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All Blacks look for new horizons

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Neath coach Rowland Phillips renewed the call for a route into Europe after completing the double with Saturday's Konica Minolta Cup final victory.

"What I'm looking at are opportunities, not just for Neath, but any ambitious Welsh Premiership team," he said.

All Blacks captain Lee Beach, a try scorer in the 28-22 Millennium Stadium win over Pontypridd, said:

"The trouble with the Welsh Premiership is that there's not a level for us to step up to next season."
Neath have been the dominant force in the semi-professional Premiership since the advent of the regional structure in 2003. They have won the league ***le in each of the last four seasons and won the cup in 2004 and 2008.

Their rivals would contend that Neath are the best resourced of the Welsh club sides and the closest to a fully professional outfit.

With all four of Wales' regions competing in the Heineken Cup this season and next season, the country has had no teams in the second-tier European Challenge Cup, the tournament that the All Blacks have targeted.



The Challenge Cup has welcomed teams from Italy, Spain and Romania, but they have struggled to compete and the tournament has been dominated by France and - especially - England.

Bath and Worcester compete in this year's final, and Phillips believes that his team could realistically compete against that calibre of opposition.

"We beat Bristol last season, even if it was only a pre-season game," Phillips told BBC Sport Wales.

"Neath couldn't beat the likes of Bath this year, or even next year.

"But five years down the line, who knows? Given the opportunity to compete, maybe we could do it."
 
If we want Welsh rugby to be strong then playing outside of their own league is the next step. Some players may find the gap between club and regional rugby too high so why not embrace europe or an anglo-welsh competition similar to the EDF cup with the welsh premiership playing english teams of a similar level?? Different version of the Celtic league, if for example Ospreys play Edinburgh, why not the feeder clubs play against each other???
 
agree totally theres no reason really that the welsh premiership clubs cant compete in a celtic league of some sort for non professional clubs. id say the likes of shannon and garryowen over here would be able to put it up to them at least
 

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