WRU: Cardiff and Dragons safe as Ospreys and Scarlets left fighting for one west Wales licence

The Ospreys and the Scarlets have been left to fight for a single west Wales licence after the Welsh Rugby Union confirmed Cardiff and the Dragons will be offered guaranteed places in its three-team future.

The union’s future operating model, announced on Wednesday, affirms the plan for three men’s professional teams from the 2028/29 season: one in the capital, one in east Wales and one in west Wales.

Only incumbent teams will be considered eligible for a licence, ruling out any newly created club. Subject to final licensing terms being agreed, Cardiff Rugby and Dragons RFC would be offered the capital and east licences.

That leaves one licence for west Wales. And two teams.

The WRU offered no such assurance to either the Ospreys or the Scarlets, acknowledging there will be “ongoing uncertainty until a final decision on the west licence is made”.

West Wales has been here before. An earlier plan to cut a team from the region collapsed in a U-turn hailed as “a massive victory” by supporters of both clubs.

That reprieve followed a bitter public row, in which secret meeting notes published by Swansea Council appeared to show a date had been pencilled in for the Ospreys’ demise.

The council’s leader called on the union’s boss to resign over what he described as a duplicitous plot. The WRU disputed the council’s account of the meeting.

In Llanelli, Senedd candidates united across party lines to demand scrutiny of the union’s plans for the west.

This time the union has set out a firm timeline: the process to determine the licensing framework and award the licences begins in December 2026 and concludes by the end of the 2026/27 season at the latest.

All current professional clubs will be asked in the first quarter of 2027 to confirm whether they wish to take part in the new model.

The announcement follows all four teams signing the Professional Rugby Agreement 2025, which funds four sides until 2028. The Ospreys signed with the threat of a cut still looming, while the Scarlets were the last to put pen to paper.

The WRU says it will use that period of stability to work out the funding model and licensing framework, with the clubs “playing an integral part in creating that framework”.

After the autumn Nations Championship matches, the union will bring together the leadership of all four professional teams and other stakeholders to co-create the model, work it says will run through the first quarter of 2027.

WRU vice chair John Manders said the union now had a firm timeline for its next steps. “We have already begun to put the support structures in place to develop the related player pathways, to create the best environments for our senior players, to provide the right financial support and to develop the facilities around them,” he said.

Manders said the changes would “safeguard the future of our game, concentrate resources and give our teams the best chance of achieving success at all levels”.

Marianne Økland, chair of the Professional Rugby Board, said there was now “a duty on all of us involved in the professional game in Wales to work together” on the new model.

Økland said the aim was to finalise the licensing model as quickly as possible, allowing “an orderly implementation” and avoiding “prolonged uncertainty for clubs, players, supporters, investors and sponsors”.

On the two west Wales clubs, she said the union was “committed to progressing in a collaborative way, whilst not underestimating the considerable challenges ahead, and providing stability for all at the earliest opportunity”.

The decision lands with both clubs mid-rebuild. Swansea Council has committed £5.1m to secure St Helen’s as the Ospreys’ home, a deal struck with the axe threat still hanging over the region, while the Scarlets have secured new investment after ending last season with £5,380 in the bank.