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Wales’ final match in the 2023 Guinness Six Nations away to France on Saturday has coincided with standard contracts being presented to numerous players and their agents in the past 24 hours following a PRB agreement with the Welsh Rugby Players Association.
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The game in Wales has been in crisis mode for quite a while, resulting in a threatened strike for last month’s Test match against England in Cardiff. That potentially disastrous cancellation was eventually averted, with the WRU vowing to find a resolution to the contracts row that had prevented the regions in Wales from making any offers for players who fall out of contract at the end of the 2022/23 season.
Officials now claim that a resolution has been found – but there were no figures given about what the standard contracts are worth and whether what is on offer will definitely now be enough to head off a feared exodus of the players from the regions to clubs outside Wales.
A statement read: “The first standard contracts in Welsh rugby’s history have been tabled making existing and new offers now legally binding – the Professional Rugby Board (PRB) has confirmed.
“Welsh rugby’s four professional sides have been making offers to players since February, but the PRB and Welsh Rugby Players Association (WRPA) have now completed work together on standard contracts which have been presented to a number of players and their agents in the last 24 hours, with more to follow.
“The Rugby Management Board (RMB) of the WRU and PRB members completed a significant amount of work on a new standard form contract and rights license and received formal acceptance from the WRPA and players’ agents on Friday, March 17.”
PRB chair Malcolm Wall said: “This is a significant step forward in the process we are following which will secure a sustainable future for the professional game in Wales. A lot of hard work has gone into getting us to this stage and we are delighted to say our four professional sides are now in a position to offer legally binding contracts as necessary.
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“We remain hugely grateful to the players themselves for their patience and understanding and look forward now to the point where the full agreement can be signed which underpins the PRB’s strategy for the future of the game – a moment which this latest development proves is now closer than ever.
“A huge amount of credit should also go to the directors at each of our professional teams for ensuring that we reach this critical and pivotal stage for the game in Wales.”
WRPA chief executive Gareth Lewis added: “Work has been ongoing for the past 12 months on producing new standard form contracts. Following a productive consultation period, I am pleased to finalise and approve the documents for our members. The last few weeks have highlighted the benefits of engaging with the players and the WRPA and how important the consultation process is.
“I am pleased to conclude this process and now our focus is on supporting our members – those that continue within the game and also those transitioning to new career paths – as well as continuing to grow and develop the association. I’d like to thank the members for their patience and on their behalf thank Mark Loosemore of Loosemores Solicitors for his invaluable guidance and support”
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WRU interim CEO Nigel Walker said: “To be able to offer the first standard contracts in Welsh rugby’s history is an impressive show of unity for our game and much credit is due to the individual members of the PRB and RMB, to the WRPA, Welsh rugby’s agents and the players themselves and those directors at the regions who have stepped up to allow legally binding contracts to be signed before formal agreement on our long-term funding agreement itself is signed.
“Significant progress has been made and we are now very close to the end of this process, news that will provide a significant boost to everyone involved in the game in Wales.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
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