In an effort to try and stem the mass exodus of leading players leaving Wales to go and play for other countries and clubs, the Welsh Rugby Union is making £1 million available to try and halt the flow.
In the 2012/13 season, a stream of international players moved over to England and France and the four Welsh professional regions lost several high profile players. Dan Lydiate, Jamie Roberts and George North all left the Welsh regions at the end of the season after being offered better rewards elsewhere.
The cash injection of £1 million is part of a bigger £2.5 million cash investment into the game that will be split between grassroots, the regions and the national team. It’s not yet been released how the funds will be split between Ospreys, Scarletts, Newport Gwent Dragons and Cardiff Blues but its expected an announcement will follow shortly. It’s hoped that this investment will help the WRU by leaving its players feeling as if they have hit the jackpot, like a Lucky Nugget or lottery winner and stem the tide of players who are leaving for greener pastures.
A WRU representative stated that their intentions were to target the recruitment; development and retention of Welsh international players to rebuild a team that has seem significant losses in the last 12 months.
The WRU’s priority is to keep Welsh qualified players in Wales whilst developing them to their full potential. Rather than seeing them head off to other UK clubs or even further afield. WRU group chief executive Roger Lewis said that this may be a once-off amount due to obvious financial constraints but the investment is on the scale of a truly beneficial one for the game at a professional level.
Stuart Gallacher, the chief executive of Regional Rugby Wales welcomed the investment and said he was encouraged to hear of any proposed initiatives that helped contribute to the goal of developing Welsh regional players and retaining them.
The cash injection is part of a long term plan to boost Welsh rugby at all levels and to ensure players remain on home soil whenever possible. The proposed action is a sustainable and positive contribution to the game which has suffered in numerous ways recently due to player transfers.