Warburton to make history by signing with WRU... then being loaned back to Cardiff



Sam Warburton is on the verge of making rugby history by signing up as a centrally contracted player to the Welsh Rugby Union in a deal believed to be in excess of £300,000 a year.

Warburton, who will lead Wales in the RBS Six Nations Championship, is out of contract in May and has, despite much interest from French clubs, stated how his preferred option was to stay in Cardiff.

Cardiff Blues, like the other regions still uncertain about what competitions they will be in next season, are desperate to keep their talismanic openside flanker, but have admitted that they cannot afford the wages Warburton could command.

Historic: Wales skipper Sam Warburton is set to be signed by the rugby union themselves

But the WRU can and, in a landmark case, they are close to securing the 25-year-old’s signature with a view to loaning him out to a region — almost certainly the Blues — where a much smaller wage-sharing structure can be negotiated.

In doing so, Welsh rugby will be keeping the services of their highest profile player and be able to manage a man who is prone to injury much better than if he was employed by a region desperate for his constant services.

Welsh sources close to the Union have explained that the ideal would be for Warburton to play the dozen tests Wales normally appear in each season and then, on top of these, turn out for perhaps half of the 30-odd games in the Celtic League and Europe.

Warburton has missed months of rugby through injury over the past three seasons, including the third Lions Test in Australia last summer, and will almost certainly be absent from the start of the Six Nations in a fortnight’s time with nerve damage in his shoulder.

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Test rugby would take precedence under the deal with the WRU, who accept that a player of his standing needs to play a lot more than 12 times a year, but not the 40-plus games expected of him at the moment by club and country.

The deal has major ramifications in the regions versus Union row that has raged for the past few months.

The regions opted three weeks ago not to sign the WRU’s existing participation agreement for another five years, stating that they were unable to commit because it lacked detail on competition structure and finance amid the uncertainty of European Cup rugby.



They were also unhappy with the lack of funding from the Union that saw an exodus of Welsh stars leaving for France and England.