Welsh Regions to join English Premiership

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25802191

But what will this mean for the international game? Who will own the rights to player availability schedules? Will the work load on individual players be higher or lower? Will this aid player retention in Wales and England? Or will standards suffer with a division of the player base in Europe? Will it hinder cohesion as players become unfamiliar with international team mates? And what of the identity of welsh rugby? Will it be diluted by losing control of a domestic competition?

It won't happen, mainly because it can't

Care to elaborate?

Because it wont be sanctioned by the irb wru and most importantly the rfu.
I will happily admit if I'm wrong but I just cant see it coming into fruition

key point from the programme, and to be fair they do quote it verbatim in the article is Gareth Davies, Dragons CEO saying:

"The understanding we have with the English clubs is quite solid, whilst not underestimating the enormous hurdles that are in the way of that happening."

no-one is completely ruling it out, but the RFU, WRu and IRB are all hoping that one of them is going to rule it out.

domestic player retention and national team performance are not very closely linked in the NH GE. Ireland - awesome in european club comps, almost all their players are in ireland, poor at intl level. Wales, players everywhere, regions terrible, national team great (within NH). and england and france somewhere between the two.

the first choice of the welsh regions is to get the european competition with the BT money which would be worth £1m per region per season. the Anglo welsh thing is more of a desperate last ditch measure than a coherent plan.

No chance at all of it happening
1) no room in the calender for the extra games unless they never play a european cup again.
2) the championship clubs will not accept it
3) The WRU will block it ( as well as the irb/ rfu)

Its just baloney from a couple off disaffected club owners

Like a lot of what's been flying around in Wales, its mainly an empty threat.

The entire thing is a bluff from the regions to try and get more from the WRU.

"Regional" rugby has done a lot for our national game and fast forwarded professionalism, but the current regions are not perfect and restructuring is needed for us to go to the next level.

Gwyn Jones has probably the most accurate idea if what will happen. The regions will wither and die until the WRU are able to pick up the pieces, assume control and start up new regional entities from scratch.

Got to love the Beeb, Gareth Davies said the regions would have to consider looking at alternative competitions. Then Gareth Lewis (the chair bloke, pretty sure that was him, but never remember his name) kept badgering about is the Anglo-Welsh League an option, eventually Gareth Davies said yes it is an option. So not exactly come out the way the sensational Beeb headline says.

If they broke away I think it would be a bit like the PDC BDO situation in darts...

originally the overall health of the BDO looked better 5 years post break... all the young players initially came through there... but the very best were undeniably PDC.

Then then best players started in ones and twos began to join the PDC as they wanted a crack at the top players, guys like van barneveld.

Eventually 20 years on now the BDO is a nothing tournament as all the best financed and best players move across.

It would be the same if the 4 regions moved to the AP. With the top players, additional financing youth players will eventually choose them over the lesser financed newly developed teams.

If the 4 teams do breakaway they will win eventually... but it would be bloody for all sides.

If the WRU banned players from representing Wales from those 4 clubs they would take an awful lot of heat.. it would be worse then the late 80s/early 90s when Wales were quite frankly an embarassment (when they lost their marquee players to league in droves).

Unlike SA or NZ or even England I don't think Wales has that strength in depth to be able to compete with losing so many players. Fans wouldn't agree to pay top prices for what would be an U20 match. Sponsorship, TV the lot would reduce and it was all hammer down on them.

Dont worry Moffat has said if someone pays him enough he'll sort it out.   

I wouldn't let Moffat sort out my socks

What have we learned GE, that both 606v2 and the Welsh rugby fraternity have something in common....an annoying Kiwi who sniffs around talking himself up who we both want shot of.

I am far from being a fan of Moffet, but the guy does what he says. He said Wales must go regional of accept the national side being urine poor and he forced regionalism in, and the national side has profited from it. Maybe he could finish the job? He comes across as an arrogant pain in the rump, who will force his will on you.

Roger Lewis on the other hand has made veiled treats, such a killing the regions, but dodges the questions with more questions. He has not really done anything positive, that others wouldn't have done ( like getting in Gats) other that paying the debt off quicker at the cost of the regions. Officially we play the 4th AI to raise extra money to pay the regions for player release, but if we were not paying off the debt quicker than needed we would not need to take regional players for that extra game, thus easing some of the problems. He comes across as that scrawny kid in school that knows the big kids and does the bullying without actually having to get his hands dirty.

Given the choice of the two, I think I would rather Moffet, as a man who gets things done (good or bad) is better than a man who talks and doesn't actually do anything. We need a solution, either kill the regions or support them. Either way just bleeding do something.

The Regions know it can't and won't happen because the RFU won't consent and are using the threat to hold the WRU to ransom for more cash. It's that simple.

I think the Regions are forgetting they are not the only players in Welsh rugby.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:I am far from being a fan of Moffet, but the guy does what he says.  He said Wales must go regional of accept the national side being urine poor and he forced regionalism in, and the national side has profited from it.  Maybe he could finish the job?  He comes across as an arrogant pain in the rump, who will force his will on you.

Roger Lewis on the other hand has made veiled treats, such a killing the regions, but dodges the questions with more questions.  He has not really done anything positive, that others wouldn't have done ( like getting in Gats) other that paying the debt off quicker at the cost of the regions.  Officially we play the 4th AI to raise extra money to pay the regions for player release, but if we were not paying off the debt quicker than needed we would not need to take regional players for that extra game, thus easing some of the problems.  He comes across as that scrawny kid in school that knows the big kids and does the bullying without actually having to get his hands dirty.

Given the choice of the two, I think I would rather Moffet, as a man who gets things done (good or bad) is better than a man who talks and doesn't actually do anything.  We need a solution, either kill the regions or support them. Either way just bleeding do something.

I could not agree more, I am no fan of Moffet, but what he sais he does. He will not talk bull and when he has an idea he will back it right to the end until it is finished, although he is very pig headed and has no idea of the passion a Welsh person has for rugby, at least he WILL DO SOMETHING. Let's not forget, this is the man who took us kicking and screaming into professionalism, he has always ANSWERED questions and not dodged them, and he is not afraid of telling people how it is. I will never forget him bollocking Jonathan Davies and Eddie Butler on scrum V for calling the regions their previous club names, if he comes in he will upset everyone, again, but what he will do is sort this mess out once and for all, and he will not give a flying fook about the owners of the regions, he would probably tell them that if they wanted to go, then they can, and he would put another team/region there in it place.