Warren Gatland returned to Wales this week from his holiday in New Zealand one year out from the start of three World Cup warm-up matches but his preparations for the tournament are being blighted by the long-standing dispute between the Welsh Rugby Union and its four regions that threatens to spill over into the new season.
Sam Warburton, the Wales captain, is training with Cardiff Blues but has no team to play for after signing a contract with the WRU earlier this year. The regions have a joint agreement that they will not allow anyone who has a central contract to represent them and the same applies to clubs in England.
With the flanker in limbo is another Lion, the prop Adam Jones, who is currently training on his own. Ospreys have offered him a contract extension but it is conditional on the regions renewing the participation agreement with the WRU which expired at the end of June. The four thought a breakthrough had been made last month but they took exception to late changes they said were made to the document and issued a sharply worded statement that accused the WRU of trying to starve them to the point of financial ruin.
The regions have not made a public comment since and are this week holding more talks with the WRU. The major issue, on top of a lack of trust on both sides, is the issue of central contracts. Gatland wants nine players to be bound like Warburton, a move the regions will sanction if dual contracts are drawn up and they are given extra money on top of the £6.7m they received between them each year mainly for releasing players to the national set-up as and when the head coach demanded.
Without an agreement with the WRU, the regions are obliged to release players only under International Rugby Board regulations. It means Gatland would not have his players a week early before the November internationals or the Six Nations and those based in Wales would not be permitted to join any pre-World Cup camp, unless the union made a substantial financial offer.
Tickets for Wales's four autumn Tests go on sale to the public later this month but, without an agreement with the regions, it will be impossible to fulfil the final match against South Africa at the Millennium Stadium because it falls outside the official window. The regions, who used to receive £100,000 each for releasing their players for a fourth international, compared with the £750,000 the Springboks will get, will have greater bargaining power if they get through a second successive fallow month.
The lack of an agreement cost them more than £100,000 each in July and will do so again this month. Their participation in the Premiership 7s and the sponsorship deals they all negotiated with BT as thanks for their part in securing the future of the European Cup have provided some income but they are all considering having to make cuts. Once the new season starts, and they were told by the WRU earlier in the year they would be in the Pro 12, match and participation income will be generated – if the WRU withheld the Pro 12 money the regions would consider banning television cameras from their grounds and refusing to make any reference to the title sponsors – leaving the union with the choice of undermining Gatland's World Cup preparation for a group that includes England and Australia or reaching a deal over the release of players that will empower the regions.
“It seems to us that the state of relationships between the governing body and its principal clubs is a national disgrace and a sad indictment on Welsh rugby,” said the chairman of the four regions, in a letter to the WRU last month. “It appears that our relationship is at an all-time low and that the objective of the WRU is actually to ‘starve’ the regions to the point of financial ruin. It is with heavy hearts that the boards of all four regions must now urgently consider the stark practical consequences of operating within a business model that does not include any form of agreement with the WRU outside IRB regulations and no WRU support or involvement in the development of professional regional rugby.”
The regions added that they had no quarrel with Gatland, having always been prepared to agree to what he wanted and in accord with his plans. They want the agreement to be a partnership like the one the Premiership clubs secured with the Rugby Football Union in 2008, which has a stated ambition of working to the benefit of both sides.
"The system works very well in England," said the former Gloucester and Scarlets director of rugby, Nigel Davies, who was part of Wales's management team in the 2007 World Cup. "There are flashpoints but they are contained because the understanding is there. What has a huge bearing is the decision of England to only pick players from the Premiership because that means they stay in the country.
“I do not know the ins and outs of what is happening in Wales but, looking at it from the perspective of a rugby supporter who is passionate about the game in the country, the recent series of events paints a bleak picture. We need to keep players here because not having star names will affect the support base and the number of youngsters taking up the game. The consequences of not emulating England are more dangerous than doing so.”
Davies added: "We have two systems in place with Warburton centrally contracted and that is lunacy. It seems to be about control, but who is talking rugby? Someone needs to knock heads together as it is already affecting Gatland with so many of his star players based outside Wales. He has lost complete control over how players are managed in France where they do not have the best physical and medical set-ups and they overplay players. This has gone on for so long that I do not know if it will work itself out, but as it stands the Welsh regions will never be a force in Europe again."
The talks drag on, the regions aware that the devil is in the detail. It is now brinkmanship or blinkmanship. The four say they will survive whatever while the WRU, which is fighting other fires with a number of clubs rebelling about changes to the league structure and concern about the funding of development officers for schools, is adamant any agreement must be in the interests of the whole of Welsh rugby. A new season and old problems lie ahead.
