{"id":643967,"date":"2025-12-20T09:22:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T09:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643967\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T09:22:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T09:22:16","slug":"dewi-lake-admits-wru-announcement-sparked-exit-as-he-reveals-full-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643967\/","title":{"rendered":"Dewi Lake admits WRU announcement sparked exit as he reveals full story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dewi Lake says leaving the Ospreys is tough but he had little choice given the ongoing uncertainty in Welsh rugby<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_JS389145308.jpg\" alt=\"Wales' Dewi Lake\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Wales&#8217; Dewi Lake(Image: PA Wire)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Wales and Ospreys hooker Dewi Lake says the uncertainty in Welsh rugby was a major reason behind his decision to join Gloucester.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Both Lake and Jac Morgan will join the Kingsholm club next season, with Lake explaining his decision on the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/sportin.wales\/podcast\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">SportIn Wales podcast.<\/a> The loss of Wales&#8217; two leading players is a major blow to the region and the Welsh Rugby Union, with fans understanding of their decisions given the backdrop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t an easy decision,&#8221; Lake said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;When you factor in the things that are going on off the field at the minute and the lack of clarity in whether we&#8217;re going to be a region next year, there&#8217;s not much stability there at the moment. It&#8217;s tough to leave but ultimately, you&#8217;ve got to secure a contract and your future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He added; &#8220;It was probably ongoing really from when that announcement first came from the WRU about looking to cut team from four to three<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;Then the added news that we&#8217;re probably looking at one of <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/all-about\/ospreys\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Ospreys<\/a> or <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/all-about\/scarlets\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Scarlets<\/a> being the ones battling it out to stay. We probably haven&#8217;t had much news or development in terms of what&#8217;s happening since then. It&#8217;s a tough spot to be in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;Jac [Morgan] maybe feels that way as well, but I can only speak for myself with what&#8217;s going on. We&#8217;ve had little discussions and conversations around trying to stay, but the uncertainty of it all still hangs over you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Lake added that his contract negotiations had been more with the Ospreys than the Welsh Rugby Union.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;They&#8217;re [Ospreys] not really sure about what kind of position they&#8217;re going to be in next year either,&#8221; said Lake. &#8220;I know it was very tough for them to be able to put contracts on the table with everything that is going on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not an easy decision, but it&#8217;s one that I feel I&#8217;ve got to take.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He added: &#8220;It was a tough decision because you never want to leave the club you started out at.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;The staff and the boys are always the toughest things to leave. We&#8217;ve got a good group of boys that I&#8217;ve been with since I came through.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;The coaches as well, a lot of them were my coaches at Under-18 level.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;That&#8217;s the hard bit to leave. The people that you form good bonds and friendships with. The fans as well have been class over the years, too.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The Welsh Rugby Union is hoping to reach a consensus on how to get down to three teams by the end of the year, but that still seems unlikely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A tender process will begin in the New Year if no deal can be struck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dewi Lake says leaving the Ospreys is tough but he had little choice given the ongoing uncertainty in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,15032,16,15,1764,14260],"class_list":{"0":"post-643967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-ospreys","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-wales","14":"tag-wales-rugby-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115751167727031007","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}