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.
