Ceri Coleman-Phillips
BBC Sport Wales rugby reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The WRU is a key stakeholder in the United Rugby Championship (URC) - the 16-team league in which Cardiff, Dragons, Scarlets and Ospreys currently play.

Collier-Keywood said they would need to come to an agreement with the URC to reduce Wales' number of participating sides down to three.

Ceri Coleman-Phillips
BBC Sport Wales rugby reporter

So when can we expect to see change?

Dragons and Cardiff have funding deals until 2028, while Scarlets and Ospreys' run out in 2027.

The WRU says it will continue to honour those agreements, but the ambition is to get a new deal done as soon as possible.

This could be as early as next season.

Ceri Coleman-Phillips
BBC Sport Wales rugby reporter

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

As I mentioned earlier, the women's game could be one of the main beneficiaries from today's announcement.

The WRU says it will fund two elite women's teams, and as well as having a women's national academy, there will be three women's Player Development Centres (PDCs).

Gwalia Lightning and Brython Thunder will also have more money thrown at them to compete in the Celtic Challenge.

This will be music to the ears of Wales' head coach Sean Lynn, who not only wants to find the next generation of Welsh talent but have them playing a high standard of rugby right here in Wales.

Amanda Bennett, chair of the women’s rugby committee, said it was a "transformative moment for women’s rugby in Wales".

"The WRU’s commitment to funding and infrastructure will help us attract and retain top talent and build a competitive domestic structure.

"We all saw the amazing success of the Women’s World Cup tournament this year. This is an area for growth in the sport both globally and in Wales.”

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales at the Principality Stadium

Having originally suggested two professional teams was the “optimal” option, Richard Collier-Keywood and Dave Reddin were asked today about the “mess” and if their positions were tenable.

“Definitely," Collier-Keywood said.

"I don’t accept it’s a mess at all. We went out with a consultation that had radical proposals… it was good to have debate… that’s absolutely necessary if we’re going to make change. We’re going to take people with us in that change… I have fun in this job every day."

That stance was endorsed by Reddin.

“Absolutely [my job is tenable]," he added. "The two-club model was predicated on the budget at the time… the union looked really hard at finances… when you look at level of investment, I’m massively excited about that. I don’t see a mess at all.”

Image source, Catherine Ivill

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales at the Principality Stadium

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

The WRU's director of rugby and elite performance Dave Reddin has also been speaking at the press conference.

He said the new proposals have been "built from the ground up to drive success" and were "designed to raise standards, restore the DNA of Welsh rugby and deliver the step forward in performance that everyone in Welsh rugby craves".

Reddin accepts that the original two-club model had been met with opposition and that they had listened to "concerns of players and the deep passion for the heritage of our teams".

"On balance we feel that this three-team structure protects that for most while managing a necessary reduction in a fair and respectful way. This creates a sustainable, joined-up system," he said.

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales at the Principality Stadium

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

"We have heard loud and clear from the consultation that people want a long-term fix and not a short-term patch," Collier-Keywood told the press.

"We have listened and we agree."

“Any change is difficult, and we have current contractual obligations to the URC and our professional clubs that we will honour in the absence of new agreements.

"We want to involve the URC and the owners and managers of the current clubs in how we get to our chosen destination. This may take some time, but we will work hard to get this done as quickly as possible.

“If, however, it ultimately proves impossible to reach a consensus on how this change will happen then the WRU will run a fair and transparent tendering process for the three licences. We have already guaranteed that all existing player contracts will be honoured.”

The WRU has also confirmed additional investment of £40m across five years from the elite level to the pathways.

£28 million of this will go into:

• Improved coaching and education
• Men’s national academy with two regional training centres
• 12 men’s player development centres
• A women’s national academy
• Three women’s player development centres with nine satellite locations
• Additional investment in Super Rygbi Cymru and Celtic Challenge teams
• A new talent and insight management department which will manage talent identification, recruitment, retention and development across both men's and women's rugby

Matt Lloyd
BBC Sport at Principality Stadium

Image source, BBC Sport

As expected, the WRU has formally announced its plans to cut Wales' four professional regions down to three by 2027.

“Our decision is that the future structure of elite men’s rugby will be based on three professional men’s clubs, replacing the current four-team model, alongside two women’s elite teams," Richard Collier-Keywood, chair of the WRU Board, said at today's press conference.

The Union proposes to grant three licences for men’s clubs; one for the capital, one for west Wales and one for east Wales.

There will be equal funding for the three squads starting at £6.4m and rising to £7.8m per annum.

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales at the Principality Stadium

WRU chairman Richard Collier-Keywood will be the first to speak.

We'll also be hearing from director of rugby and head of performance Dave Reddin and WRU board members Amanda Bennett and John Manders.

Image source, BBC Sport

Rowenna Hoskin
BBC Wales

"It is shameful that it has got to this point, stripping back the club footprint and identity in Wales," says Gareth Davies, Welsh Conservative shadow cabinet secretary for culture, tourism and sport.

"Instead of shrinking the game, the WRU should focus on strengthening its foundations, building up regional structures, investing in grassroots clubs, and ensuring that every part of Wales has a fair chance to compete at the top level," he said.

Ceri Coleman-Phillips
BBC Sport Wales rugby reporter

While we're all here talking about the future of Welsh rugby, spare a thought for the players who will remain uncertain about their long-term futures.

Here's are just some of the region's big names who are set to feature in Wales' autumn internationals:

Cardiff

Taulupe Faletau, Josh Adams, Ben Thomas

Dragons

Aaron Wainwright, Ben Carter, Rio Dyer

Ospreys

Jac Morgan, Dewi Lake, Gareth Thomas

Scarlets

Blair Murray, Joe Hawkins, Tom Rogers

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Rowenna Hoskin
BBC Wales

Rugby is "woven into the fabric of life in communities up and down the nation", says Ruth Jones, chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee.

"The proposed structural changes announced by the WRU today will resonate far beyond the pitch," she said.

MPs will question the WRU in January on the outcome of its consultation on the future of Welsh rugby in an evidence session.

Image source, Getty Images

Ceri Coleman-Phillips
BBC Sport Wales rugby reporter

While WRU proposals for the men's game were met with fierce criticism, there was a quiet optimism about what it meant for the women's game in Wales.

The governing body wanted two professional men's teams, each with a professional women's side.

They would be made up of squads of around 40 home-grown players with "significant investment".

But now that plans have changed, questions need to be asked, especially if Wales are going to build on the success of the record-breaking Rugby World Cup this summer.

Currently there are no professional women's team in Wales - they have grassroots leagues with Brython Thunder and Gwalia Lightning playing in the cross-border Celtic Challenge.

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Rowenna Hoskin
BBC Wales

Wales' men's national team basked in a golden era after rugby went regional here in 2003, with Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys Scarlets and Celtic Warriors - the latter folding after just a year.

They won four Six Nations Grand Slams in 14 years and reached the World Cup semi-finals twice.

The Welsh team reached number one in the world too, and the British and Irish Lions picked 10 Welshmen in their third Test win over Australia in 2013.

But they have since slumped to a record 18-match losing streak - going 644 days without a win - and slipped to 14th in the world rankings this year.

Then just two Wales players were picked for the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia this summer.

Ospreys have won four league titles and Scarlets two but no Welsh team has won it since 2017.

The Cardiff region has won two European Challenge Cups - the second tier European competition - but the last of which was in 2018.

Only one Welsh region - the Scarlets in 2017/18 - have reached the quarter finals of the Champions Cup in 13 years.

Image source, Getty Images

Rowenna Hoskin
BBC Wales

In July the WRU said the current system wasn't working and a major new approach was needed.

After winning four Six Nations Grand Slams in 14 years, the Welsh men's national team slumped to a record 18-match losing streak and slipped to 12th in the world rankings.

Wales' four regions - the Scarlets, Ospreys, Dragons and Cardiff - have also struggled in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and European competitions.

A new deal between the WRU and the regions was delayed after Cardiff went into temporary administration while the Scarlets and Ospreys refused to sign over "key" unresolved issues.

Only Cardiff and the Dragons signed - and that prompted the WRU to reconsider funding all four teams as they said they would no longer fund four men's regions equally.

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales at the Principality Stadium

Members of the media are starting to gather at the Principality Stadium for this highly anticipated Welsh Rugby Union news conference.

We've been told that WRU chairman Richard Collier-Keywood and director of rugby and head of performance Dave Reddin will be among those speaking.

But there are four chairs on the stage in the room where they will be fielding questions.

I wonder who else we'll be hearing from?

Rowenna Hoskin
BBC Wales

After months of consultation, debate and uncertainty, the WRU has opted initially to keep the four sides in the short-term before looking to reduce a side in the next couple of years.

The WRU have not decided how this process will be judged but hope for collaboration before looking at a tender system.

Among the proposals put forward by the WRU in August, two choices involved having three men's professional teams, which would have meant culling one side.

One was equal funding while the other option of a trio of teams was with unequal funding.

The other choices was the game's governing body either enacting what it had termed its most "radical step" of halving the number of professional teams - which it has now shied away from - or cutting none at all and instead rejigging the finances.

As you can imagine, bosses at Wales' four current regions weren't happy about the number of teams potentially being halved.

Dragons are based in Newport and have already said that elite professional rugby must continue in Gwent - an area of south-east Wales that once had five top-tier teams.

Ospreys and Scarlets - based in Swansea and Llanelli respectively - had previously not signed a new funding deal with the Welsh Rugby Union, a situation that has partly led to this latest radical proposal.

Ospreys have plans to move into a new stadium in Swansea for the 2026-27 season while Scarlets have recently unveiled new investors.

The club said the WRU proposals were already affecting investment and player recruitment. Scarlets said they would continue to work constructively with the WRU on the structural review but were "driven by the ambition to grow the club and safeguard its future".

Cardiff, however, are now owned by the WRU after the capital region went into administration earlier this year.

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Good afternoon, welcome to the BBC's live page in what could be a seismic day for Welsh rugby.

The game's governing body in Wales is expected to announce that it will continue to have four professional sides, but plans to cut to three professional teams by 2028.

Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) executives had previously proposed cutting the number of professional rugby teams down to two.

But following discussions with the governing body's board, the ambition now is to have three equally funded sides with one team in the east, one in the west and one in Cardiff.

We’ll share updates and expert analysis as soon as we get it.