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Lance Bradley puts figure on extra funding needed by Wales' regions

Ospreys' Morgan Morris attacks the Dragons last May (Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty Images)

Ospreys CEO Lance Bradley has claimed that the regions in Wales need an additional playing budget of £2million each per annum in order to become regular knockout stage title contenders. It was 2017 when a Welsh club – Scarlets – last won the old PRO12, but they clubs have since struggled, especially in recent seasons due to financial restraints. 

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This past season was the first time in the three editions of the URC involving four South African franchises in a 16-team tournament that Wales had a quarter-final representative.  

Ospreys pipped the Lions to an eighth-place finish, securing them a knockout stage trip to Munster, but Bradley believes additional investment is needed to ensure that Welsh representation in the title race play-offs becomes a regular thing.  

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Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus on Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Elrigh Louw’s inlcusions in the starting line-up

Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus admitted that he had the 2027 World Cup in mind when he selected Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu as his starting flyhalf for this weekend’s Rugby Championship opener.

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Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus on Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Elrigh Louw’s inlcusions in the starting line-up

Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus admitted that he had the 2027 World Cup in mind when he selected Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu as his starting flyhalf for this weekend’s Rugby Championship opener.

Ahead of the 2024/25 season which kicks off on the weekend of September 20, Bradley has given a wide-ranging interview to walesonline.co.uk which included an emphasis on the financials required to make the Welsh regions – which currently have a £4.5m budget each – more competitive in the long term.     

It’s believed that the professional rugby board in Wales will unveil a five-year plan this autumn that will deal with the multi-million-pound funding gap and ensure that none of the four regions are cut for the game to survive and thrive.  

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Bradley said: “In the discussions we are having with the WRU everyone is very clear that the plan is to have four pro clubs. If there were to be, and there is ongoing discussions with the clubs and union about how to close the funding gap, there is a proposal on the table that looks like it could do it but there is more detail needed on that proposal.  

“It’s looking positive but there are still lots of things to work out. If that does work out and we are able to either take that plan or take the best bits of that plan it looks to me as if we will have funding for four professional clubs in Wales. 

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“I know people have spoken about a two-tier funding model and everybody is in favour of that as long as they are one of the two that gets the most funding. We are the same, but our focus is on the plan that is on the table which is for four appropriately funded pro teams. If we can get to somewhere around £6.5m we can be regularly in the knockout stages.” 

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J
JW 3 hours 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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