Welsh clubs in talks over Heineken breakaway

Two Welsh regions have declared their interest in joining the new Europe under Anglo-French direction from next season.
They are among several teams from the Celtic countries engaged in private talks with the English clubs’ umbrella organization Premier Rugby Ltd – a move which follows last week’s ‘come-and-join-us’ invitation from Saracens chairman Nigel Wray.
PRL chief executive Mark McCafferty confirmed the Welsh move yesterday along with others but refused to name names.
“People have approached us from a number of countries,” he told The Rugby Paper.  “They have asked that those approaches be kept confidential. I don’t think anyone would be surprised by the names of those who have put their feet forward.
“They have obviously come to the view that without the English and French clubs anything which ERC might organise is going to be a less attractive option in their opinion. We have always made it very clear we wish to have teams from other countries involved.”
All four Welsh regions, headed in the European rankings by the Ospreys, the only team to have won the Celtic League four times, are desperate to avoid a crippling financial hit caused by an implosion of ERC.
They say that will cost them £1.5m per region per season, £6m in total.
Organisers of the Anglo-French plan claim they will increase commercial revenue by more than 50 per cent from its current £44m to more than £70m. According to one Premiership source, “everyone gets more money and more meaningful competition”.
Leinster, triple Heineken Cup champions, had already signalled their readiness to consider signing up to the new venture in the event of ERC plans to salvage their tournament going ‘pear-shaped.’ That would bring Leinster and the other three Irish provinces headlong into conflict with the IRFU who hold their contracts.
The Welsh regions are keeping their heads down for fear of provoking a similar row with their Union.
McCafferty revealed the timetable behind the new project. “We have a period of four-to-six weeks in terms of who’s in and who’s not,” he said. “This is not intended as a deadline but we would need to know by November otherwise the goalposts are shifting around.”
That schedule points to the format for next season being drawn up by the time ERC reconvenes on October 23 in a final attempt to salvage their event from the ruins. They will by then have had a report from the mediator, Canadian lawyer Greame Mew who was named on Friday.
McCafferty’s reaction to his appointment indicated that the English clubs see no point in talking to Mew. “We have served notice which comes into effect from the end of the season and we have discharged our obligations,” McCafferty said.
“We have said all along we will not be in an ERC-run competition after this season.  We can only say that so many times.”
Should the declarations of interest from teams in Ireland, Wales and elsewhere lead to active support for the Anglo-French initiative, ERC will face not merely a few cracks in the ceiling but disintegration.
“If people are saying ‘no’ to new competitions, they have to have specific reasons for saying so,” McCafferty said. “No-one has articulated any reason yet.
“If they stop this, there would be no European competition. We have prepared for that.”
PETER JACKSON