The Scotsman

DAVID FERGUSON

PROFESSIONAL rugby in Scotland is in turmoil again after the Scottish Rugby Union and its Irish counterpart tossed Wales out of the Celtic League and set up a new Scots-Irish competition.

The Welsh Rugby Union sparked the farce played out in a stormy meeting of Celtic nations officials at Heathrow Airport yesterday, and it has left Scots and Irish players contemplating a season reduced to less than 17 games for many players.

The WRU ignited the controversy by informing the Scots and Irish officials that it had signed up its four regional sides to a new ‘Anglo-Welsh Cup’ with England’s Zurich Premiership sides, a move that will help boost its finances. It then

stunned its Celtic counterparts by insisting that, in order to accommodate its involvement in the new cup, a series of Celtic League matches would have to be moved to the same weekends as internationals, and possibly downgraded in points value due to the expected loss of leading players to Test sides.

The Scottish representatives, Fred McLeod and Keith Grainger, joined their Irish counterparts in condemning the WRU’s actions and immediately agreed to disband the Celtic League and set up a new tournament featuring only the four Irish provinces and three Scottish teams.

This article was posted on 1-Jun-2005, 07:22 by Hugh Barrow.