DEADLOCK appeared to have been broken in the spat between the regions and the Welsh Rugby Union last week – but an independent chairman with a casting vote on the Professional Regional Game Board appears to be as distant as ever.

The two parties met in Cardiff last Thursday to try and work towards tackling the problems that are crippling the game beneath Test level in Wales.

However, the regions’ hopes of extra funding or top-up fees to help stem the player drain appear to have been dashed.

The Union did put forward a proposal to press ahead with the PRGB, but without a casting vote for chairman, judge Sir Wyn Williams.

Regional Rugby Wales – the body that represents Newport Gwent Dragons, the Ospreys, Cardiff Blues and the Scarlets – said at a press conference in April that such a proposal was no good to them; that it amounted to the same as the previous management board that was disbanded.

“I have sat on many boards in my time and I cannot recall one where the chairman did not have a vote,” said Blues chairman Peter Thomas.

“Why do the union not want the chairman to have a vote when initially they signed up to it?

“We should be working together for the benefit of all of Welsh rugby and we want to take it forward, but the way the WRU is acting is just deplorable.”

However, RRW now has to decide whether that is as good as they can hope for and assess whether that version of the PRGB would at least give them opportunity to tackle issues with the Union.

But it is clear that the WRU is not prepared to bequeath any of its power to an independent chairman and is also happy to play the long game while the regions struggle.

Last week chairman David Pickering said the Union wanted to help try and stem the loss of talent to France, but that they were unable to compete with the big deals on offer in the Top 14. “What we will try to do is keep the talent in Wales because that’s what we want to do, but we’re not bankrupting ourselves,” he said.