WALES are paying a fearful price for their shambolic start to the Six Nations in lost prize money – £2m and rising.
A week dominated by dressing-room threats of strike action over Saturday’s match against England has left the players’ employers counting the cost of their most damaging defeats in the championship.
The Welsh Rugby Union, already mired in a scandal over allegations of sexism and misogyny, have been given until Wednesday to prevent the contractual row affecting all four regional teams from escalating into the preposterous scenario of the old enemy arriving in Cardiff with nobody to give them a game.
The usual 74,500 sellout has generated record ticket sales not far short of £10m, a sum made all the more precious to the WRU by their squad’s immediate elimination from the biggest sums on offer in the Six Nations’ £16m prize money.
Wales’ opening flop against Ireland counted them out of contention for the Grand Slam bonus of £1m, an amount raised by the rest of the countries paying £200,000 each to the one winning all five matches as Wales almost did under Wayne Pivac three years ago.
Scotland’s landslide win at Murrayfield banished what forlor n hope their opponents had of making a challenge for the title. In hard cash ter ms that cost them another £1m with three matches to play.
Unless Wales break their losing sequence against England, assuming the home team deign to tur n up, they will finish with trips to Rome and Paris. Finishing bottom for the first time in 20 years would cut their share of the jackpot from a maximum £6m to £1m, at best.
The prospect of a barren tour nament comes with the WRU in the throes of a financial crisis which has left some 70 Welsh-based players with no guar
