Former England international Andy Goode has declared he would not want to see Welsh sides jumping leagues to join the Gallagher Premiership.
Adding his voice to speculation that two Welsh clubs have been lined up to replace Worcester and Wasps amid financial troubles, the ex-outside half, who played for five Premiership teams across his career, argues that some of the Welsh professional teams have been "bang average".
The financial worries at Worcester Warriors and the threat to the club's very existence have fuelled speculation that an opening could materialise for a couple of regions to switch leagues.
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A leading figure in Welsh rugby gave the idea short shrift when WalesOnline asked him about it recently, pointing out that there were long-term contracts in place with the United Rugby Championship and breaking them would run the risk of legal action and potential sanctions. You can read more about that here.
Goode is 100 per cent against the notion anyway, arguing the quality is good in the English league and suggesting the addition of Welsh teams might lower standards.
“I don’t want to continue on a negative but you asked a question about the Welsh clubs — there are rumours of two of them joining the Prem,” Goode said on the latest edition of The Rugby Pod.
"‘No thank you’ is what I’m saying. I know the Ospreys absolutely destroyed a Scottish team at the weekend in Glasgow but the Premiership to me is absolutely sacred in terms of what we are seeing at the minute. The Premiership is a quality league and I personally always said that 13 teams were too many.
“I got why they got rid of relegation because of the Covid pandemic but we are sat here now and what you cannot do is just add in two Welsh teams and go, ‘there you go, you have a crack’. It just doesn’t work for me in terms of the Premiership and the quality product that you see week in and week out.
“Look at the games at the weekend and we spoke about last weekend: you chuck a couple of Welsh teams in and it just divides opinion hugely and dissipates the quality a bit.
“Let’s be honest, we have seen how bang average at best some of the Welsh teams have been.”
There can be no denying the Gallagher Premiership is high on the excitement factor and the quality has been good in a lot of games, but there hasn’t been an English representative in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-finals for the past two seasons, with Leinster and the French to the fore. That said, Welsh struggles at professional level are well-documented.
And Goode is clearly unimpressed, saying: “Scarlets have played three, lost three in the URC. The Dragons, we have talked about them at length, even though the results are improving for them. Cardiff — don’t bring them over because they have been egging pubs left, right and centre apparently. Who even eggs pubs any more?
“And then the Ospreys, it’s just, I don’t know… whoever has come up with that idea, and we had a debate with BT Sport when I was up at Newcastle, some people were, ‘yeah, I think it would be great’. I’m like: ‘No!’”
Wasps also have major financial concerns, with the club having filed a second notice of intention to appoint administrators.
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