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Premiership: Anglo-Welsh, URC merger reports 'wide of the mark'

Leinster captain Caelan Doris after his side's victory in the Investec Champions Cup Round of 16 match between Leinster and Leicester Tigers at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Premiership rugby chiefs insist there are no ongoing negotiations with other leagues and talk of an imminent Anglo-Welsh competition or tie-up with the United Rugby Championship is “wide of the mark”.

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RugbyPass has been told that any suggestion of an imminent change to the league landscape in the United Kingdom and Ireland is incorrect and a Premiership rugby source said: “To say the clubs are fixed on a way forward is wide of the mark. Nothing is happening any time soon but, yes, it is being discussed but everyone has a view and there is no preferred option.”

The owners of the 10 Premiership clubs are considering a range of potential options to try and maximise future TV income and while there is support to explore all possible options there are no ongoing negotiations with any other league

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The source added: “Many of the leagues in Europe have long-term deals making it unlikely you could make change in the short term. There is no rush to do anything . You are bound to look at formats and the best way forward and while there is no preferred option, it will remain an agenda item for the regular monthly meetings moving forward.”

The owners believe the recent changes to the format of the Investec Champions Cup highlight potential pitfalls of implementing change with the verdict that “people get lost and don’t know what’s going on. They (European chiefs) blew it.”

It is understood that staying with 10 teams in a stand-alone English Premiership remains an attractive option given the excitement generated by last season’s campaign that saw Northampton Saints crowned champions at Twickenham. Given the number of deals already in place for the URC and the Champions Cup there is a belief that any significant change to the way the leagues operate is unlikely to be possible until 2030.

Premiership Rugby is using a number of consultants who are providing “future focus” looking at future markets with the question being posed “are we missing anything?” There has been talk of an Anglo-Welsh league since the mid-1990s when Cardiff and Swansea were interested in joining the Premiership but it was rejected at that point.

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The current speculation has been fuelled by the end of the television deal for Premiership Rugby which finishes in 2026.

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Comments

5 Comments
A
AC 65 days ago

Seems very clear basically based on statements and common sense that this is something the Premiership wants, and URC has little to no interest in. Reading the tea leaves, the Welsh URC teams are probably open to it while the Scottish and Irish are not, and obviously the South African and Italian teams are most certainly not.


I actually really am fine with the Premiership at 10 teams, I like there only being 18 rounds, but if they really want more, just go back to 12 clubs and allow some overlap with the November tests. Keep the Six Nations period free though. At least the actual 6N weekends.


Sounds like Worcester Warriors are truly done but if Wasps are reborn in Kent and London Irish are reborn somewhere in London, just put them back in it and be done with it.

S
SM 65 days ago

Should invite the 4 Welsh teams and be done with it

W
Wayneo 65 days ago

Premiership should look to expand to include new clubs from outside of England.

R
RugCs 65 days ago

At best they should explore an FA Cup Style competition with the URC (16 teams) and Premiership & Championship (16 teams) as something that both leagues can benefit from. If both leagues are 18 rounds then this idea could be accommodated.

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JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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