe. They don’t know how much money they will have next year.”


Any cross-border tournament cannot be run by the existing European Rugby Cup as the English Premiership and French league have, in effect, resigned, and have no intention of attending the next ERC board meeting in three weeks.


They have already announced the Rugby Champions Cup from next season, open to all those currently taking part in the existing competitions. If the Welsh do not sign up, they will soon be bidding several farewells.


“There is only so much time guys like Warburton, Leigh Halfpenny and Adam Jones can wait until there is a contract offer, so the WRU and the regions must get together to do whatever they can for the good of Welsh rugby,” said Derwyn Jones. On behalf of the WRU, Lewis has moved towards the Premiership’s position that entry should be earned from each of the three leagues that feed into Europe, including the Pro12, where it is too often a gift.


“We are happy to go down a meritocratic qualification process based on positions within the leagues,” said Lewis. “The next thing is to have an equitable solution among all the teams for sharing out the monies that come out of that.”



Heineken Cup spat leaves Welsh clubs in crisis

No comments:

Post a Comment