Nigel Wray backs move for Welsh to join Aviva Premiership
As the warring parties dust themselves down after a bruising week in the uncivil Welsh war, one of the sport’s original owners is urging more cross-border talks on an Anglo-Welsh competition and the future of the European Cup.
Saracens chairman Nigel Wray acknowledges that the Blues, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets could hold the balance of power when it comes to supporting the Anglo-French plan for a new Europe as the central plank in a deal said to be worth £152m.
Now that their non-relationship with the WRU has hit rock bottom, the Welsh quartet know they have nothing to lose and everything to gain from striking an Anglo-Welsh alliance on Europe in return for a domestic deal on access into an enlarged Premiership.
“That would seem to be a perfectly reasonable card for the Welsh regions to play,” Wray told The Rugby Paper.
“I can see that card being played. They will want something in return which is perfectly understandable.
“Clearly there have to be changes. Whether we will meet somewhere in the middle, who knows? Everyone wants the European Cup to continue but not on the current terms.
“We want more of the cake because we generate most of the cake, not because we are magnificent rugby players but because we (England and France) have massive populations which is what television demands. As I understand it, everyone will gain financially.”
The prospect of the regions getting into bed with the English and French will cause further consternation at the end of a bad week for the WRU, bad enough for former chief executive David Moffett to have described them as “the laughing stock of world rugby”.
On a weekend when the European quarter-finals went ahead without a single Welsh representative, Wray became the second English owner after Worcester‘s Cecil Duckworth in welcoming the possibility of the Welsh joining the English Premiership.
“I don’t think you should rule out anything,” Wray said. “I certainly wouldn’t dismiss it. The traditional Anglo-Welsh fixtures were great and they can be great again. The concept is definitely worth considering.
“As a rugby fan, do I think that Leicester v Cardiff and Scarlets v Saracens makes sense in box-office terms? Yes, I do. We all do. Further discussions on the subject will make sense.
“Anything which can create a more attractive Premiership, increase its commercial value and bring about a greater European competition has to be welcomed. We would be dividing the Premiership cake by16 instead of 12 so clearly the cake would have to be bigger to justify the increase. It must be worth discussing.
“As for Europe, if you have a wage cap as low as £3.5m as the Welsh regions have, you are not going to be viable. You are also bound to lose players.
“At some stage you have to face economic forces. You compare the Welsh regions’ salary cap with that of Toulon or some of the Irish provinces and there’s a huge gap.”
PETER JACKSON
