The four Welsh regions last night voted to back plans by their English and French counterparts and play in the proposed Rugby Champions Cup tournaments.

The timing of the Welsh announcement couldn't have come at a worse time for the European Rugby Cups Ltd (ERC), with the governing body of the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup due to stage a board meeting in Dublin today to try to broker a peace deal to ensure that their tournaments continue next season.

However, after a lengthy meeting with Mark McCafferty, the Premier Rugby chief executive, Regional Rugby Wales, the body that speaks for the four regions, decided to opt for the new over the old.

"Regional Rugby Wales (RRW) confirms its full support for the proposed new Rugby Champions Cup Competitions," said an RRW statement. "Whilst there remain elements to be confirmed, it is clear there are a number of advantages to the new competitions in equality of governance, format, qualification and distribution across the individual participating Clubs.

"Consequently, RRW looks forward to working with the WRU to support their efforts and positive engagement in striving to ensure our teams are involved in strong, valuable European Clubs Competitions in time for next season."

The English and French clubs had already served notice that they would not be playing in the Heineken Cup next season and have jointly proposed a new set of tournaments backed by BT Vision millions.