As the last-placed Welsh region, the Blues faced the drop, but the demise of the Celtic Warriors has given coach Dai Young and his players fresh hope. Union officials are quietly confident of getting the thumbs-up – just as they did when asking for all five regions to be in the Cup last season.
“If the Union are successful, it would be great news,” Ruddock said from Buenos Aires where he is preparing for his first Test in charge against Argentina in tucuman on Saturday.
“Getting four teams in there would be superb. Particularly with the Blues missing out like that, with the Ospreys getting that injury-time try in the final round. Well done the Ospreys, but it was tough on the Blues because they weren’t a million miles away.
“They were ahead of a lot of the Irish and Scottish teams, so I don’t think anyone would deny them the opportunity to compete at this level.
“I still think the Parker Pen is a good competition with a lot of good teams in there, but ideally if we can get everyone into the Heineken Cup, it obviously makes for a great preparation for Test rugby.”
Fans have suggested the Union form a fifth development side – a la Connacht – who could be placed in the Parker Pen tournament to fulfil the terms of the contract with ERC, but Ruddock says there isn’t the cash to do it.
“It would be very difficult and there are a number of issues,” he said.
“One would be the funding. I don’t see how we could fund another team, even if it was just a development side.
“Two, I think it would be wrong to try to create a superior semi-pro team, because ultimately it would be in one particular region and that would be creaming off the best players from all the regions into that one team. That would be wrong – all the academies are up and running in each region and those players need to be playing in their region and be identified from their region hopefully for regional contracts.
“I don’t see a problem with picking the champions of our League to play in the Parker Pen tournament. For example, they could pick Newport to play in it, but Newport would have trouble funding all the travel and the Union would have to assist them. Whether they could afford to is another question.
“I simply don’t see the funding. In principle, it’s a good idea – but we haven’t got the money. That’s why we’ve had the restructuring we’ve had. Connacht themselves are under pressure for the same reason – funding.”
