{"id":118079,"date":"2025-09-04T11:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/118079\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T11:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:23:07","slug":"welsh-rugby-cuts-dragons-criticise-wru-plan-to-reduce-clubs-to-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/118079\/","title":{"rendered":"Welsh rugby cuts: Dragons criticise WRU plan to reduce clubs to two"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Dragons, who finished bottom of the United Rugby Championship last season, signed a new Professional Rugby Agreement with the WRU in May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They state that they are financial stable with a &#8220;clear plan to drive improvements in on-field performance&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They are taking legal advice and, while they will continue with the consultation process, are urging the WRU to change their plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We are extremely disappointed in the initial proposals \u2013 they simply don&#8217;t add up,&#8221; said chairman Wright.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We will continue participating in the consultation and we want to find a solution. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We are committed to securing a positive future for Welsh rugby and to elite rugby continuing in Gwent, but there is no way we can agree to the proposals as they currently are. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Welsh rugby deserves better and the WRU must rethink.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dragons, who finished bottom of the United Rugby Championship last season, signed a new Professional Rugby Agreement with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-118079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}