WELSH Rugby Union chief Geraint John has defended the Principality Premiership’s controversial new halfway split, insisting it can help drive up standards.

The season kicks off next Friday when Newport head to Cardiff in the curtain-raiser for a new-look top flight.

The Premiership has gone back up to 16 teams with the promotion of Merthyr, Swansea, Bargoed and north Walians RGC 1404.

It will be ring-fenced until 2020 and a new split has been introduced that will see the top eight tussling among themselves from January while the bottom half play for a second-tier title.

The move is controversial as it means that clubs are not guaranteed to play each other home and away – potentially losing out on bumper paydays against the well-supported champions Ebbw Vale and perennial standard bearers Pontypridd – while there are fears that another wet winter will throw the league into chaos as teams scramble to complete their 15 fixtures before the split.

WRU head of rugby performance John has insisted that there is a contingency plan for a raft of postponements and reiterated that the fixtures will be reversed in 2017/18.

However, he says the governing body will getting feedback from club officials and supporters to the move.

“We are going to continually review it,” he said. “We are fortunate that we have got a good relationship with everybody at the moment, everyone is aligned and working well together.

“If we feel a change is needed then we will look at it but at this moment this is what we want to do this season and next season.

“This year might be a case of ‘suck it and see’ but next year will be a lot better and then we can see what’s worked and what hasn’t.”

And John remains confident that the split will improve standards at the top end and, given that there is no relegation, has dismissed the notion of the second half of the season being a write-off for those that miss out on the title play-offs.

“We feel that they will have a competitive environment (by playing for the second tier title) and hopefully the teams from 9th to 16th will be determined to not be there the following season and will use that time to plan and work for that,” he said.

“You want the teams in the top half to really excel but also the teams in the bottom half to grow for the following year to get in the play-offs for the title.

“It’s all about making the players better and we feel this is a way of doing that. We are also keen to improve the coaching and we are doing a lot of work with them with meetings and guest speakers.

“We are confident that the changes that we are making and the work that we are doing with clubs will help improve the quality of the Premiership.”