Door ajar for Euro rebels - WRU chief

Welsh rugby chief Roger Lewis believes “the door remains open” for top English and French clubs to play in next season’s Heineken Cup.

Tournament organisers have vowed to press ahead with plans for a “European club rugby tournament” in 2007-08 – despite the damaging Anglo-French boycott.

While European Rugby Cup shareholders have confirmed English and French participation, the flag could be flown by clubs like National League One sides Plymouth, Doncaster and Rotherham, rather than Leicester, Wasps or Gloucester.

Currently, none of the 12 Guinness Premiership clubs or leading French sides such as Toulouse, Stade Francais and Biarritz will play in the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup beyond this season. The existing tournament accord ends next month.

But Welsh Rugby Union group chief executive Lewis said: “Ideally, we would like the Guinness Premiership and French Championship clubs to remain in the fold, and the door remains open for that possibility.

“However, there is now a clear mandate for a European competition to take place next season and we will work as hard as possible to ensure it is a success.

“This is a significant step forward from the gloomy picture that we faced last week with the announcement that the French and English clubs will boycott next season’s Heineken Cup.

“It was vitally important for the players, coaches and fans to know that there will be a European competition next season. That is the starting point for us all, as is the fact that each of the six participating unions has agreed to enter teams.

“What will follow is the fine detail, but the Welsh regions can look forward to playing European rugby next season.

“We have been here before in Europe. There were only teams from four nations in the first year, and we had to live without the English clubs in the 1998-1999 season, but the show went on and the Heineken Cup has grown in stature year on year as a result.”

A diluted European tournament would inevitably affect attendances and revenue, although it is understood existing broadcasters and sponsors might not to be turned off, provided there remains some kind of English and French participation.

RFU management board chairman Martyn Thomas said: “We are delighted there will be a European club rugby tournament involving English clubs next season.

“We hope that these will be from the Guinness Premiership and, as rugby’s national governing body, we are committed to English club participation in the competition.”

The six unions – England, France, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Italy – have proved determined to find a solution, while they also gained support of the International Rugby Board, whose chairman Dr Syd Millar launched an astonishing attack on the Anglo-French clubs earlier this week.

The clubs claim the RFU have reneged on an agreement struck last autumn, something the Twickenham top brass flatly deny.

Both Premier Rugby and their French counterparts Ligue Nationale de Rugby blame the RFU’s refusal to pass half their ERC shares to the English clubs as the reason for their withdrawal.