Tom Shanklin calls for one 'full fat' region to be chosen as Wales' main team

Former Welsh international Tom Shanklin has laid out a plan for a new regional structure in Wales, suggesting the number of regions should remain at four but that one side should get more funding than the others.

With Welsh rugby reaching its nadir during the autumn, the future of the regions remains a major talking point with the likes of former Wales internationals Jonathan Davies and Sam Warburton arguing that the number of sides must be reduced to three.

However, the Welsh Rugby Union intend on sticking with four professional clubs in the upcoming Professional Rugby Agreement, despite some in the upper echelons of the game believing that this new deal will act as nothing more than a sticking plaster with the question of whether to cut a region set to reappear time and time again.

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Giving his take on the matter while on punditry duty for Cardiff's win over the Dragons, ex-Wales centre Shanklin agreed that his former teammate Warburton "does have a point" about cutting the number of regions to three, but argued that such a move would inevitably have other downsides.

"You might see better quality teams because the talent would be in three teams," he said. "But are we going to get the same amount of funding, are we going to get the same commercial deals?

"There's going to be one less derby and if there is one thing Welsh teams like, that is derbies - because you get to fill the stadium. We talk about pathways and there's going to be one less pathway then."

Praising the WRU's recent decision to select a group of up to 60 players of ’national interest’ between the ages of 15-24, Shanklin added: "I think what I'm really liking at the moment is the focus on 60 players - on the youngsters."

Returning to the issue of the regions, however, the 70-cap international argued the number of professional sides should be kept the same - but laid out his vision of a new structure using a 'milk analogy' which initially left his co-pundit Alex Cuthbert and presenter Ross Harries looking baffled.

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"I think it should be four teams," said Shanklin. "I think maybe [using] a milk analogy, you have one [team] that is full-fat, so they get the most funding. Then you get two semi-skimmed, one skimmed.

"The full-fat team - bear with me - at least if they've got the quality of the players, the recruitment of the players, they're going to be challenging in the top eight, they're going to be challenging in the Champions Cup. That's what we want to see, [it would be] a little like the model like Leinster and then it filters down through the rest of the teams.

"That's what I want to see," he added. "We'll just milkshake things up."