The Welsh Rugby Union are to hold talks with England, Ireland and Scotland as they seek opponents for their new regional U23 teams.
The four new sides – who will fill a new development tier between the Guinness Pro12 teams and the Premiership – will play between 10 and 12 games next season.
The WRU are insistent those matches should be meaningful and within a league structure. That will require opposition from outside of Wales and the Union plan wide discussions in a bid to involve age-group opposition from other nations.
Scotland and Ireland could mirror the Welsh teams with provincial age-group sides of their own, but the approach to England could result in Anglo-Welsh fixtures against club sides.
However, any matches against English clubs would have to fit within their existing structure of Aviva Premiership ‘A’ League fixtures and academy squad matches.
The regional competition will be staged in set blocks – the first will be in Sept/Oct with an end of season block held in April.
In between there will be a ‘development’ block in December as Wales U20 prepare for the Six Nations while simultaneously players will be identified for the national succession plan as agreed by WRU and the regions.
During these blocks, detailed plans will be proposed for each player which could see them placed in a region, moved to Wales Sevens or based with a Premiership club or even given an overseas placement – all dependent on player plans and requirements.
Alongside this new development a revamped Premiership will be reduced to 12 (from 16) teams from 2019/2020, and will include promotion and relegation from that time.
WRU head of performance Geraint John said: “We will employ dedicated resource to support coaching and commercial programmes at both club and Regional U23 level, while relationships between the regions and clubs will be actively encouraged with collaboration for mutual benefit.
“There are a number of further benefits with the new structure. There will be regular home and away fixtures for clubs with an enhanced game schedule improving player welfare.
“Over the last five months we’ve had a huge consultation process and we need a performance model to underpin the regional model.
“Currently we don’t have what I call a performance model, we have it scattered around the season at various times.
“What we need is continuous training of young players, a performance model is important for the regions and national team.
“It’s important for the development of the players to help them along that pathway.”
During the 2019/20 season funding will be at £96,000 but the Premiership sides will gradually have their finances reduced to £50,000 per club per year over a four-year period.
John says the governing body will support the clubs.
“We’re going to support them in other means,” added John.
“There’s a four-year plan, a business model, we’re putting commercial support behind them, a designated person to help them grow their investments so it’s a long-term plan.
“We’re also looking at cross border competition which will support coaching resources, with prize money on offer, there’s also travel grants, so when you look at the figure there’s actually more than that in terms of support and we feel it’s the right model.
“We will support them, but support them with certain criteria. Importantly we’ve got to give them the money to actually deliver what is right on the field.”
