Welsh club rugby used to be the envy of the world but it is now facing the last rites. Club sides regularly used to beat major touring teams - Cardiff, in fact, have never lost to Australia - but they are all struggling to make ends meet and Swansea, league champions only two years ago, were forced to slash their wage bill last summer.
The introduction of professionalism in 1995 accelerated a slow decline. The Welsh game lacks money, with the nine Premier sides sharing only £8m a year from the Welsh Rugby Union, and the top clubs are being kept alive by the drip-feed of benefactors. Their record in this season's Heineken Cup is dire, one win in 10 matches, and only Pontypridd have earned a home draw in the quarter-finals of the Celtic League.
The WRU has set up a working party to look at the future of the professional game. It is due to report back in the new year when a meeting of all its 239 member clubs will vote on its recommendations.
Terry Cobner, the WRU's director of rugby, has proposed that four provincial sides be set up from next season with all the players contracted to the union, the system adopted by Ireland and Scotland. The teams would be based geographically on the traditional big four clubs, Llanelli, Swansea, Cardiff and Newport, but would not incorporate their names.
The leading clubs want the current nine-strong Premier Division reduced to five sides. Llanelli and Swansea would merge, as would Neath and Bridgend; Cardiff and Pontypridd would stand alone; and Newport would embrace Ebbw Vale. The players would not be centrally contracted. The decision will be in the hands of the amateur clubs, a number of whom are upset that their funding would be reduced to pay for the new system, with the provincial sides costing about £1.7m a year to run and the WRU servicing a debt of more than £50m.
Three of the protagonists have their say about the future of the Welsh club game:
Steve Hansen
Wales coach
"We have to ask ourselves if we are making progress under the current system. Tradition is a great thing, but not if it stands in the way of the future. Every man in the street knows we need to do something different but it seems that no one is prepared to pay the price for what has to be done.
"It is no coincidence that we are strug gling in Wales while Ireland and Scotland are getting better by using a provincial system. We are having to do our best with our club structure but in my view it is not the way forward.
"If we went to four provinces you would see all the sides strengthen up and, for example, Cardiff's problem of having no forwards would most certainly change."
Tony Brown
Newport rugby club owner
"The leading clubs recognise that numbers must be reduced because there is not enough money around to sustain nine Premier Division sides. It is also clear that, no matter what system is agreed on, benefactors will still be needed.
"My problem with the provincial model is that it would take away identity. If you set up a team in Gwent, called it the Gladiators and took matches around the top sides in the area such as Newport, Ebbw Vale, Pontypool and Newbridge, how would you be able to drive the thing commercially?
"You could not sell season tickets or hospitality packages and sponsorship would be hard to achieve. We have 4,000 season ticket holders at Newport and we have been getting 8,000 gates without playing well. A provincial system would destroy all that and you would be left with a circus.
"To me five clubs is the answer and there is no way the WRU can afford to contract 120 or 150 players centrally. The problem with the idea of super clubs is that, because Welsh rugby is so tribal, I cannot see many clubs in Gwent voting for an enhanced Newport. It would be a tragedy if some of the biggest names in world rugby, such as Cardiff and Llanelli, were lost but I fear they will be unless those with the voting power see the bigger picture."
Cameron Mackay
Secretary of Dinas Powys, Division 3 East
"The concern of clubs at grassroots level is funding. Under the current system you get more money if you work your way up through the divisions but the plan is to change that so that the hand-out is the same whether you are in the second division or the seventh. That takes away the incentive of success and will make it more difficult to run sides.
"We have this season started up our youth side again and every Sunday pro vide rugby for 180 kids at age-group levels. The game cannot afford to jeopardise that sort of provision. As a club we will wait until the working party publishes its report before deciding which way to vote, but speaking personally I cannot see the grassroots voting for the creation of five super clubs.
"Provincial rugby is a totally different matter because it would be based on communities and would not see big clubs succeed at the expense of others. We all want to see Wales successful on the international field again but, just as the top of the game has to be right, so it must be at the bottom and cutting back on the funding at grassroots level would be counter- productive as we produce the stars of tomorrow."
