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Players to be offered 'conditional contracts' in Wales
By Kim Ekin
Amid fears of a player exodus in Wales, the Professional Rugby Board has confirmed that negotiations will begin in the new year on a 'conditional basis' following a meeting with the Welsh Rugby Players Association.
With contract negotiations frozen in the Welsh regions at the moment due to funding issues, the Dragons have already seen Wales lock Will Rowlands confirm his departure at the end of the season, and the worry is that many more will follow suit.
But the PRB revealed in a statement today that following the verbal agreement over funding that has been made, conditional contracts will be offered to players in the intervening time before the agreement is formalised and is signed by all parties.
This verbal agreement involves a "six-year-framework which details significantly enhanced WRU funding expectations from distributable monies, club commercial performance, URC media rights, new debt and shareholder investment."
The PRB also expressed their regret over the "concern" caused amongst "player, their agents, and supporters" during this ordeal.
The statement reads: "The PRB understands delays in reaching verbal agreement and the time required to process legal documentation have prevented the Regions from contracting some players for future seasons.
"The concern caused amongst players, their agents, and supporters is hugely regrettable, but it is important that this is done correctly.
"This is why we aim to offer conditional contracts, giving players details of their individual offer. Further updates on this initiative will be provided to the WRPA next week.
"There is still much to do, but the PRB will continue to work together with the WRPA for the benefit of all parties."
These look to be promising signs for Welsh rugby both on and off the pitch going into the new year. Obviously the major change going into 2023 is the return of Warren Gatland at the helm of the national team, but there seems to be progress off the pitch as well.
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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