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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉

@gwladrugby.bsky.social

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Welsh rugby fans' website and legendary rugby chat forums. Like a gourmet rugby pie that's somehow both tasty and messy. Yma o hyd gwladrugby.cymru [Posts by Dan]

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 10d

The Welsh Rugby Union Consultation and Survey 2025:

Gwlad Rugby publishes its own independent survey relating to the WRU's proposals for the future of our game. Please take the time to read and share. It's important that the WRU is held to account on this.

gwladrugby.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/t...

The Welsh Rugby Union Consultation and Survey 2025

Survey and Report by Gwlad Rugby You can read the Executive Summary of this report here. Introduction On 20 August 2025 the Welsh Rugby Union (“WRU”) published a “consultation to help shape the fut…

gwladrugby.wordpress.com

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

You can dismiss the views of over 1000 people who've been invested in Welsh rugby for over 25 years if you like. We happen to think they're worth listening to.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

Just reporting what over 1200 Welsh rugby fans have told us in our survey.

How do we know they don't want us if we don't ask them?

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

Now, nobody is claiming that the WRU would be able to command that kind of price for a smaller stadium, especially when you factor in Wales' current poor run of form and the challenges around ticket sales for international rugby matches....

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

That doesn't even cover their URC travel and accommodation costs.

See where we're going here?

Naming rights look like a big ticket item, but they're not the financial silver bullet that some people seem to think they are, especially with a brand as tarnished as Welsh rugby.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

But, you would hope that we would be able to improve on the £15m over ten years in any future deal.

Let's say we were able to double it. That would realise £1.5m a year in extra revenue for Welsh rugby - around £375k per year for each pro team....

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

The naming rights are up for renewal - so this is a big revenue opportunity for the WRU.

For context, the recent naming rights deal for Twickenham stadium was reported to be in excess of £100 million over ten years, an order of magnitude more than the Principality deal...

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

On a related note, we've heard a fair bit about the naming rights for Welsh rugby's national stadium.

The current deal with the Principality is reported to be worth around £15m over 10 years, having been extended around the time of COVID 🏟️ 🧵

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

To misquote that famous Leinster fan Oscar Wilde:

"To break one banking covenant may be regarded as a misfortune. To break two looks like carelessness."

It may seem harsh to wish bankruptcy on the WRU, but in reality, it has been bankrupt for years.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

The WRU is rotten, but there may shortly be an opportunity where it can be rebuilt from scorched earth.

The trigger for this could be an existential financial event which effectively kills the union off - for example a massive drop off in ticket sales for AIs and 6N....

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

When we say "fix" the WRU we mean more than just moving deckchairs around on the Titanic which has been the union's standard approach over recent years. We mean a total reset....

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

The clear alternative "optimal solution" which has emerged from our survey consists of three key actions:

(1) “Fix” the WRU
(2) Leave the URC and join the Prem/Champ
(3) Then you can retain 4 teams and academies

It’s quite simple, really.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

Short answer - because joining the english system would take away a lot of the WRU's control. Control that they quite clearly want to increase, not reduce. The WRU's "optimal solution" involves them controlling pretty much everything related to playing matters...

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 6h

The most important constraint is financial. The money the Welsh clubs get from the URC TV deal is pitiful in comparison to that enjoyed by the english clubs and their own TV deal. Why aren't the WRU banging on the door of the english clubs.....?

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 7h

The constraints of the URC are many and varied, and they impact Welsh teams far more than their counterparts in South Africa, Ireland and Scotland.

Welsh pro rugby is hamstrung by its membership of this league....

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 7h

Alongside this is the WRU's apparent inflexibility over the URC and our continued participation in it.

Our survey data shows that Welsh fans overwhelmingly hate the URC - over 85% would prefer to be playing in a league with english clubs....

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 7h

Model C (better known as "2+1") is two "fully funded" clubs (Model D) plus a "lite" 3rd club which gets around £1.5m less per season than the other two.

Cynics argue that Model C is just a more palatable way of eventually getting to Model D....

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 7h

As we wait for the WRU to update us on the outcome of Wednesday's board meeting, some thoughts on Model C (the latest flavour of the month) and how the WRU has deliberately narrowed the parameters of the debate to suit their own agenda rather than what is best for Welsh rugby 🧵

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Reposted by 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉

Harley Worthy @harleyw.bsky.social · 8h

"I know we've just made a fortune off of the Lions tour, but you women will have to make do with less. Why? So we can buy more players out of NRL contracts, so we can remain the 3rd best SH team of course"

Riaan Louw @ringo26.bsky.social · 12h

Spending money like a kid with an unlocked iPad.

www.theroar.com.au/2025/10/10/t...

The golden boy is back! Gordon set for Wallabies return after NRL club accepts Rugby Australia's transfer fee

Australian rugby’s wish for another flyhalf ahead of the 2027 World Cup has been granted, with Carter Gordon free to return to the XV-man.…

www.theroar.com.au

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 9h

We should organise a Lions tour of Ireland ASAP

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 20h

Or just no Ospreys. Which would be very very bad

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 20h

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 20h

The🚰 leaks have started dripping through, and it appears the WRU board are now favouring “Model C” - two full fat teams and one “Slimline Zebre Lite”

We should point out that Model C was the second least popular option, after the widely-hated Model D.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 1d

Wales didn't sign the letter because they're not bothered about R360 destroying their domestic game. The WRU are doing an excellent job of doing that by themselves, thank-you very much.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 1d

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwladrugby 🏉 @gwladrugby.bsky.social · 1d

This is very suspicious. Have they checked to see if all the nominations for Canton came from one address in Canton?

If you ask someone who lives in Canton where they live, 9 times out of 10 they will say "Pontcanna." That's how much they really love Canton.

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