OSPREYS have offered Gareth Anscombe a reduced contract for next season amounting to a pay cut of around £100,000-a-year. The new deal reflects the impoverished state of a Welsh game brought to its knees by crises on and off the pitch, hence today’s vote on a proposal for sweeping change at an extraordinary general meeting of the Welsh Rugby Union’s member clubs.
Anscombe, hit by two serious injuries in the four years since orchestrating Wales’ last Grand Slam, hopes to make his latest comeback before his Ospreys’ contract expires at the end of the season. The new one is based on what one source describes as ‘a substantial reduction’ believed to be at least 25 per cent.