Going it alone

Club benefactor Tony Brown has finally lost patience with his fellow clubs and their failure, along with the Welsh Rugby Union, to come up with sensible solutions to Welsh rugby's bankruptcy.

The result is Newport will today refuse to attend further meetings of the Premier Division clubs.

And in a wider swipe, aimed primarily at the WRU, chief executive Keith Grainger has resigned from the Celtic League management committee. "At today's meeting in Bridgend of the nine Premier clubs, I will tell them Newport are not prepared to continue to attend meetings while there is no unity of purpose," said Grainger.

"If we can't go forward together as nine clubs or eight clubs or whatever, then clearly it's pointless continuing to attend meetings just to argue between ourselves. "All we do is bitch about whether or not Caerphilly or Ebbw Vale are worthy of being in the Premiership.

"Given that Ebbw Vale are there and that they have a ten-year loyalty agreement with the WRU, it seems senseless to continue to argue they haven't got any right to be there.

"At the moment, Welsh rugby is insolvent and if people want to continue to ignore that, continue to ignore the fact that customers, sponsors and business partners are staying away from the table, then we don't want to be a part of it.

"I hope Newport's decision will bring people's attention to the fact that clearly one owner, if not all of the owners, is starting to get sick and tired of the continued waste of time and effort in trying to bring some semblance of sense to Welsh rugby.

"If you read behind Tony's recent comments, he's obviously starting to get very tired of trying his hardest to bring some kind of business plan to it and continually failing."

Grainger added: "I've resigned from the Celtic League committee for a number of reasons, the main one being I was horrified by the way this season's competition was launched - or non-launched."