WRU’s Celtic League sweetener

THE Welsh Rugby Union helped smooth out the reinstatement of the Celtic League by offering a “significant financial contribution“, it was confirmed yesterday.

Details of how the WRU managed to convince rugby chiefs in Dublin and Edinburgh to allow them back into the competition were made public yesterday by the Celtic League Association.

And it has become clear that the WRU offered a financial incentive to their Celtic partners for a change in the calendar that allows them to compete in the Anglo-Welsh Cup over a maximum of five weekends.

It was agreed in Friday’s seven-hour summit meeting at Heathrow that with Scottish and Irish sides refusing to play over international weekends, the Welsh will catch up their fixtures in midweek.

That was the proposal WRU chief executive Steve Lewis had taken into the meeting and one he stated firmly the Celtic League Association could not afford to pass up.

Arguing that failure to reach an agreement would be professional suicide for all parties concerned, he said: “If the Scots and Irish turn down those plans then they will simply be cutting their own throats along with ours.”

Lewis’ proposals were accepted by the Celtic League Association, along with a sweetener from the WRU.