Wales great makes drastic proposal to the WRU after ‘disastrous’ season
Scarlets looking dejected, and former Wales centre Tom Shanklin.
Former Wales and Cardiff centre Tom Shanklin insists that the Welsh Rugby Union are not fiscally strong enough to support four teams in the United Rugby Championship.
The Welsh game has struggled over recent years, especially financially, and that has shown in the positions of the regions.
All four sides reside in the bottom half of the URC, with Cardiff, Scarlets and Dragons occupying 13th, 14th and 15th respectively in the table.
The best Welsh team
The Ospreys have enjoyed an improved campaign but they are effectively out of the play-off position in 11th slot.
With the budget being reduced from £5.2m to £4.5m, the 44-year-old cannot see it getting any better for the teams next season.
Shanklin described 2022/23 as a “disaster” and, as a result, would like to see fewer regions in the URC, with the top players being moved into just two sides.
That would of course have a knock-on effect for the league, reducing it to 14, but the 70-times capped Welshman believes that it is the best option for his country.
“We’ve got this new league set up called the EDC (Elite Domestic Competition) in Wales, which is sort of a development league, 10 teams are in there,” he told the URC Unloaded podcast.
“I think we’d be better off with two teams in the URC and two teams in this EDC because four teams just isn’t working in Wales at the moment.
“In order for Wales to be more competitive, the talent has to be condensed into two teams.
“I think it would be far better. Then you would have two teams in the EDC, so there are other options.”
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Alternative ideas
Other ideas have been put forward in the past, including merging two of the regions or even simply losing one of them, but Shanklin doesn’t believe that will happen with how the WRU is currently structured.
“The worst thing is, it’s going to get worse next year. It is. Because we’re losing more players, there’s less of a budget,” he added.
“We can’t afford four teams, yet all four teams are shareholders, so no one’s forfeiting their team.
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