No England costs Wales £5m World Cup bonus
The full extent of Wales’ financial calamity at losing their pre-World Cup matches against England can be revealed today – £5m plus.
The WRU made that much from a joint deal with the RFU over the home-and-away warm-up fixtures before the last tournament in August 2011. The prospect of a similar jackpot vanished once Wales ended up drawn in the same pool as England at Twickenham next autumn.
In an ambitious attempt to dig themselves out of a hole of their own making, the Welsh Rugby Union are understood to be touting live television rights for their August friendlies against Ireland and Italy at £1m per match.
Neither fixture has anywhere near the commercial clout or box-office appeal of an England game. The summer matches in 2011 filled Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium on successive Saturdays with combined crowds of almost 155,000 generating around £9m in gate revenue alone.
The two Unions acted as one in selling television rights to Sky as part of a unique arrangement to split revenue 50-50. Martyn Thomas, then chairman of the RFU, told The Rugby Paper: “I can confirm the deal.
“It proved to be very lucrative with the net profit running into several million “We sold a package to Sky for live coverage of both games and divided the proceeds equally between the two Unions.”
WRU plans for a repeat deal were scuppered as a direct consequence of their policy of playing a fourth Test every autumn. A last-minute defeat by Australia pushed Wales out of the world’s top eight and exposed them to the World Cup draw they dreaded – with England and the Wallabies.
With England out of the market, Wales have had to settle for home pre-World Cup games against Ireland on August 8 and Italy on September 5. Both have been offered to four prospective bidders – BBC, ITV, Sky and BT Sport.
Sky have already secured exclusive rights to all three of England’s pre-tournament friendlies – against France at Twickenham on August 15, France in Paris on August 22 and Ireland at Twickenham on September 5.
“Nobody will be rushing in for the Welsh matches, not at the asking price,”a leading television broker said. “ITV aren’t that interested because they’ve got the World Cup itself to concentrate on.
“Sky have England’s pre-World Cup friendlies. They’d only be interested in bidding for the Wales matches if the price comes down. And £1m a match is way beyond what the BBC would pay.”
Match income, as disclosed by the WRU in their report for 2012 when England were one of six home internationals played during the period, totalled £35.2m – almost £6m per game.
The fourth autumn Test has long been a bone of contention between the WRU and the regions who see it as a destructive effect on their attempts to qualify for the Champions’ Cup last eight.
Because it falls outside the IRB Test window, Wales had to pay South Africa a match fee of £750,000 to secure the services of the Springboks this autumn. Ospreys chief executive Andrew Hore called before Christmas for the fourth Test to be scrapped.
How the WRU must wish they had done that in respect of the Australia fixture in December 2011 when Kurtley Beale’s late try pushed Wales out of the world’s top eight and into the third tier for the World Cup draw made 48 hours later. They are still counting the cost.
