Wales’s Six Nations match against England will go ahead as planned on Saturday after a player strike was narrowly averted following a series of crisis meetings on Wednesday. The Wales squad were adamant they would down tools for the lucrative fixture in Cardiff if the Welsh Rugby Union did not grant concessions to their demands over contracts, but that drastic option has been dodged after a breakthrough was finally reached.
Industrial action would have forced the WRU to call off Saturday’s fixture, thereby crippling the union, given the match is worth in excess of £9m, and having an effect on the rest of the competing nations. The reputational damage suffered would have been catastrophic – the captain, Ken Owens, said on Wednesday that Welsh rugby had already become a “laughing stock” – and Six Nations organisers would have been reeling with the match due to be broadcast in the BBC’s prime Saturday late afternoon slot.
The players were insistent that their threat was genuine, but after meeting the WRU’s acting chief executive, Nigel Walker, and Malcolm Wall, chairman of the Professional Rugby Board, they have relented.
The threat of strike action materialised amid an ongoing delay to the new six-year financial agreement between the WRU and the four Welsh regions. Due to that delay, regions had been unable to offer players contracts for next season, leaving dozens uncertain of their future.
As a result, the Wales players gave the WRU and the PRB a set of demands to meet if strike action were to be averted. They wanted representation on the PRB via the Welsh Rugby Players Association, demanded an end to the 60-cap rule – which prevents players with fewer than 60 caps being eligible for selection if they are based outside Wales – and had called for a change to the structure of the proposed contracts.
After crunch talks at Wales’s training base between the WRU, the PRB and dozens of players, confirmation came that the match would be on. The cap rule has not been entirely scrapped but the threshold has been reduced to 25, players will be offered both fixed and fixed variable contracts and the WRPA chief executive, Gareth Lewis, will have a seat on the PRB.
Walker also confirmed that regions would be able to offer contracts from next week. “I’m pleased to announce that after extensive conversations and discussions over the last week the Wales-England game will go ahead as scheduled,” he said. “It’s important going forward that we continue the dialogue, but not under the circumstances we’ve had over the last week or so.”
15 Feb: Take it or leave it deal
The Welsh Rugby Union and the regions insist there is “no room for manoeuvre” on the budget for player contracts in Wales. The take-or-leave-it deal which has to be signed by 28 February – three days after facing England in Cardiff – would see lower wages all round and bonuses introduced into contracts for the first time.
16 Feb: Players have ‘had enough’
The Welsh Rugby Players’ Association say that “players have had enough” amid the ongoing uncertainty caused by Welsh rugby’s professional contracts freeze and threaten to strike. “Until the long-form agreement is signed and active, no players’ futures are guaranteed.”
16 Feb: Gatland against strike
Later that day, Wales head coach Warren Gatland says he would not back his players if they decided to strike instead of lining up against England in the Six Nations even though his former captain Alun Wyn Jones stresses a strike would be “the very last option”.
18 Feb: ‘I’m confident they’ll play’
Gatland says he is confident that the Test against England will go ahead after talks over the weekend tried to resolve the deadlock. “I expect the game is going to be played. I have seen these sort of things happen in the past and I am confident the game will go ahead,” the New Zealander says. “It hasn’t been the easiest few weeks, but sometimes that focuses the mind and gives you the resolve to focus on the job at hand.”
19 Feb: Coach calls for sense
Gatland urges Welsh rugby’s warring factions to come together and resolve the dispute. “We’ve got to take away our parochialism and take away the self-interest. I’ve always been a big advocate of this. Let’s make the best decisions for the game.”
19 Feb: ‘Stress and discomfort’
Professional Rugby Board chair Malcom Wall apologises to Welsh players for the “stress and real discomfort” caused by the contract dispute. “I’m genuinely upset and feel very personally that I’ve not done what I should have done as chair of the PRB in getting us to the place we want to be with this long-term funding agreement.”
21 Feb: Delay in naming squad
Gatland delays naming his team. He had been due to announce the starting line-up at midday ahead of talks due to take place the next day, deadline for the England game.
22 Feb: Strike threat called off
Players, WRU and PRB reach agreement that sees England match go ahead
With the match going ahead, Wales must now regroup in an effort to avoid a third straight Six Nations defeat. Warren Gatland delayed naming his team on Tuesday but will do so on Thursday. Owens said the contract row had been a distraction but that Wales would be prepared to face an England side chasing a first win in Cardiff since 2017.
“We are obviously happy,” he said. “There has been huge frustration over the last number of months that it got to this stage. We felt we had to make a stand, but the conversations that have taken place over the last 10 days or so have shown that some positive resolutions can be found.
“The players are satisfied, hence why the game is on. It has been very tough, hugely frustrating. It has been a difficult period, but we have fronted up in training and prepared as we would for any Test match and we are looking forward to getting out there and going toe-to-toe with England.
“Of course it has been a distraction with everything that has been going on, but I have got to commend the players’ professionalism in this. When we have crossed that white line at training, we’ve done our work as professional players. We are really ready for Saturday.
“With the events of the last six to eight weeks everybody in Welsh rugby needs to pull together now to find the best way forward. We need to do it collaboratively to put Welsh rugby back at the top of world rugby, and not the laughing stock which I think we are at the moment.”
England, meanwhile, are seeking a second win under Steve Borthwick after comfortably seeing off Italy. Borthwick will keep changes to his side to a minimum with the returning Courtney Lawes set to take a place on the bench, providing cover to what is shaping up to be an unchanged pack. In the backs, Borthwick must make one change after a knee injury ruled out Ollie Hassell-Collins, with the head coach mulling over whether to hand the 20-year-old Henry Arundell a first start. Anthony Watson, Joe Marchant and Cadan Murley are alternative options.
Arundell scored his first Twickenham try for England after coming off the bench against Italy and the full-back Freddie Steward has backed him to flourish in Cardiff, whether from the start or as a replacement. “He’s a freak really,” said 22-year-old Steward. “He’s the most powerful guy I’ve ever seen, I think – the way he explodes when he’s running; his skillset, he is ridiculously talented. I think I’m young and he’s a lot younger than I am, so the potential he has is scary.”
Tom Curry will play no part in England’s Six Nations campaign after it was revealed his fresh injury will keep him sidelined for at least the next four weeks. Curry was due to return against Wales after recovering from an injury to his right hamstring but sustained a similar injury to his left leg during an England training session on Monday, his club, Sale, have confirmed.
