Always a Wasp

Most importantly at half time it could have been 3 English clubs in the semis - not quite the doom and gloom scenario some were forecasting

Well thankfully not.

Thanks. Interesting article.

This is the Porter just released by Quins.

RFU chief brushes off England player drain to France: ?They?re making a lifestyle choice?

Bill Sweeney, speaking 500 days out from home Women?s World Cup, also confirms Red Roses will play Black Ferns at Twickenham in September
Fiona Tomas 9 April 2024 ? 6:00pm
Related Topics

    England Rugby Union Team, RFU, Top 14


Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union chief executive, has brushed off concerns over England?s talent drain to France, claiming players crossing the Channel are making ?a lifestyle choice as much as anything else?.

Last month, Kyle Sinckler and Lewis Ludlam joined a growing exodus of homegrown players who are swapping the Premiership for the Top 14 when signing for Toulon.

The duo, who both featured for England at last year?s World Cup but were omitted from Steve Borthwick?s Six Nations squad this year, will join Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi in France next season, where a generous salary cap offers greater financial appeal. As England?s leading Test points-scorer and third most-capped men?s player, Farrell is expected to earn close to ?1 million a season when he joins Racing 92.

Billy Vunipola is also understood to be on the verge of signing for Montpellier, while his brother, Mako, is also rumoured to be leaving. A host of other England internationals, including wing Henry Arundell, centre Joe Marchant, flanker Jack Willis and lock David Ribbans, already ply their club trade in France?s top division.

Amid delays over hybrid contracts and the new Professional Game Partnership, which is being negotiated between the RFU and Premiership clubs, Sweeney dismissed concerns that England is leaking talent.

?I don?t think the delay [in sorting the PGP] has had any impact on that,? he said. ?Where we currently stand on the policy of only selecting players based in England stays as it is. If you actually look at the players we?ve got abroad, they probably made a decision in terms of, ?Where?s my England career currently? Am I in contention for a place in those hybrid contracts? Am I in that core group of England players going forward??

?If they?ve come to the conclusion that they?re not ? and most of them have had conversations with Steve [Borthwick] anyway ? it?s partly a lifestyle choice as much as anything else. Some of the players that have gone haven?t gone for more money.

?They?re coming to the end of their professional career, do they want to spend three or four years in France and have a different experience with family or maybe in some cases, maybe it is financially driven. If you look at the number of players going abroad, it doesn?t really impact our core group of England players quite so much.

?There?s maybe one or two that you think we?d rather have over here. Joe Marchant is rumoured to be coming back to the Premiership this year, so from our perspective, we?re okay with it.?

Weeks after extraordinary plans emerged that the RFU considered selling Twickenham and buying half of Wembley, Sweeney indicated work to redevelop the national stadium would not begin for at least three years. ?The stadium needs upgrading,? he said. ?It has to be fit for purpose because it?s such an important revenue generator for us. We?re going through all the planning phases and various different options but you won?t see development or work on the stadium until about 2027.?

Sweeney, who was speaking at an event at North Bristol RFC marking 500 days until next year?s Women?s World Cup in England, also confirmed that the Red Roses would host world champions New Zealand in a standalone match at Twickenham this September.

The fixture will act as one of England?s warm-up matches for WXV ? the Red Roses will also face France ? as the RFU aims to build on its growing women?s fanbase ahead of what is tipped to be an ?era-defining tournament?.

More than 42,000 tickets have already been sold for England?s Women?s Six Nations match against Ireland at Twickenham on April 20, which could surpass the 58,648 record attendance that watched the Red Roses? Grand Slam victory over France at the home of English rugby last year.

?If you look at women?s sport, what?s happening with the Lionesses in football and you see it across cricket as well, women?s sport is here to stay and we need to make sure it grows as quickly as possible,? said Sweeney.

Behind the scenes with a rugby citing commissioner

Telegraph Sport is given exclusive access to the inner workings of the Premiership?s disciplinary processes
Charles Richardson, Rugby Reporter 8 April 2024 ? 7:00am


Standing on the concourse of a Premiership rugby ground on match day, awaiting the arrival of the citing commissioner ? and he is late. Is that an offence worthy of a red card?

Given that the commissioner in question has been hospitable enough to grant Telegraph Sport exclusive access to the inner workings of the Premiership?s disciplinary processes, probably not. Besides, it is the commissioner himself who decides.

With kick-off just over an hour away, I am here to take a look behind the curtain at the role of citing commissioners ? about the only subsection of rugby?s off-field, match-day officials who have not come in for scrutiny over the past fortnight.

These are 22 officials, all part-time employees of the Rugby Football Union, scattered around the country, who are paid to watch Premiership, Championship and Premiership Women?s Rugby matches every weekend and highlight anything untoward in a post-match report. Some are ex-players, some come in from other unions ? there is a Hungarian officer currently ? and some carry out duties in European competitions, too, but all are united by a keen eye for foul play.

?After my playing days, if I had a pound for every time someone said ?poacher turned gamekeeper?,? today?s commissioner, having arrived, tells Telegraph Sport. ?There are a few ex-players. I absolutely love it. It keeps me involved in the top end of the game. I end up bumping into loads of mates.?

Before the pleasantries among friends, however, business must commence. First stop, the television truck, where the commissioner drops off a USB stick to one of the broadcaster?s technicians. It is this stick and a soon-to-be-created WhatsApp group around which the entire process revolves. During today?s match, the citing commissioner will spectate alongside the official timekeeper in the press gantry, and when he spots an incident that requires further attention, he will note the time in the match and where on the pitch the incident took place, and ask the broadcaster?s technician to save all the angles as clips on his USB stick. Then, from the comfort of his own home, the commissioner will be able to come to a considered judgement on whether to cite a player.

As kick-off approaches, it is time to meet and greet the respective team managers in the tunnel. A less experienced commissioner might have to introduce himself, but not this particular officer, who is seemingly known by all and sundry. ?Hopefully, they genuinely like me!? the officer says, when I ask if they are just being convivial because of his commissioner status. ?If I cite someone, maybe not.?

The commissioner reminds the two team managers that they can flag any issues to him after the match. The deadline for referrals from clubs is 12 hours, with the commissioner given a further 12 to cite. For a snapshot into how the duties of a commissioner have eased, this particular officer has cited just one player in the past two years; the last citing in the Premiership for an incident missed by the on-field officials came nearly a year ago (an Ellis Genge tackle on Tom Curry in April 2023).

?Howlers don?t happen very often,? the commissioner says. ?There are so many different levels now with the referees, the assistants and the TMO. We?re more of a safety net, to be honest. The only other time is if the on-field officials decide that something is a yellow card and we look at it and think, ?Hmm, it?s a bit worse than that. It needs upgrading?. If it?s straight red, we don?t get involved, that gets automatically dealt with. All we have to do is sort the clips out to send to David [Barnes, RFU head of discipline] because they?ll have to write up a report. We only get involved if it?s a penalty or a yellow that deserves a red.

?It used to be gouging, punching; you name it, it went on. Now, it?s high tackles, tip tackles. There are too many cameras to get away with anything else.

?I?ve been a citing commissioner for 10 years. Beforehand, I was on the judicial panel. The citing officers used to send the naughty boys to us and then I was asked if I?d like to become a citing officer. I?d just packed up playing so I jumped at the chance.?

With the pre-match preparation complete, we ascend to the press gantry. A packet of nuts and a bag of mint humbugs suffice for dinner and with the match in full swing handbags erupt on the field. The commissioner?s attention is caught and the binoculars are raised. ?No one is going to throw a punch,? he says, almost egging the players on. ?They know damn well they?re going to get into trouble!?

At the end of the first half, the commissioner scribbles ?NFP? into his notebook: No foul play. Had there been any, he explains, he would have waited until half-time to put it into the WhatsApp group. After all, his undiluted focus needs to be on the match while it is taking place.

?We have something called the ?pink card test?,? he says. ?We are on the lookout for anything that?s a yellow card going up to a red. That?s the easiest way to describe it.

?I write down every foul play incident. You wouldn?t cite a deliberate knock-on or a collapsed maul but they are foul play. It?s about causing injury ? which we do look at ? and we look at the level of danger. A deliberate knock-on is not dangerous; collapsing a maul could be, but invariably isn?t.

?High tackles and the other thing which has been creeping in, people attacking the lower limb. Dissent... if a player tells a referee to ?f--- off? then you?d hope that it was dealt with there and then but if it wasn?t then it would come under my remit.?

This is not a chummy, jobs-for-the-boys affair, either. Barnes told Telegraph Sport that accountability was one of the principal reasons for paying their citing officers, although having officers delisted is ?very rare?.

?Often, it is not always about the decision, but more offering a rational explanation of it,? the former Bath prop says. ?Most are pretty good and do exactly what we ask.

?And that works both ways. The citing commissioners like going to games so we have kept their roles in-person, whereas World Rugby, for internationals, have citing officers working completely remotely.?

The commissioner adds: ?There is accountability ? 100 per cent. If you?re not doing your job properly and you don?t pick stuff up then you either don?t get given games, or you get dropped down a level to the Championship or women?s matches.

?If there?s something a bit controversial where you?re not sure, we discuss it in a WhatsApp group. We?re probably about 90 per cent always singing from the same songsheet.?

The songsheet for this match, just as it did at half-time, sings ?NFP?. All that remains is to check in with the two team managers ? who, on this occasion, have nothing to add ? before swinging past the broadcast cabin to collect that precious USB and heading off into the night, with 24 hours to file a post-match report which will be quite bare ? as ever.

3 hopefully but still think 1 is most likely.  The RFU have no ability in anything.

Tried to cut and paste but failed -

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-13260249/Leicester-Tigers-fined-Premiership-Rugby-salary-cap-breach.html

Read the bits towards the end. This penalty is for a year they were previously found wanting!!