WRU Central Contracts

First topic message reminder :

The WRU want to meet regarding central contracts. The have been 2 reasons that the regions have rejected central contracts in the past.

- The WRU didn't bring more money to the table, instead they wanted to use the £6 millions in top ups to contract the players.

- The regions have a objection to complete WRU control of regional players, deciding which region they play for and what games they play.


The only way I can see this working is if the contracts are 50/50 (or perhaps a 75/25 slip for top players and 25/75 for borderline players) and the WRU bring about £1million more to the negotiating table. The WRU uses £3 million to 50% centrally contract the top 30 players in Wales (£100,000 average per player from the WRU would provide a lot extra for players like Adam Jones)

This leaves £4 million still to be split between the regions (a £500,000 decrease), which would probably only disadvantage the Dragons, but would help them keep Faletau.


Large Contracts (around 150,000/50,000 split)

Cardiff Blues
Alex Cuthbert
Leigh Halfpenny
Gethin Jenkins
Sam Warburton

Ospreys
Adam Jones
Alun Wyn Jones
Ian Evans
Ryan Jones
Dan Biggar
Justin Tipuric

Scarlets
Jonathan Davies
George North
Ken Owens

Dragons
Dan Lydiate (?)
Toby Faletau

Total Players : 15
Total WRU cost : £2.25 million

Medium Contract (say around 75,000/75,000 split)

Blues
Scott Andrews
Bradley Davies
Lloyd Williams

Ospreys
Ashley Beck
Rhys Webb
Richard Hibbard
Ryan Bevington

Scarlets
Aaron Shingler
Liam Williams
Rhys Preistland

Total Players : 10
Total WRU cost : £0.75 million


Small/Development Contracts (say 25,000/50,000 split)

Blues
Josh Navidi
Rhys Patchell

Scarlets
Adam Warren
Gareth Davies

Dragons
Andrew Coombes

Total players : 5
WRU cost : £150,000


Total Cost WRU : £3.15 millions
Money to the Blues : £875,000
Money to the Ospreys : £1,200,000
Money to the Scarlets : £725,000
Money to the Dragons : £325,000

maestegmafia wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Contacting them with a view to what?

Contracting them to the WRU.

I heard this earlier that apparently this is one of the proposals.

The WRU take all National Academy players and will contract some of the the Regional Coaches.

Cracking idea, they can then move quality youngsters to whichever region is willing to become mini team roger, and on the cheap and then complain the other regions are failing to develope any good young talent.

Is that necessarily a bad thing?

Realistically?

As it stands the regions tell us that they will struggle to compete, Europe will likely only get harder, so will the Pro 12. Mean time the English and French clubs, unless their systems fall apart, will be getting richer and will be buying stronger better players.

The WRU could double the money they give the regions, offset their repayments, but then they will need to double that again when the rival clubs get more TV money and still buy our best players.

We don't have a market large enough in Wales for a Company like BT to spend £150m on us. It isn't a sensible investment.

We will lose our best players. Our regions will remain bit part players in Europe, may do well some years if we have a good crop, or if injuries don't cause havoc to a squad but we can not compete.

The Pieman speaks about the central contracts offer from the WRU.....

"And now, he is once again part of a wider group who believe central contracts are not the answer to the current problems in the Welsh game, though Thomas is not completely dismissive of the issue.

He challenged the WRU to add detail to what he calls ‘just two words’.

“They need to put it on the table,” he added.

“At the moment they are just two words, there is no detail attached to it.

“Nobody is saying what’s behind it, what it involves, what is a central contract.

“Who does what? Who gives what? How will it effect the players?

“If we can get back to the PRGB then we can discuss, debate and decide on that, but nobody has ever said to the regions ‘this is the detail behind the central contract’.”

Read more: Wales Online http://www.walesonline.co.uk/rugbynation/rugby-news/2013/04/07/cardiff-blues-chief-warns-sam-warburton-and-leigh-halfpenny-will-be-next-to-leave-wales-91466-33127663/#ixzz2PmDGql91

Lets take a look at what Roger Lewis is really about and why the Regions owners dont trust the guy.
He has puplicly stated he wants total control of the regions himself in the article below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20836386

If I were a Regional owner I would not trust him either after that.

Also why do the BBC really get full coveage of Welsh Rugby for next to nothing, could it have something to do with all the years Roger worked for the BBC and all his personal contacts, it certainly helps him when the supposedly neutral beeb only bother reporting 1 side of a story.
Below is a link to his own biography on the WRU site. Not much Rugby background in their incidently.

http://www.wru.co.uk/eng/thewru/structure/16658.php

Has anyone even asked the other channels how much they would be prepared to pay for the amount of coverage the beeb get for pennies in comparisson to other coverage deals.

Roger Lewis, how many of you guys would trust him with your cub?

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Contacting them with a view to what?

Contracting them to the WRU.

I heard this earlier that apparently this is one of the proposals.

The WRU take all National Academy players and will contract some of the the Regional Coaches.

Cracking idea, they can then move quality youngsters to whichever region is willing to become mini team roger, and on the cheap and then complain the other regions are failing to develope any good young talent.

I believe the players will have a say in moving though. There's been a few player swaps between regions without central contracts in place. These guys moved so they could get regular rugby. Can you see this changing with the central contracts in place?

With central contracts in place we can equal the amount of players between the regions that will make them stronger and then the regions will have more money for other players which also makes them stronger but also gives the youngsters a chance because the central contacted players won't be able play every game so the youngsters will step in

welshboii15 wrote:With central contracts in place we can equal the amount of players between the regions that will make them stronger and then the regions will have more money for other players which also makes them stronger but also gives the youngsters a chance because the central contacted players won't be able play every game so the youngsters will step in

It unlikely the players will be shared out equally, I would expect all the academy players will be placed at 2 regions designated as development with the bulk of the international 1st choice been placed in the other 2 regions.

I think an amount of drafting would be a good thing.

Yea but if the WRU was to spilt the players about then the welsh team will benefit because the players will be used to more competitive rugby and will have the over sea players to learn off

2ndtimeround wrote:

welshboii15 wrote:With central contracts in place we can equal the amount of players between the regions that will make them stronger and then the regions will have more money for other players which also makes them stronger but also gives the youngsters a chance because the central contacted players won't be able play every game so the youngsters will step in

It unlikely the players will be shared out equally, I would expect all the academy players will be placed at 2 regions designated as development with the bulk of the international 1st choice been placed in the other 2 regions.

That seems to be what everyone thinks. I guess the WRU only have themselves to blame for being untrustworthy.

I think that the WRU will offer to centrally contract the top 20 or so players, and still pay the same funding as they currently do to 3 of the 4 regions.

A 4th region will have its funding reduced, and will be a development team.

The 3 teams will have same funding as they do now, plus they won't have to pay for the centrally contracted players, meaning they can afford better squads as should be able to operate with the best in Europe.

The 4th team, will not have any international players, but will concentrate on Acamady players.

Would this be acceptable to Welsh rugby fans.

(the reason I think this will happen is the WRU have hinted about reducing a region, get going on about central contracts, PWC report said reducing funding but having central contracts would not be of any benefit, so the WRU must be looking at keeping the funding and adding central contracts, however I believe they want a development team to afford this).