The Scarlets will not be discussing a merger with the Ospreys, the club’s managing director says, until the WRU explains why Welsh rugby must lose a team at all.
Jon Daniels, at the club for more than 20 years, told BBC Sport Wales there is no merger proposal on the table and no active discussion of one.
The two clubs came close to merging in 2019 before the plan collapsed. The idea resurfaced last week in a leaked recording of WRU chief executive Abi Tierney, who said she would have welcomed it.
Daniels said that before any such phase could even begin, the clubs collectively need to understand why four professional teams must become three in the first place.
The union confirmed last week that Cardiff and the Dragons will be offered two of the three licences from 2028/29, leaving the Scarlets and Ospreys to contest the last one.
Daniels said the decision to cut from four to three, and its justification, needs more work from the club’s perspective.
He said he understands data was used to reach the decision, but that it has not been shared, and the club will be calling for transparency.
These are decisions with long-lasting effects on communities in west Wales, not just on rugby, he said, and they need a proper public airing.
His argument goes further than process. Welsh rugby should be able to accommodate four teams, he said, just as Ireland and other countries do.
And if the evidence shows it cannot, he would struggle to see why the cut should fall on the west alone rather than being a challenge for the whole of Welsh rugby.
The complaint about unshared evidence now has an echo across the region: Swansea Council has made the same point in its legal challenge against the union, saying repeated requests for the data behind the WRU’s original consultation have gone unanswered.
Daniels’ comments are notably sharper than the club’s message to supporters last week, which promised its focus was “unchanged” and made no mention of the union at all.
He said it was the club’s duty to keep the uncertainty from affecting performances on the pitch, and that the union’s stance should instead unite players, staff and supporters.
The case for the Scarlets, as he set it out, rests on history, heritage, the Welsh language, the facilities at Parc y Scarlets and the club’s record of producing Wales internationals.
“We are going to fight, and we want them to fight with us,” he said.
Carmarthenshire Council has already demanded answers from the union, and Llanelli MP Dame Nia Griffith has accused the WRU of throwing chaos and uncertainty onto the national game.
The licensing process begins in December and concludes by the end of the 2026/27 season at the latest, with all four clubs asked in the first quarter of 2027 whether they want to take part.
The Scarlets open their home season against Cardiff at Parc y Scarlets on Saturday 26 September.
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It’s going to get messy and not Lionel either.