Pro 14 Development league

The Times are reporting that the Pro14 are looking to set up a under 23 league from next season.

From the sound of things it might exclude Italy & SA purely from a cost point of view, but not sure if that's true.

Personally I think it could be a great idea, if done correctly, especially if the u23 fixtures mirror the main teams. Possibly with the u23s playing earlier in the day for example.

Early days though

A good idea, any word on whether there'll be an allowance for overage players?

Would love to see it done to include u18 or u19 league too and maybe something with the womens game too

I don't have access to the original article, but the offsideline are reporting on it here:

https://theoffsideline.com/pro14-investigate-development-league/

Not a huge amount of detail at this stage.

This seems to fall in line with the changes announced in Welsh rugby, with the set up of regional U23 squads announced a while back.

https://www.606v2.com/t67305-big-changes-in-welsh-rugby

I agree that SA and Italy might be a bit of a stretch financially.

The Oracle wrote:This seems to fall in line with the changes announced in Welsh rugby, with the set up of regional U23 squads announced a while back.

https://www.606v2.com/t67305-big-changes-in-welsh-rugby

I agree that SA and Italy might be a bit of a stretch financially.

I would like to see Italy have put in one team. Though that increase cost for everyone. Feel it would take out a development tool for Italy

Italy already put U23 teams out during the 6 nations..

This is an interesting idea, however not sure how practical that is. I would have it as a "A league" rather than U23.

Its a good idea and is needed IMO to bridge the gap between pro14 and the domestic competitions. According to Welsh reports there will be a few overage players allowed.

profitius wrote:Its a good idea and is needed IMO to bridge the gap between pro14 and the domestic competitions. According to Welsh reports there will be a few overage players allowed.

Close the gap how?

Get the calendar sorted so you don't get teams like Treviso or Leinster missing 20 players and the Pro14 is the best tournament in the NH..

This has been in the pipeline for a while. PRO14 wanted to dump the B&I Cup and the Anglo-Welsh and instead have a proper B&I development comp to run during the test windows. PRL were sounded out and made positive noises but nothing has come of it yet.

Early reports indicate that the English Premiership will not be ringfenced due to lack of agreement on who would lose out in a 13/14 team Premiership. Agreement does seem to have been reached on extending the Premiership league season by two weeks from the 2019/20 season onwards when the new global season starts. This would help to minimize the amount of league games run during test windows.

PRO14 will likely bring in 2 more SA teams and change conference games to have a shorter Championship season that would clear out any games during test windows. The development competition would run during these instead.

VinceWLB wrote:

profitius wrote:Its a good idea and is needed IMO to bridge the gap between pro14 and the domestic competitions. According to Welsh reports there will be a few overage players allowed.

Close the gap how?

Get the calendar sorted so you don't get teams like Treviso or Leinster missing 20 players and the Pro14 is the best tournament in the NH..

Theres a big step up from amateur rugby to pro14 rugby. An U23 competition would feature a lot of future internationals playing against each other and overall teams would have more professional players and access to better coaching.