Welsh rugby sides plead for more funding as they fear their best players will join richer English, French and Japanese sides… with Ospreys’ George North among those in the final year of their current deals

• Welsh rugby’s domestic set-up is short of money after a tumultuous 2023 
• A string of Warren Gatland’s Wales squad are out of contract next summer
• The likes of George North and Gareth Davies are reaching the end of their deals 

Wales’ four regions fear they will soon come under attack from richer English, French and Japanese clubs and are pleading with the Welsh Rugby Union for more central funding to try and keep their best players.

After a tumultuous 2023 which has seen Welsh rugby suffer serious financial problems – many of which have been of the game’s own making – the country’s domestic set-up is short of money. For this season, Wales’ four professional sides Dragons, Cardiff, Ospreys and Scarlets are each operating off an annual budget of circa £5million.

But that is set to drop to £4.5m per year from the start of the 2024/25 campaign – a number which is seen in regional quarters as unworkable when it comes to keeping hold of their star names. By contrast, the salary cap in England’s Gallagher Premiership – the limit on how much team can spend on their squad – will rise to £6.4m for 24/25.

In France, the likes of Toulouse, Stade Francais and Toulon are operating off annual budgets for their whole rugby operations in the region of €40m this season.

The difference is astronomical and there is genuine concern at the regions that they will not be able to pay their Wales internationals fair salaries moving forward and that as a result, they will be tempted by moves elsewhere. ‘The numbers just don’t add up,’ a regional source said.

A string of Warren Gatland’s Wales squad members are out of contract at the end of the season, including juggernaut centre George North (pictured) who plays for Ospreys 

Welsh rugby clubs fear their players will leave for England, France or Japan due to a lack of funding with Rio Dyer (seen offloading the ball for Dragons v Ospreys) among those players

A string of Warren Gatland’s Wales squad members are all out of contract at the end of this season and negotiations over possible new deals have already started.

Juggernaut Wales centre George North’s Ospreys contract will expire this summer.

His fellow Wales World Cup squad members Tomos Williams, Gareth Davies, Rio Dyer, Nicky Smith, Mason Grady and Kieran Hardy are all in the same position.

So too are Keiron Assiratti and Tom Rogers who are both in the Wales camp preparing to face the Barbarians in Cardiff on Saturday.

Wales made the quarter-finals of the World Cup in France, losing to Argentina. But their improved performances on the back of an awful Six Nations saw a number of their players impress.

Each region is required to have three ‘players of national interest’ – essentially Wales squad members – in their squads under a complicated ruling system.

But the most they can pay them is £278,000-a-year and many regions may not even be able to get close to that figure.

The likes of North, Williams and Davies won’t be short of suitors elsewhere.

The likes of North and Gareth Davies (left) won’t be short of suitors elsewhere next summer

Wales’ selection criteria now means players with 25 or more Test caps can play their club rugby outside of their homeland and still represent Gatland’s side at Test level.

Until this year – when Wales’ players threatened to strike for their Six Nations game with England – that cap number previously stood at 60.

It only serves to increase the possibility of more players leaving.

That is the scenario the regions understandably want to avoid which is why they are currently trying to eke out more central funding from the WRU to offer their players competitive salaries.

Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

But the reason regional budgets were reduced in the first place was for Welsh rugby to cut its cloth amid a landscape of financial trouble across the sport as a whole.

In the last 12 months, Wales internationals Will Rowlands, Dillon Lewis, Joe Hawkins, Jarrod Evans and Ross Moriarty have all quit Welsh rugby for better offers elsewhere.

Will Rowland is among those to leave Welsh rugby already for better offers elsewhere

Gatland’s Wales squad crashed out at the quarter-final stage of the World Cup to Argentina

The problems facing Wales’ regions were laid bare on the opening weekend of the United Rugby Championship when all four suffered losses.

After the conclusion of Wales’ World Cup campaign, head coach Gatland and interim WRU chief executive Nigel Walker both stressed the importance of improving the working relationship between the governing body and the regions to achieve success. In the past, it has not always been cordial.

‘The relationships are pretty good with the regions at the moment,’ Walker said.

‘We are talking to them constantly. There is an acceptance, if there wasn’t one before, that we need good systems to work together and to be aligned.

‘I am committed to doing that. Warren and the coaches are committed to doing that. The players playing in Wales want that to happen.’

Meanwhile, former Wales centre Jamie Roberts has been appointed to the WRU board as one of three new non-executive directors.

Roberts will be joined by former Wales player and coach Amanda Bennett and financial and commercial expert Jennifer Mathias.

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