Welsh rugby minister warns WRU of 'disconnect' with fans over three-team plan

Wales' sports minister has told the Welsh Rugby Union that fans of two of its four professional regions feel ignored, as the governing body pushes ahead with plans to cut one team by 2028.

Heledd Fychan, speaking on the BBC Wales podcast Walescast on 19 August, described a "good conversation" with WRU chief executive Abi Tierney but said she had heard from large numbers of Scarlets and Ospreys supporters who believe the union is not listening to them.

The WRU announced last October that it intends to reduce the number of professional rugby clubs in Wales from four to three by 2028, citing financial sustainability. The four current regional sides — Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets — would become three, with one team based in the east, where the Dragons currently operate. The WRU has since condemned abuse directed at staff over the plan and doubled down on its commitment to it, BBC Sport reported on 15 August.

Fychan told the podcast she had received "a lot of correspondence" from fans of both the Scarlets, based in Llanelli, and the Ospreys, based in Swansea. She said those supporters "currently felt they were not being listened to" by the WRU. She described the gap between the union and its communities as "a huge concern."

"There is a disconnect there, that I consider a huge concern, between the WRU and the communities they seek to work with," Fychan said, BBC Sport reported.

The minister used the meeting to "reiterate the importance of the WRU properly engaging with communities," she said. She also raised concerns about the economic impact of closing either the Scarlets or the Ospreys — two clubs that are deeply woven into the sporting identity of west and south-west Wales.

However, Fychan was clear about the limits of her government's power. The WRU is a private company, she said, meaning the Welsh government does not hold an opinion on whether reducing to three professional sides is the right course of action. What the government does care about, she stressed, is rugby as a community game — the thousands of volunteers, mini-rugby sessions and amateur clubs that form the base of the sport in Wales. She wants to see how the WRU's proposals address "historic concerns" at that grassroots level.

There was a brighter note on the women's game. Fychan said the WRU had given her "positive news" about what was happening with women's rugby in Wales, though she did not specify details.

For fans of the Scarlets and Ospreys, the stakes are stark. Either club could be the one to go, and both have passionate followings built over decades. The WRU argues the current four-team model is financially unsustainable, but supporters fear losing a region means losing a piece of their community — not just a professional team, but the identity, the match-day economy and the pipeline of local talent that flows from it.

The WRU has yet to confirm which region would be cut.