The non-contracted English-based players may now have to go back to work to make a living. Some will not have the financial freedom to spend the same amount of time on bettering themselves as rugby players, so the fear is that Scotland may lose some international players.
Given 29 players saw game-time in the last Six Nations there has to be a fear that the new Scotland coach is going to have a pretty shallow pool of talent to pick from.
All of this puts an even greater focus on Glasgow and Edinburgh. All of a sudden, they are getting 11 full-time pros and seven development players. A huge hike.
Williamson said the Celtic Challenge is on “upward trajectory”. That’s a hard case to argue given how poorly the Scottish teams have done.
“We believe in that programme,” he said. “We believe in the opportunities of WXV, which combined with the Six Nations, offers a tremendous opportunity to play high-quality rugby and to develop quickly.
“Over this four-year cycle, we will see an increased investment with a view that the Celtic challenge will hopefully grow to the extent that the British and Irish League is a natural consequence.”
A “natural consequence” is a colossal stretch. Scotland has a long, long way to go to get their teams into a fit enough state for any would-be British and Irish League. As do the Irish and Welsh. It’s years away, if it happens at all.
“I’m very confident if you were to bring the home unions into the room that there would be an agreement, from a commercial perspective, that the strongest possible outcome would be a consolidated league,” said Williamson.
That’s highly debatable given that English women’s club rugby really has no need to import new clubs from outside.
“We have to have the muscle to have the conversation. And at the moment, we don’t have that,” added the chief executive. That’s putting it mildly.