URC lining up non-English club to replace axed Welsh region

Georgian outfit Black Lion have been lined up to join the United Rugby Championship (URC) after the RFU blocked a move for Ealing Trailfinders or London Irish.

The URC board are reported to have cleared the way for the Welsh Rugby Union to cut the number of professional teams from four to three by 2027.

It is widely known that the Ospreys or the Scarlets, who decided not to sign up for the new Professional Rugby Agreement, are most likely to face the axe.

URC boss Martin Anayi told RugbyPass in June that they would do what was in the best interest of Welsh rugby, and that has now been rubber-stamped.

“We would need to agree, as a URC board and the other shareholders, that three was the right number and that they can go to three. There would need to be an agreement. That can’t be unilateral,” he said.

The URC are keen to retain a 16-team competition, which would leave a vacancy that they had hoped would involve an expansion into London, which has hosted a game between the Ospreys and Sharks at the Twickenham Stoop.

But Twickenham’s top brass have blocked London Irish and Ealing Trailfinders, both of whom were approached by the URC to jump ship, while the South African Rugby Union voted against bringing in a side from the United States.

Ealing are 14 points clear at the top of the Championship table, had talks in early 2023 about merging with the Ospreys, and despite being in advanced negotiations, the move fell through.

Sources have now indicated that they will switch their attention to the Tbilisi-based Black Lion, who have won four successive Rugby Europe Super Cup finals, a move that has long been mooted.

They have been getting results against clubs from tier one nations in the Challenge Cup, beating the Scarlets at Parc y Scarlets in 2023, then Vannes at home the following year.

They then beat another Top 14 outfit last weekend, Montauban 31-28 at the Stade Sapiac, after pulling out of the Super Cup this season to give them more time to prepare for Challenge Cup matches.