There’s no subject in Welsh regional rugby that creates debate quite like the mention of an Anglo-Welsh league. It’s the Brexit of the game in Wales, and the debate can be just as poisonous. One mention of an Anglo-Welsh league and social media descends into a gun-less wild west.

For the author of this column the commencement of a genetic breading program in South Wales, largely focused on tight-heads, and tight-head locks is the main priority for the game, but the Anglo-Welsh seems to generate most of the headlines. We digress.

But before we begin, I have to declare an interest. I write for the United Rugby Championship and have done for some time. I am therefore biased. I will however add, that if you think doing a few columns for the URC means that I’m using a URC bank account based in Geneva, to dine out on albino Swan risotto, from the shell of a giant leatherback turtle, then you’d very much mistaken. There is very little money in rugby writing. 

I am also not the typical URC audience in many regards, in that I also love/ loved Super Rugby. So, to me the inclusion of the South African teams was a rugby dream come true. To watch the South African teams playing live in South Wales has been absolutely incredible. 

All of that aside, the subject of the Anglo-Welsh league will not go away, and nor should it. As much as we all want to deny it, rugby union is a niche sport. Competing in a multimedia landscape where the audience’s eyes are fickle. You either adapt or fail.

Rugby on repeat

Just look at the way we now consume TV media as an example of the change in consumer behaviour. Most young people now consume media in five second chunks, with 30 five seconds chunks flashing past their eyes quicker than a Deliveroo driver on an electric bike.

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Twenty years ago, it took most of us three months to watch an exquisitely produced 12-part drama – one televised episode a week. Now, we binge watch it in one day. Before the last episode has even finished, we’re Googling when the next season is being launched. What we once sampled as fine wine, is now ‘necked’ in seconds, like a can of gin of tonic from the corner shop. Attitudes to rugby are no different, audiences like innovation.

But audience behaviour isn’t the main driver for rugby continually striving to change its product. The major reason for a new league offering is cash, and the lack of it in rugby. It’s not that there’s necessarily much less actual money in rugby, it’s that everything has become so expensive.

Bath celebrate victory over Brive in the 1998 European Cup Final (Credit: Dave Rogers /Allsport)

Rugby inflation has absolutely blown food inflation out of the water. 30 years ago, rich old men (mostly) could buy a rugby club for a couple of million, throw in another couple of grand and win the European Cup. Those days have gone, and so have most of those rich old men – literally. Rugby is largely a loss maker. Where the word ‘investment’ is used incorrectly, with a more accurate term being donation. If you put money into rugby, you will probably never see it again.

This is of course a situation which hit Welsh rugby first and thus where most of the discussion on a new league structure has derived. It is evident on social media, and in more traditional media, that the calls for an Anglo-Welsh league have historically come from Wales – which is hugely understandable.

Welsh wobble

As someone who writes about Welsh rugby regularly, finding the positive (which I like to do) has been harder than finding a piece of breast meat in a chicken doner. And it is also no surprise that the calls for the Welsh regions to join an alternative league have been loudest over the past five seasons.

Prior to that it was rare to see such criticism. Partly because social media was still finding its feet, and also because Welsh teams were more successful then. When the Ospreys were dominant in the past, everyone loved it. When the Scarlets won the league, the criticism was very muted. The less success your region has been in the league, the louder the noise. Which is of course understandable. 

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This desire for Welsh teams to join the English has until recent months fallen on deaf ears, in England. Pre-Covid, English rugby was stable-ish, and the Welsh teams were treated like the ugly cousin sitting in the corner of the room waiting for a dance. But in recent seasons, some of English club rugby’s makeup has also become smudged and now a dance, it seems, is not out of the question.

With just ten teams in the English Premiership, English supporters have begun questioning the value of their season tickets to a level not seen before on social media. And the big-name signings that were once the unique selling point of English rugby are now drying up.

Handre Pollard of Leicester Tigers is one of the few superstars left in England (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

The English Premiership has already said categorically that they don’t want the four Welsh regions, in isolation, yet they could be open to joining the URC. But whatever the shape of the format, an increase in TV growth will be the driver. 

Much of the desire for an Anglo-Welsh league, in Wales, is often driven by the desire for away fans having the opportunity to attend games. But as desirable as this is, it isn’t 1996. Away fans aren’t going to create enough wealth to support your club. TV is where it’s at.

Much of the social media discourse is led by older fans in their fifties, who still remember the mid 1990’s and early 2000’s with misty eyes – I fall into that bracket myself. But the fact is, that 200 of your friends, getting on four buses, and buying a pie and a pint is no longer enough to sustain a professional ‘P+L’. TV is where it’s at.

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Playing to your audience

On a very basic level, rugby supporters can be largely split into two groups. The more traditional, stadium-driven fans and the modern sofa-based supporters – some are a hybrid of which I am one. The more traditional, which I would argue are the nerve centre of every club, are the ones who turn up home and away, every week. Without them there is no rugby club. There’s one supporter who I follow on Twitter who watches almost every game for his professional region, and their amateur team, it’s beautiful.

Matthew Devine of Connacht takes a picture with supporters (Photo By Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

But then there are the younger, arguably more modern audience. The ones who consume on TV, the ones who watch on social media, the ones who watch adverts, the ones who don’t just buy a pie and a pint, but spend more in the long-term via the ripple effect of advertising. And whilst the game obviously needs both supporters, it’s the bums on sofas supporters who generate more cash than the bums on seats.

Whilst I think a URC fused with the English Premiership will happen, and arguably must happen long-term, it’s not without its issues.

Firstly, is the salary cap. Leinster operate in a different financial universe to the Dragons. Benneton now exist in a very different ‘P+L’ to the Ospreys. That is a situation that currently no longer exists in the English Premiership, thanks to the clampdown on salary cap cheats. But should the leagues merge, this would become a stumbling block. Whilst many things in rugby have changed over the years, self-interest isn’t one of them.

How to solve South Africa

Then there’s the issue of the South Africans, which for some reason always get the s****y end of the stick in these discussions. The South Africans have revolutionised the quality of rugby in the URC and their contribution to TV audiences can’t be ignored.

They are not only giants on the field, but giants behind the screens and any league merger simply cannot ignore them. Weirdly, environmental concerns have recently become a stick to beat the South African teams, where concerns over airline pollution have come to the fore. And whilst we do of course want to minimise environmental damage in all aspects of life.

Not allowing the South Africans to travel, means that they can only really play amongst themselves, in their own nation. They are so far away from any meaningful opposition that an isolated league would be their only option. A situation that would also apply to Argentina and in some regards New Zealand and Australia.

Bath Rugby’s Will Butt scores his sides second try during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match against Bristol Bears (Photo by Bob Bradford – CameraSport via Getty Images)

If we only want rugby leagues to be commutable on buses, trains and four pals in a Ford Focus, then rugby really is making problems for itself. The end result in 30 years, possibly being ‘a cycling distance only league’ – whereby the Ospreys play the Scarlets 30 times a season, and Bath and Bristol play no-one else but Gloucester.

But the big French éléphante in the room, is the European Cup. A league merger between the URC and the English would dilute European competition to the point of rugby homeopathy. And possibly give the Top 14 a reason to pull out completely thereby killing one of the greatest formats in rugby since the game has gone pro.

A merger between the two leagues must also take into account new rivalries, as well as old. If you’re a 50-ish Welsh supporter, then yes of course you have great memories of playing Tigers, Bath and Bristol in the 1990s. If you’re a 12-year-old you don’t – your new rivals are more likely to be Leinster, Munster and Glasgow.

Coming together

A merger between the URC and English rugby would solve a lot of problems with revenue, for all the parties involved. And I, for one, would love it. To watch Cardiff, play Bath and the Stormers play Saracens would be awesome. But it must be done for the right reasons.

A ‘super league’ must be created not to take rugby back to the mid 1990’s, but make it viable as a sport in the 2090’s. It can’t solely be a focus on local rivalries, but on a wider market, where bums on sofas are as important as bums on seats. Getting all of this to line up will of course be an absolute nightmare, and may require representation from the UN at the discussion table. But as a concept, and direction of the travel for the sport, it has to be explored.

Disclaimer: These are just the thoughts of Paul Williams; he has no control or power in rugby what’s so ever and hasn’t eaten albino Swan for ages. Please don’t burn his house down, or create a voodoo doll of him. If you do make a voodoo doll, pleasure ensure it is wearing nice clothes. Terms and conditions apply.