WRU sticking to three-team plan - Reddin

Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) director of rugby Dave Reddin says the governing body are committed to cutting a professional men's side despite the recent backlash against its plans.

This summer the WRU outlined proposals to cut from four professional teams to three by 2028.

Ospreys and Scarlets are set to fight to be the solitary side in west Wales, with Cardiff and Dragons safe.

In August, former Wales captain Jonathan Davies became the most high-profile figure to call on the WRU board to resign.

This would include chief executive Abi Tierney but not Reddin, who is not part of the board.

Reddin, one of the driving forces in cutting a side since his appointment last year, says the WRU will not stop their controversial plans.

"I understand the pain with it, but we've got to fix it and this is the way forward,” said Reddin.

"We're really committed to it."

Reddin says the funding is not there for four competitive sides.

"I'm going to go back to the brutal economics of it all," he said.

"I'm facing stuff that hasn't been dealt with for a long period of time. We as a union already subsidise men's clubs to about 50% of their turnover. That's more than most in the world.

"In order to do that across four teams, and try to do all the other investments in our men's pathway, is impossible with the amount of money we've got.

"We can have as many teams as we want, but they won't be competitive teams. That's the reality."

Reddin says the current WRU administration had been left to deal with financial issues that have been brewing for a decade.

"We've got some really tough choices to make," said Reddin. "These are problems that we've inherited that have been backing up for 10 or so years.

"It's a bit like having a beautiful old house that needs renovating, and it really does need renovating.

"A lot of the stuff we're having to do, our pathways, is stuff that should have been invested in that wouldn't have led to this situation now.

"We've had generations of top Wales players that have carried us through. We don't have them anymore so we've got to do things differently."

The governing body confirmed in April it intended to press on with plans to go down to three men's teams from the 2028-29 season, with one in the capital, one in the east and one in the west.

WRU-owned Cardiff and Dragons, an independently-backed business, are set to be given licences.

That leaves Swansea-based Ospreys and Llanelli-based Scarlets to compete for the remaining spot, with a merger also mooted, although currently rejected by the west Wales sides.

The WRU has stated the process to decide the framework for the final decision will begin in December and finish before the end of the 2026-27 season.

The governing body says it will bring together the leadership of all the professional teams, and other stakeholders, after Wales' Nations Championship matches in November.

It intends to thrash out the finances of the regions' proposals and assess the interests of the quartet in taking up the new licences.

"We want to run a rugby summit as one activity, which means we get all of our stakeholders together," said Reddin.

"The boards, their representatives, their executives, with a bunch of independents and ourselves and just talk about the state of the game.

"One of the things we've suffered from probably to this point is a distrust of information.

"So we need just get in the room and all face the facts together and make that the start point of our negotiations about how we get down to reducing the number of clubs.

"There is a reality. I don't think anybody in the professional game thinks continuing the way we are is the right option.

"Everyone recognises decisions are tough. We're seeing some collaborative working on some of the development system, so people want to lean into it.

"I think we've just got to get a bit more grown up about the conversations."

In his first interview since March, Reddin was speaking to Scrum V live during half-time of Wales women's 50-19 victory against South Africa on Friday night.

Reddin backed the statement of WRU women's head of rugby Nadine Griffiths that the women's programme was not a financial drain on the men's game.

Griffiths this week said allegations she had read on social media that a region is to be cut because of investment in the women's game were "embarrassing" and added the women's game had in fact made money for the governing body.

The Union has had a professional women's programme since the start of 2022 and there are now more than 40 contracted players.

Plans to axe one of the four men's professional regions has stirred hostility about the continued women's investment but Reddin stated the two issues were not linked.

"The decision on the men's game is not affected by the amount of money we're spending on the women's game," said Reddin.

"We're still in the early stages of investment there, but it's the biggest growth opportunity in rugby.

"Everyone around the world is seeing the same thing, so we would be silly not to take advantage of the growth that's possible."

Reddin also stated the plan was for the WRU to have two women's sides in the English league, the Premiership women's league (PWR) as soon as possible.

"We're fully committed to that, so we've put in an expression of interest for two teams," said Reddin.

"We're doing that as a Celtic Challenge block because our preference would be a 16-team league and we're excited about it.

"It tallies with the investment we've put in, some more investment into Celtic Challenge this year to upgrade our coaching teams.

"That's in preparation for the hope to go into PWR as soon as possible."

Reddin says it is a deliberate strategy to bring players back to play club rugby in Wales.

"We incentivised contracts this time to bring as many of the girls back to Wales as we could," said Reddin.

"It's about cohesion.

"It means we have more Welsh players with each other more often, so that's a big factor and it enables them to connect with Sean Lynn [Wales head coach] and his team."