WRU chair gives regions new Tuesday deal deadline

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) chair Richard Collier-Keywood has given Scarlets, Ospreys and Dragons a deadline of Tuesday evening to agree to sign a new deal following the governing body's takeover of Cardiff.

The Arms Park outfit were placed into temporary administration last Wednesday with the WRU taking control of the capital-based region.

This raised concerns about the new proposed arrangement between the WRU and all four of the Welsh professional sides, known as the Professional Rugby Agreement (PRA).

In February, it was announced the parties had agreed in principle to a five-year deal - but that was before last week's dramatic events unfolded and Cardiff went into WRU ownership.

The WRU met with Scarlets, Ospreys and Dragons before Collier-Keywood sent a follow-up email to the three sides stating they need to agree to sign the new PRA by "close of play" on Tuesday, 15 April.

No information has publicly yet been given about what will happen if they do not sign in time.

After outlining the reason for the Cardiff takeover, Collier-Keywood wrote: "Given your boards had previously agreed to sign the new PRA prior to the events of this week, I hope with the information above, they are assured the new PRA continues to represent a fair and better deal for Welsh Rugby.

"On this basis, we would ask to receive confirmation by close of play on Tuesday, 15 April, that the agreement remains secured, and we will circulate executable copies for signature.

"This is now urgent as we want to move forward into the 2025-26 season with certainty.

"In order to complete the re-financing, we will need to terminate the current agreement within this timescale."

The three sides are waiting to see a final copy of the completed new PRA document before they agree to sign a deal, less than a week after events changed with the Cardiff takeover.

The WRU's acquisition of the business and assets of Cardiff cost £780,000 with costs made up of about £480,000 in cash and £300,000 of debt.

In addition, the WRU are committed to putting in around £1.2m into Cardiff until June 2026, meaning a total of £2m going towards the Arms Park region.

Previously, Cardiff had owed the WRU £9.1m with the governing body now turning £3m of that into an investment and leaving a £6m debt.

Collier-Keywood last week insisted it was the WRU's intention "to provide the other three professional clubs with similar debt relief".

There has been no evidence so far the WRU will match the £2m they are providing Cardiff with any similar arrangements for Scarlets, Dragons and Ospreys.

The governing body say Cardiff will be on the same terms as the other clubs under the new PRA and that they will create a subsidiary to run the Arms Park outfit on an independent basis.

The WRU said the decision to take over Cardiff was made "once it became clear that the club's owner, Helford Capital, was unable to meet its obligations to fund the club as it was contractually obliged to do".

Cardiff looked to have secured their long-term future in January 2024 when Helford Capital Limited's acquisition of a majority shareholding was approved at a general meeting of club members, a 99.99% majority voting through the takeover.

The investment group was led by businessmen Phil Kempe and Neal Griffith, who acquired an 84.55% shareholding.

The agreement ended last week and the appointed administrators PwC have sold the club's business and assets to the WRU with more than 150 jobs safeguarded.

WRU chief executive Abi Tierney said it was "unthinkable for us to allow the demise of professional rugby in the Welsh capital".

The governing body say Cardiff players and staff will be unaffected by the sale with contracts honoured, although they want players to sign deals on Monday.

The WRU say they only want to own Cardiff for the next 15 months before hoping to return the organisation to private investment.

This deadline has been provided to try and agree the new PRA as quickly as possible, but the current deal has more than a year left to run until the end of the 2025-26 season.

A clause in that contract says "the WRU may terminate this agreement by giving the company no less than two years' notice in writing to expire at the end of the relevant agreement year".

That can only occur if the "Professional Rugby Board (PRB) recommends the same as part of an objective review of professional rugby". It is understood no such review has happened yet.

That policy would also not align with the desire to keep four professional sides in Wales, which was a crucial factor presented in the decision to save Cardiff.

The WRU said Welsh rugby would have been heavily penalised financially by the United Rugby Championship (URC) and European authorities if they did not continue to provide four sides for their competitions.

It is not the first deadline the WRU has set this season. In August 2024, a more stark three-hour deadline was issued to the Wales women squad during contract negotiations.

On that occasion, there was a "final offer" ultimatum, saying if they did not sign new contracts within three hours they would be withdrawn, planned matches against New Zealand, Scotland and Australia would not go ahead and they could pull the Wales women's team out of the 2025 World Cup.

The threat was not acted upon and the WRU executive leadership later apologised and accepted it was a mistake.