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Scarlets managing director Jon Daniels says there are no plans for talks with arch-rivals the Ospreys over a merger and has urged the Welsh Rugby Union to rethink plans to cut the number of professional teams in Wales from four to three.
Last week the WRU pitched the Scarlets and the Ospreys into a battle for the west licence after confirming Cardiff and the Dragons were safe.
Unless the two clubs agree to merge, one of the Scarlets or Ospreys could cease to exist; a prospect Daniels describes as unthinkable.
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“What I can say is there are no ongoing conversations about a merger,” Daniels tells WalesOnline.
“I think from our point of view, and I suspect the Ospreys would probably say the same, we don’t feel that it is honest to talk about a merger yet.
“If we can stay at four there’s no mergers needed. Then as a second point, there’s still a huge gap in information on why that conversation should be isolated to west Wales and not across Wales.
“Until those questions are justified and answered I’m not sure there’s any appetite from anybody to be talking of a merger when you’ve got two strong west Wales clubs that have contributed strongly to the eco-system over a number of years.
“I don’t think anybody would think we were doing our jobs properly or representing our clubs properly if we just jumped straight into a conversation about a merger without looking at everything else because, make no mistake, a move of that size shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
Few clubs have played a more significant role in Welsh rugby than the Scarlets, whose history dates back to 1872 and whose production line has supplied generations of international players.
Daniels, who helped establish Llanelli’s first academy at Coleg Sir Gâr in 2000, believes forcing the Scarlets out of the professional game would have consequences far beyond west Wales.
“As a club we will defend our position and defend our right to represent west Wales as we have done for generations,” said Daniels.
“We will always be confident in what we have as part of any justification. I caveat all this with we don’t know what any (selection) criteria will be.
“I’ve heard media reports about commercial potential, population and the number of clubs but we don’t know what any criteria in any process will be.
“What we do know is if there is any metric in there which covers the facilities available, we’d be confident.
“If there’s anything in there on commercial performance, we’d be confident. If there’s anything on on-field performance over the last 10 years, we’d be confident.
“If there’s anything on the development of players, international and professional, into the Welsh system we’d be confident.
“If we end up at that point we have confidence.
“The only metric that has been reported on which we don’t understand is this point about population and the number of schools in an area and so on.
“There’s a couple of realities to that. First of all, you can equalise those numbers across any number of regions by where you put the boundaries so I don’t see how that is relevant.
“When regionalisation was brought in in 2003 we had a high number of clubs and a high number of schools because we had north Wales in our territory.
“We are the only region that has been forced to shrink in this time while others have grown.
“If those metrics are so easily indicators for success why isn’t that borne out by recent history?”
With Welsh rugby under growing financial pressure, the WRU argues cutting the number of professional teams from four to three is essential to the game’s long-term sustainability.
Daniels has rejected rumours that the Scarlets are facing financial difficulties and insists the club’s funding directors remain fully committed to securing its future.
“You know the strength of our benefactors in the past and what they’ve done,” he told WalesOnline.
“They are all still there and are passionately fighting for this club but now also have a significant other benefactor to add to that.
“In the last 12 months we have needed significant support to get through last year but we’ve also got a commitment for significant support for the next two years.
“There’s a reason for that and that’s because people like me are in a position to fight for what the Scarlets represent in west Wales.
“They are prepared to put their money where their mouth is.
“We are stronger than ever.
“We have the best facility in Wales and we have the best talent in Wales.
“If you look at the national succession plan and players capped by Wales over the past 10-11 years we come out higher than anybody.”We have a geography where rugby is still played in the yard.
“Rugby is ingrained into the communities of west Wales more than anywhere else and that is something that has grown and developed over 150 years.”
Daniels was speaking at the National Eisteddfod at Llantwd in Pembrokeshire, which is at the heart of the Scarlets region, as part of their summer three counties engagement activities.
During 2025/26, Scarlets Community Foundation reached around 40,000 people and community interactions across west Wales.
It delivered and supported more than 450 sessions, festivals, camps and events, worked with 45 schools and education settings, supported more than 40 community clubs and inclusion groups, and generated over 1,000 hours of positive community activity across Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion.
A lack of transparency
While the WRU is pushing to reduce the number of professional teams to three, Daniels does not believe it has produced sufficient evidence to show the move would solve Welsh rugby’s problems.
“The more we discuss it and the more we look at it we just feel there’s a key question that hasn’t had enough evaluation or research,” he said.
“We don’t think that the case for four to three has been completely thought through.
“There’s a lack of data, there’s a lack of transparency in all the information that has been used to come to that decision.
“Before we take any massive decision like this would be, have we looked at every possibility to stay at four because there’s no doubt the system is stronger as four.
“We don’t know what the real financial picture is. That’s one of the missing pieces for us.
“A decision of this magnitude needs everyone involved in Welsh rugby to understand the decision and the data used to make this type of decision because that’s how you get people on board with a decision and a plan as well.
“Without it you are asking people to go along with a seismic decision that will change the Welsh rugby landscape forever more without the data or the information needed to justify it.
“I couldn’t tell you about the finances. We are always funded less than some of the teams in both Europe and URC.
“We are always funded less than other countries but at the same time it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to match every country pound for pound if your system is working as efficiently as it could.
“My worry is that if we are at a position now where we are lacking in either of those areas, the reasons for that probably occurred five to 10 years ago. So any decision we make now isn’t going to change that but what it will do is change the next five to 10 years.”
Daniels is confident that with the right plan the four professional teams can thrive.
“We aren’t just fighting to survive and prop up league tables,” he said.
“Do we need to be the top funded team in URC to win URC? No, we don’t.
“The last time we won it we were the eighth highest squad spend.
“But have the WRU had the drains up and looked at every penny they spend and is it in the most effective areas?
“And also, have we all done everything possible to get more money into the game so that we can retain four as part of a coherent, structured, and considered plan for the next five to 10 years?”
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