WRU hope they've now found a way out of messy situation

“WHEN this board took office less than two years ago, in January 2024, we inherited a mess,” said Richard Collier-Keywood at the start of a Welsh Rugby Union presentation that, including questions from the assembled press, took over 90 minutes.

- BEN JAMES

WRU chair Richard Collier-Keywood addressing the media

(KIAN ABDULLAH/ HUW EVANS AGENCY)

“They've still got a mess,” remarked one scribe after it was all done, referring back to the WRU chair's opening remarks. Because, on the day when Welsh rugby finally learned exactly how many professional men’s teams it would have moving forward, style took precedence over substance for large parts of yesterday afternoon.

Of that 94 minutes of talk in the Principality Stadium, it took over 50 minutes for the actual number - three - to be mentioned even once. By that point, the WRU's 3pm embargo was getting painfully close.

A bombardment of information, running the clock out like a senate filibuster. Were there a premium on PR jargon and filler, the WRU could do worse than selling the drilling rights under the Principality Stadium to solve Welsh rugby’s financial ills.

Having initially set out to go from four regions to two, they will now go to three.

Quite how they get there, or when they reach that number, is still a little unclear.

One in the west, one in the east and one in Cardiff. That’s what the players and clubs were told on Friday morning.

There will be equal funding for the squads starting at £6.4m and rising to £7.8m per annum.

It's hard to see how, in those terms, it doesn’t look like a shootout for the west spot between Ospreys and Scarlets. However, Collier-Keywood wouldn't put it that way.

“We feel these are the best locations based on data,” he said. “We're not putting two teams against each other. That's not our plan today. We intend to work collaboratively.

“So there will only be one geographic club in the west, but the existing clubs can all apply for any of the licences going forwards. We hope that it will be through a consultation process.”