Peter Jackson: How WRU made the Euro deal possible

As the English clubs and Welsh regions edge towards victory in the war over Europe, their commanders must be tempted to issue a joint communiqué from the front: “We could never have done it without the Welsh Rugby Union.”
The WRU will be aghast at the ultimate irony, appalled at any suggestion that in their heavy-handed protection of the old Europe they contributed unwittingly towards the creation of the new one giving those beastly clubs-regions more of a say.
How could anyone dare accuse them of that?
They had gone out of their way to slap the rebellious regions down, hadn’t they?   They had been consistently dismissive of Rugby Champions’ Cup, the Anglo-French proposal for a streamlined Europe as supported by the four Welsh regions.
There would be one major difference – the clubs and regions would drive the commercial revenue, not the Unions.  A complete non-starter, according to the WRU who were, as they never failed to state, acting in “the best interests of Welsh rugby”.
They had been every bit as dismissive of the next crisis over their regions planning to decamp en masse and surface in the Aviva Premiership. Again they mis-read the reality. Again they underestimated the regions.
Few could have envisaged that a domestic Welsh conflict would turn out to have a critical impact on changing the European landscape. The WRU had given their regions until the end of the year to re-sign their ‘Participation Agreement’ or else.
The ‘or else’, as articulated by WRU chief executive Roger Lewis on October 6, turned out to be no less than a threat of liquidation. “We all know that if one (region) doesn’t sign an agreement, well there is no region,” he said.  “And that is a consequence of not signing an agreement.”
The reality galvanised the regions, uniting them as never before. Confronted by a Union whom they had accused of refusing to discuss any condition of the Participation Agreement, they had been given a simple choice – take it or leave it.
Driven into a corner with no realistic alternative, they chose to leave it. The
condemned men from the Blues, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets drew up a contingency plan to seek greener pastures across the border rather than wait for the WRU to carry out the death sentence.
Blues chairman Peter Thomas summed up their collective view of Lewis in these pages:  “His agenda is to destroy the regions and take complete control.    Unfortunately for him, he has picked a fight with the wrong guys.”
Had the Union offered them a more attractive proposition in the first place, the regions would probably have signed up for another eight years, thereby eliminating any prospect of the lonely English finding an ally in their fight over Europe once the French clubs had capitulated.
Instead the regions realised they had nothing to lose and a lot to gain from throwing their lot in with the English clubs.  The alliance gave each party something they badly needed.
The English would get meaningful extra fixtures to fill in the blank Heineken weekends because of their unbending refusal to have anything to do with a tournament run by European Rugby Cup Ltd.  The regions would capitalise on the restoration of the traditional Anglo-Welsh rivalry.
When the end-of-year deadline passed with the agreement still unsigned, the WRU issued a statement saying that “Welsh teams” would continue to take part in “sanctioned” competitions.  They were being a tad disingenuous.
They didn’t name those “Welsh teams” but the inference was clear – they would find new ones to replace the liquidated regions.  How they were going to do that was never explained.
One step was to put high-profile players under central contracts and in their desire to do so, the Union negotiators proposed sub-contracting the players concerned to English clubs in order to keep them match fit for Test duty.  They ought to have known of a rule prohibiting English Premiership clubs from playing anyone contracted to a national Union.
As recently as January 20, the WRU were still dismissing the unholy Anglo-Welsh alliance without the tiniest acknowledgement that the partnership had the capacity to upset the tectonic plates rumbling beneath the surface.
“The RFU will not allow the Welsh regions to join the Avivia Premiership,” the WRU stated.  “They have told us.  So that is not going to happen.”
What they either did not know or refused to recognise was the existence of an Anglo-Welsh pact that each group would be prepared to break away from their respective Unions and go ahead with a 16-team Premiership in defiance of the Unions.
The repercussions for the wider game and potential damage to next year’s World Cup forced the Unions to come to their senses and thrash out a compromise over Europe.  Even Shane Warne would be hard pushed to spin his way out of this one but it hasn’t stopped the WRU from trying.
The RFU, in marked contrast, have kept shtum while their chief executive Ian Ritchie hammers out the peace deal.   Whenever it is announced, nobody ought to be surprised if the WRU acclaim it as “in the best interests” of the game.