THE four rugby regions insist they are not dead set against the idea of central contracts – but have stressed that the detail would need to be thrashed out at the Professional Regional Game Board.

The chairmen of Newport Gwent Dragons, the Osp-reys, Cardiff Blues and the Scarlets received a letter from Roger Lewis, chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union, asking them to attend a Millennium Stad-ium summit to talk about central contracting.

The response from Reg-ional Rugby Wales – the organisation representing the quartet – was that they would not be attending.

Instead they want to add-ress the problems through the PRGB, which was formed following recommendations by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers when commisioned by the WRU to examine the finances of the professional game.

The body comprises four representatives from the regions and four from the Union with an independent chairman, judge Sir Wyn Williams.

The PRGB has met just once and has since stalled with the regions claiming that is because the Union have gone cold on the idea of the chairman having a casting vote.

That has led to squabbling in public instead of issues being thrashed out in the boardroom, including the topic of central contracts following the imminent departure of George North from the Scarlets to Northamp-ton.

The Union claimed that they had raised the possibility of doing a deal with the winger and placing him at another region, only to discover the quartet had penned an agreement not to pick any player contracted to the Union.

That agreement was confirmed but RRW said it was needed because central contracts cannot be treated in isolation, that they must be part of a wider strategy to tackle the problems facing the game in Wales.

The RRW cited the PricewaterhouseCoopers report, stating, “central contracting of a number of ‘elite’ players will not, as PwC identified, solve the structural or funding issues for Welsh rugby”.

Essentially, they believe that there is little point in raising the issue of central contracts unless the WRU increases the sum of around £6million paid for the release of their players to the national team.

“The findings of the independent report made it clear there was no one bullet solution.

“Central contracts for individual players is a knee-jerk reaction – it will not help nurture the whole game in Wales, including community rugby and the important role that our clubs play in helping develop young talent for Wales.”

And Ospreys boss Andrew Hore believes it isn’t helpful to mimic policies that have had success elsewhere.

“The central contracts in the southern hemisphere are all different,” said the New Zealander, who is chief operations manager at the Liberty Stadium .

“In Australia it’s more of a top-up system, in New Zealand the provincial unions actually pay the wages of the players and then, when they make a franchise, they go on to a full-fledged contract, and in South Africa they have 50 players that are centrally contracted.

“If you are going to harp on about central contracts and go back to the southern hemisphere, the problem is they are all different.

“They suit the needs of that individual nation and they have worked it through together in a collaborative fashion, which comes back to the PRGB and the PwC report.

“We should be finding a Welsh solution to a Welsh problem.”