URC chief addresses Premiership merger talks giving ‘due credence’

Danny Care of Harlequins has a slight scuffle with Willie Engelbrecht of DHL Stormers and an insert of URC chief Martin Anayi
URC chief executive Martin Anayi says that it would make ‘sense’ to collaborate more with Premiership Rugby as merger talks persist.
Every few months, speculation about a potential merger between the United Rugby Championship and Premiership in some shape or form arises but Anayi admits that the former is pleased with their current format.
The respective governing bodies make use of the same offices in London and have the same co-owner and minority investor in CVC. They also have shared interests in the EPCR competitions, the Investec Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, which Anayi says has naturally led to talks.
While the chief says that the URC take the merger talks seriously, the discussions about how they can work better together is more important and right now, it is unlikely that the two leagues would merge.
Merger talks
Asked how he feels about the widespread speculation about a possible merger between the URC and England’s Gallagher Premiership, Anayi replied: “It’s not a frustration.
“People may not know this, but we sit in the same office as Premiership Rugby in London. We have the same co-owner and minority investor in CVC.
“We do a lot together. We are shareholder partners on EPCR. We are incredibly close to them. That’s probably where it comes from most of the time.
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“We are always talking. Most of the time that means looking at how do you do better TV deals together or how do we improve the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup.
“We want to make sure we are running the best competitions we possibly can. Occasionally, we talk about whether there is more we can do together.
“At this stage, not, but whenever it comes up for review we never just block it off. We always give it due credence.”
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URC’s success
The success of the URC plays a huge role in the reluctance to merger the two leagues with the competition enjoying huge growth both financially and in popularity since the South Africa teams joined the tournament.
“But, at the same time, things are working really well for BKT URC from a lot of metrics and in a lot of ways,” he continued.
“BKT URC has set a really high standard and we don’t want to do anything that’s detrimental to that.”
He concluded: “We sit in the same office as PRL, we see each other every day, we talk to each other about loads of stuff and occasionally we try and explore slightly more format-based initiatives, but we both individually love what makes us special.
“It would make sense to do more together in the future, but that may not necessarily mean merging the leagues, it might just mean being more commercially aligned or working on initiatives that grow the fan base.”
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