Cuddy not impressed with the WRU

MIKE CUDDY has joined fellow former regional benefactor Tony Brown in calling for the Welsh Rugby Union to review their relationship with the regions.

Cuddy announced last week he was standing down as Ospreys joint managing director, although he remains a regional director.

While the WRU last week announced record turnover, former Newport and Dragons benefactor Brown insisted the regions were bleeding dry and Cuddy backed these claims.

“These are my personal views and I am not speaking on behalf of the Ospreys,” said Cuddy, who will be in Oxford today to watch Gavin Henson makes his competitive debut for Lyn Jones’ London Welsh against Saracens.


“I’ve had nearly 25 years on the cutting edge of off-field Welsh rugby and each era has been very different and had its own unique challenges.

“When Tony Brown expressed his concerns that ‘while the WRU appear to be extremely well off, the regions are bleeding’, he was making a valid point.

“The WRU’s £63m turnover must be equivalent to what the likes of myself and others at the Ospreys, and the small band of benefactors at the other regions, have ploughed into the regional game since 2003.

“The last 10 years have been a constant battle for survival and, if it had it not been for the backers, none of the regions could have survived.

“The regional era has seen three Welsh Grand Slams, but that is not a coincidence because regionalisation created a changed environment that made a Grand Slam an actuality.

“Now the number one challenge for Welsh rugby is the ongoing relationship between the Union and the regions because the relationship is not what it should be.

“There has to be more investment by the governing body into the regions, because a mere £6m of the WRU’s earnings are returned to the regions in real terms.

“The rest is merely a case of them handing on TV rights for the regional game, funds that belong to the four teams involved.

“The findings of the Price Waterhouse Cooper report into the state of regional rugby have yet to be revealed, but they won’t make pretty reading.

“What we seem to get at the regions is calls for more release time to the national team for our top players and demands they should be paid more wages to keep them in Wales.

“Something has to change if Welsh rugby is to carry on competing at the top end of the professional club game in Europe.”

You spend a lot of time reading Welsh newspapers mate?

I think we would all like to see the WRU fund the regions more lavishly, but incredibly similar to my response to the article you posted on the same subject on the international rugby forum;

https://www.606v2.com/f32-international

I would remind you that the reported £63.2m is not profit it is turnover. Profit is nearer £4m, the WRU are increasing expenditure on grassroots, sub regional rugby by £3.5m.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18351251

Also the news yesterday that the re-financing at the ospreys has netted them a "seven figure sum" somehow intertwined with the Osprey's Board's decision that this was good time for Mike Cuddy to leave the Ospreys.

I'm not sure it's the WRU who have under funded the Ospreys or are responsible for them not being run in the most efficient way.

MM, you do realise don't you that MC has only left the day to day running of the region? and Andrew Hore has joined Roger Blythe in that respect, but MC is still one of the 5 Directors.

wayne wrote:MM, you do realise don't you that MC has only left the day to day running of the region? and Andrew Hore has joined Roger Blythe in that respect, but MC is still one of the 5 Directors.

I think there is a lot of one eyed reading where MM is concerned but I enjoy the banter!

The IRFU spend almost half their income on the pro game. And are paying back money spent on two stadiums and about to update another. What percentage of the WRU's income do the regions see?

http://www.irishrugby.ie/downloads/IRFU_Annual_Report-2011-2012v2.pdf

Why is it that the governing body of rugby in Wales have no long term plan for the professional game?

Why is it that the WRU are apparently content to have the professional game solely dependant on a few benefactors chucking their own money in?

Why isn't there a better, more amicable partnership between the WRU and the regions that commits to a long term plan.

Answers: Short sighted self interest
A professional game still run by amateurs
Complacency driven by some relative international success

Anyone who can't see that the professional game is in trouble is in denial.