Welsh clubs demand smaller league

Llanelli and Newport want six clubs at the top

The 'Gang of Six' Welsh rugby clubs put forward their plans for the future of the game at a meeting in Cardiff on Tuesday.

Cardiff, Swansea, Llanelli, Newport, Pontypridd and Bridgend rejected the Welsh Rugby Union's ideas of regional or provincial rugby as well as the proposals for superclubs or franchises.

Instead, the clubs - who have formed a venture company called Rugby Partnership Wales Limited - want a top flight comprising their six teams.

That would mean ditching Neath, Ebbw Vale and Caerphilly from the Premier Division, but the RPW say the player base in Wales cannot sustain more than six clubs.

In response, Ebbw Vale chief executive Ray Harries said there is enough money and quality players to run eight or nine professional clubs.

While Neath director Mike Cuddy described his club's proposed omission from the elite division as "pathetic."

The RPW also demand that the WRU should be reformed, enabling the RPW to work in partnership with the union, and that a professional executive should be appointed to run the game.

Professional

The clubs also want to see a financial review of the game, with Union opening up their books for inspection.

Llanelli chairman Stuart Gallacher, speaking on behalf of the RFW, said: "Welsh rugby has failed to come to terms with professionalism in the game and we are all now paying the price. As a nation we are simply not keeping pace.

"The game is effectively bankrupt and being kept afloat only thanks to the generosity of a handful of individual benefactors."

Gallacher said that club owners had spent in the region of £15m - which the Union did not have to stump up - to pay players, and that a professional approach was needed to take the game forward.

"The RPW clubs and WRU need to establish a working professional partnership to resolve the game's difficulties," he added.

Ebbw Vale and Neath could be out in the cold

"Initially, this might prove a difficult pill for the Union to swallow as it is still run, day to day, by an enthusiastic - but amateur - committee.

"By working with the Union we believe we can help raise more revenue for the national and Premier Division game. But this requires a professional willingness to adapt and change on behalf of the WRU.

"As clubs we need to change too and we are prepared to introduce a squad salary cap and ensure development is the game's key priority."

Gallacher said that partnership had worked when their English counterparts had joined forces with the RFU and were now seeing their efforts bearing fruit, with a number of clubs set to announce profits.

He went on: "We want to sit down with the Union and finally agree a way forward.

"Time is running out - and now is the time for action, not words."

The WRU said that discussions with all concerned parties will continue through the agreed channel of the Joint Management Board.

"The WRU wants nothing more than a strong, vibrant, and financially viable professional game in Wales and will continue to work with all its clubs to find the right solution," said WRU secretary Dennis Gethin.