Warren Gatland risks losing Test stars to English and overseas clubs as Welsh regions face fresh budget cuts… with Taine Basham and Mason Grady among those who could follow George North and Liam Williams out of the door.

Wales coach Warren Gatland faces the prospect of a new mass exodus of his international stars to England and abroad, as the country’s regions continue to battle budget cuts.

Last season, when contractual chaos and financial uncertainty hit Welsh rugby, Gatland saw Will Rowlands, Tomas Francis, Ross Moriarty, Jarrod Evans, Dillon Lewis and others leave their homeland.

Now, after Test centurion George North confirmed he would join prop Francis at French second-tier side Provence and Liam Williams moved to Japan, other players are set to follow suit.

Cardiff and Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams has signed for Gallagher Premiership side Gloucester. Cardiff will also lose prop Rhys Carré, who returns to Saracens.

Taine Basham, Mason Grady, Johnny Williams, Aaron Wainwright and Rio Dyer, who played for Wales in last year’s World Cup, are considering a move away from regional play.

The four Welsh regions – Dragons, Cardiff, Ospreys and Scarlets – will see their current playing budgets fall from around £5.2m to £4.5m for next season.

It means they are struggling to offer their best players new competitive contracts. Currently in the regions it is recognized that it is impossible to maintain their international stars with the current budget system.

Mail Sports understands that a financial increase was proposed at Christmas.

But that involved each region borrowing around £500,000 from the Welsh Rugby Union to boost their budgets for the 2024/25 campaign to around £5m rather than the governing body handing out additional funds.

This is something that the WRU does not want to do even though the current staggered hiring model is considered totally unviable in the regions.

The WRU loan offer was met with surprise and anger by regions who were unable to accept it, as they are still repaying emergency funding given to them by the WRU through the Welsh Government to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. . Those repayments also carried significant interest.

Interest rates on loans to Welsh regions are much higher than those English Gallagher Premiership clubs borrowed from Westminster at a similar time.

As a result, money in Welsh domestic football is tight. But the WRU is exploring building a new gym for its women’s team which could cost more than £1 million.

This move has been questioned in many quarters given that the men’s and women’s Six Nations campaigns no longer overlap and the WRU already has a state-of-the-art gym at its Vale Resort base that could be used by both sides without the need for a clash. .

Many feel that the two teams could share the gym and that the money could be better spent elsewhere.

The WRU has also committed millions to improve technology at its Principality Stadium headquarters.

Basham, the Dragons flanker, is of interest to Saracens, Sale and Northampton and is being attracted by a potential Premiership move. But he would have to give up his Test career if he left his employers at Newport. Saracens are interested in Basham for the second time after failing to lure him to London previously.

Another Welsh region, rival of the Dragons, is also very interested in Basham.

The Dragons would not want to lose the combative striker given he has outgrown their system, but he was left out of their team in their recent win over the Scarlets after being part of an underperforming team that was beaten by Cardiff.

Only players with 25 or more Test caps can play rugby for their club outside of Wales and also represent Gatland’s national team under WRU rules.

That number fell from 60 last year after Wales players threatened to strike for the Six Nations match against England. Almost 12 months later, the situation has not improved significantly.

Number 9 Tomos Williams, who has been in good form for Cardiff over the festive period, will move to Kingsholm. Cardiff made a bid to retain him, but even the fresh financial boost from their new investment was not enough to do so.

The same applies to Carré, who was removed from Wales’ training squad for the 2023 World Cup for failing to meet fitness targets.

That hasn’t deterred Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall from bringing him back to StoneX Stadium for a second time.

Carré has fewer than 25 caps so will not be able to play for Wales when he returns to London.

Cardiff are set to retain Welsh props Corey Domachowski and Keiron Assiratti and both they and the Ospreys have several promising young players in the pipeline.

But there is now widespread recognition in Welsh football that the lure of the red national shirt is no longer enough to keep players at home.

Many players feel they are now better off playing club rugby outside of Wales.

Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and Josh Adams will be out of contract at the end of next season and will surely attract interest from other teams.

Morgan and Lake co-captained Wales at the World Cup, but the former will miss the 2024 Six Nations after undergoing knee surgery. Cardiff’s young backs Cameron Winnett and Jacob Beetham are pushing for Wales’ Six Nations selection after Gatland lost experienced number 15s Liam Williams and Leigh Halfpenny to moves abroad.

Cardiff should be able to retain Beetham, but given that he is eligible to play Test rugby for Scotland and England, as well as Wales, there has been interest in him from those rival countries.

Edinburgh has expressed a strong interest in Beetham, 22, who was born in Brecon and has come through the Welsh age group system.