The new Professional Rugby Agreement for 2025 (PRA25), will underpin the working relationship between the Welsh Rugby Union and the professional clubs until 2030, establishing financial stability and creating the foundations for success in all areas of the men’s professional game in Wales.
The PRA25 will see increased collaboration across the entire rugby ecosystem in return for increased fixed funding for the four teams and will enable Welsh rugby’s ‘One Wales’ headline strategy, launched last summer, to rapidly progress.
“The four regional clubs and the WRU have agreed on the principles underpinning the funding deal. We’ve agreed on the key points, and now we’re finalising some of the last details before presenting the agreement to the Boards and Stakeholders for approval,” said Professional Rugby Board (PRB) chair Malcolm Wall, speaking on behalf of each of the four professional clubs and the WRU who all sit on the PRB.
Key points have been agreed with some last details to be finalised before the agreement is presented to club boards and stakeholders for approval, with final confirmation of this keystone element of the One Wales strategy set to follow soon after.
“The settlement with the clubs is part of a whole game approach which is already seeing advancing improvements to the pathways which support senior men’s rugby in Wales,” added Wall.
“This includes the installation of new academy licences at professional club level, the raising of standards in the new Super Rygbi Cymru competition, which sits underneath the professional teams, and greater collaboration across the game with national coaches sharing ideas and strategy and staging skills clinics for new and emerging talent.”
In addition to improved financial circumstances for the clubs a new model for ‘shared services’, where the union and professional clubs will unite to create efficiencies from suppliers and pool resources for income generation from partners and sponsors, will be installed alongside a directive for minimum operating standards which has been agreed.
Increased investment in squads will not only allow them to grow in size but also help to retain talent and repatriate players who have moved overseas or even see those developed outside of Wales return. This squad growth is expected to be supplemented by the ability for squads to include top quality overseas signings.
“We are at a crucial stage in completing a deal which will not only safeguard the future of the professional game in Wales in the short term but will also directly enable long term success. These are exciting times for our game with the right systems and structures being enabled off the pitch designed to enable future success on it in all quarters,” added Wall.
