The Senedd member who called the Welsh Rugby Union “a bloated corporate body managing the game’s slow decline” is to chair a new group at the Senedd that plans to invite the union in.
John Davies, Plaid Cymru MS for Gŵyr Abertawe, was elected chair of the Welsh Rugby cross-party group at its first meeting today, Wednesday 11 November. Labour’s Jayne Bryant is vice-chair.
It comes with the Ospreys and Scarlets still fighting for one west Wales licence, and five days after the head of English rugby confirmed the WRU had approached it about an Anglo-Welsh league.
From an hour of argument to one table
Five weeks ago the Senedd debated the two regions’ future for an hour and agreed nothing. Several of the members who clashed that day were at the group’s first meeting.
Louise Emery, the Reform UK MS whose motion to protect all four regions fell by a single vote, was there. So was Mr Davies, who had dismissed that motion as “a political points-scoring exercise”.
Three more of Gŵyr Abertawe’s members attended: Plaid’s Gwyn Williams, Reform’s Steven Rodaway and Labour’s Mike Hedges.
Mr Williams wrote to the union in September demanding board minutes to show whether Cardiff-linked members stood aside from the licence votes. Mr Rodaway told the debate that saving the Ospreys “should never mean sacrificing the Scarlets”.
Jane Dodds of the Welsh Liberal Democrats was there too. Also listed as attending were Plaid’s Safa Elhassan, Rebeca Phillips and Anna Nicholl and Reform’s Claire Johnson-Wood, Gareth Beer and Laura Anne Jones.
Every Senedd member was invited, Mr Davies’s office says. Andrew RT Davies of the Welsh Conservatives sent apologies.
‘Not split down party lines’
Mr Davies said players, coaches and fans had told him they did not want rugby “split down party lines”.
He said: “Rugby is for everyone in Wales regardless of party affiliation. That’s why I’m so happy that today’s meeting was attended by politicians from all parts of the political spectrum.”
He said the group could now invite “professional teams, clubs throughout the domestic pyramid, players, supporters, communities, and the Welsh Rugby Union, directly to the Senedd”.
Its evidence, he hopes, will help members make sure public policy supports “a thriving, inclusive, and sustainable Welsh rugby community”.
Cross-party groups are not Senedd committees, and cannot compel anyone to attend. Culture and Sport Minister Heledd Fychan told last month’s debate the Welsh Government could not direct the WRU to keep four teams either.
The approach to English rugby
One question waiting for the group is where Welsh teams will be playing at all.
Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney told the BBC on Friday: “We have received a formal approach.” He added: “We asked for that and we wanted it in writing.”
He said English rugby’s priority was expanding its own top flight, and that there were “fundamental questions” to answer first. “We don’t yet have a clear understanding of how they would legally exit the URC,” he said.
The WRU says it is committed to providing four teams to the United Rugby Championship until the end of the 2027-28 season. It says it “keeps under review the competition opportunities which may be available across the game”.
Two Welsh sides are reported to be under discussion for a place in the English top flight. The union has not confirmed that, or named any teams.
Mr Davies’s statement on the new group does not mention the approach.
What happens next for the Ospreys and Scarlets
The union is also changing at the top. New chair Lyndon Faulkner, who takes over at the AGM on 22 November, has said he will review the cut to three clubs, and that an Anglo-Welsh league appeals to him.
The union’s “State of the Game” summit with all four clubs follows in early December, when its licensing process is also due to begin. Swansea Council has given the union an extra month to answer its High Court challenge.
Cardiff and the Dragons were offered two of the three licences in July. A decision on the third is due by the end of June 2027.
The group has not yet said when it will next meet or who it will invite first.
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