Why WRU's decision to cut a team is the rational thing to do

Rugby writer Steffan Thomas explains that with the game in Wales in crisis radical change is now unavoidable

- Rugby writer Steffan Thomas

> The upset and injustice felt by staff and players at the Ospreys is understandable but the overall reasoning behind the move to three teams is not without merit

(Kian Abdullah/Huw Evans Agency)

Welsh rugby is emotional at the best of times, but over the past 10 weeks or so those emotions have spilled over and begun to overwhelm the debate.

When the Welsh Rugby Union announced a few months ago it was planning to cut one of Wales' four professional teams, it would have been well aware of the backlash that decision would provoke. In the wake of Ospreys owners Y11 Sports & Media being named as the WRU's preferred bidder for Cardiff, the storm has arrived, with protests from supporters, intervention from Swansea Council, and former Ospreys players demanding the union rethink its plans.

Such reactions are totally understandable. Supporters are being asked to contemplate the loss of their team, people are going to lose their jobs. It's awful.

But there are reasons why the WRU is pushing for radical change. There are reasons why people with the stature of Jamie Roberts and Andrew Williams on the WRU board can sift through mountains of evidence and conclude reducing the number of teams is the only rational thing to do. It has to happen.

Historically, the WRU is guilty of years of underinvestment into the professional game and its pathways. Welsh rugby has been driven to this point by the actions of a handful of former CEOs and directors.

The damage, however, has already been done, and change is now unavoidable.

The game in Wales has been on its knees for many years, and the men's national team's struggles - underlined by back-to-back Wooden Spoons in the Six Nations - have only sharpened the sense that significant reform is unavoidable.