"Rugby?s rickety structure leaves Championship?s future up in the air"

[asteriskszegol]

From today's Grauniad:

Historic English clubs cling on to their heritage as many worry that the RFU does not care about preserving them at all
Plenty of arguments are raging in rugby union and the next big battle is for the soul of the English game. There is recognition on all sides that something has to change. As Bristol?s director of rugby, Pat Lam, said last week, it has become a source of global curiosity. ?Everyone around the world knows England have the most rugby players and the most resources,? he said. ?They?re envious. So how are we struggling? You have to ask the question.?
What suits Lam and his club?s wealthy owner, Steve Lansdown, however, does not necessarily suit a Premiership rival like Newcastle, whose playing budget for next season is understood to have shrunk appreciably. Where in all this are the most fundamental of questions? What is best for the health of the whole game, not just the high-profile apex of the pyramid, and what, exactly, is ultimately the aim of the entire exercise?
This sort of debate is not exclusive to England, of course. It is raging in Wales, Australia and pretty much everywhere else outside France and Ireland, who currently seem to have multiple important boxes ticked. It also clearly has to encompass women?s rugby and cannot be viewed in isolation from the player welfare imperatives that are shaping the sport?s future.
Ultimately, though, it boils down to deciding what matters most. Nowhere is that debate currently more starkly evident than in England?s second-tier Championship, full of historic clubs trying to preserve what is left of their proud heritage. It is reaching the point where many of them are wondering if the Rugby Football Union actually cares about preserving them at all.
Listen, for example, to Nick Johnston, chief executive of Coventry. As he said this week, he genuinely believes the governing body has been trying ?to run them into the ground?. Johnston has been on both sides of the fence, having previously worked at Sale, Northampton and Worcester, but is beginning to reach the end of his tether. Clubs like Coventry, he says, are simply seeking to do what they have done since 1874. ?We?re not trying to solve the political situation in the Middle East,? he says. ?We?re just trying to promote the game.?
Because, as he emphasises, if 149-year-old clubs such as Coventry are left to wither on the vine, it will decimate the second tier of English rugby, supposedly the springboard to the top level. Where does the RFU plan to train its next professional players, coaches, referees and even administrators? Is a world without Premiership relegation really a better one? Can England now sustain only, at most, 10 professional clubs and, if so, how smart is it to cut them off from their feeder roots?
The counter-arguments are familiar enough. There is insufficient money in the central pot. The Championship clubs do not currently attract enough supporters to be viable professional businesses. But then you listen to Johnston as he outlines his mission statement at Coventry: ?One of our biggest strategic objectives is to become the best professional community-centric club in the country.
?What is the purpose of English rugby? Our purpose is to create the next generation of players, coaches and administrators to go and help England rugby succeed at the top of the world. I care about this massively. I really do believe in this league. It is the foundation of us growing the game.?
Accordingly, the club runs its own academy and are excited about an 18-year-old fly-half coming through the ranks. Next month they will be launching Coventry Netball, with plans to build a hotel also well advanced. Currently third in the league, with Wasps having vacated the city, they see no reason why they cannot continue to grow. ?We have ambition but it comes with growth at the right time, not investing aimlessly,? Johnston says.
The most serious threat to their future, however, appears to be their own national union. As newly promoted Caldy discovered at their first meeting, annual central funding is already so minimal that, after deducting insurance and travel costs, barely ?40,000 remains. There is talk of reverting to two regional leagues but Johnston believes this would be a disaster for England?s most obvious talent pathway. ?I think we?re the glue if they get it right,? he says. ?I want our league to stay connected with the grassroots. I?d like a women?s Championship as well.?
Championship insiders believe Premiership clubs should have to pay for their players to enjoy game time in the Championship. In recent weeks London Scottish have fielded more Harlequins-registered loanees than they have their own players. There is also another proposal for an eight-team second tier doing the rounds: if the biggest Championship clubs ? Ealing, Jersey, Coventry, Cornish Pirates, Doncaster, Bedford and Nottingham plus, potentially, Wasps ? all put in ?1m apiece initially, might the RFU and Premier Rugby then match it? ?You could make it part of the PGA [Professional Game Agreement] to fund a sustainable pathway league,? says Simon Halliday, part of the Championship negotiating team. ?Incentivise us to play younger players, fund it properly and then you?ve got half a chance of rebuilding some of the development pathways that are totally broken.?
If that is not the plan, Halliday believes the RFU should be upfront about it. ?They would be destroying proper rugby heartlands that allow young players to develop. But if they think the Championship is not a pathway, then be honest and say so. At the moment they?re just saying: ?Keep going lads, but it?s going to take you years.?? The battle for the English rugby?s soul is not quite over yet.

[Robson9]

Yep, i said it on another thread the other day - the RFU despises the championship and would much rather it just went away.

I've supported/attended games at a championship club since wasps moved to coventry - its a great league, but one with plenty of frustrations at the governing body and how little they care about it/want to help it grow. The whole organisation and lack of clarity on promotion relegation is also a joke - I'm attending what is in essence our relegation play off this weekend. Absolutely huge game for both clubs but could all be irrelevant, as the RFU hasn't even confirmed if there is relegation next season. Its farcical.

[Wombles]

I have grave concerns at the greed of the PRL and the lack of motivation to protect the game below the Premiership from he RFU. Just when -at long last- the women?s game is growing, its male counterpart is withering on the vine. With playing numbers dropping year on year our game is in serious trouble. Yet the silence from the RFU and the pull the ladder up Jack and sod the rest attitude from the PRL is frightening.

Clubs that bemoan the falling salary cap and its knock on effect in terms of competitiveness seem to ignore that growing beyond our means, and not putting a stop to the serial cheating antics of Saracens and also Bath in driving the cap ever upwards was a core problem they ignored. The removal of relegation and promotion has not only given us a plethora of games without true competition, emotion and jeopardy that only a league with a open trap door can give, it also denies clubs with true ambition to gain a rightful place at the top table. Ealing, a well funded and ambitious club, now looking further afield because their ground does not have a 10,001 capacity. We are sport so small in size the need to have a ground that large seems laughable. But where is the excitement of seeing the same old 10-11 teams play each other every season?.there is none, and as much as BT Sport try to galvanise excitement and emotion, when true jeopardy is not present (relegation) and ambition/hope extinguished (promotion) the game is as good as dead.

The damage done will take at least a generation to resolve. But a start would be the Premiership being merged into the national pyramid, for the ?elite? clubs to remove their egos and selfish desires that are contributing to our sports demise. The RFU putting on some adult trousers, rather than the elasticated ones that currently cover their soft pampered bellies as they ignorantly stroll along enjoying the yearly profits from the 6 nations and HQs hospitality. And start working for all clubs and for all players. Any club should be able to make it to the top of the game, and any player the same. Until we treat this as a game for all, rather than for the few, we are simply counting time until the life support is finally switched off on rugby union for good.

[Marlovian]

The rugby in the Championship this year has been outstanding. This weekend is Ealing v Jersey, a title battle with winner takes nothing, and at the other end of the table Richmond v London Scottish, a relegation battle with loser stays where they are as the RFU haven't yet decided whether there will be relegation or not.  Add in Nat 1 where Rams, Sale and Cambridge are within 5 points of each other at the top and Cambridge have a game in hand.

This is the rugby I want to watch and the Premiership and England can go hang.

[jamestaylor002]

I have grave concerns at the greed of the PRL and the lack of motivation to protect the game below the Premiership from he RFU. Just when -at long last- the women?s game is growing, its male counterpart is withering on the vine. With playing numbers dropping year on year our game is in serious trouble. Yet the silence from the RFU and the pull the ladder up Jack and sod the rest attitude from the PRL is frightening.

Clubs that bemoan the falling salary cap and its knock on effect in terms of competitiveness seem to ignore that growing beyond our means, and not putting a stop to the serial cheating antics of Saracens and also Bath in driving the cap ever upwards was a core problem they ignored. The removal of relegation and promotion has not only given us a plethora of games without true competition, emotion and jeopardy that only a league with a open trap door can give, it also denies clubs with true ambition to gain a rightful place at the top table. Ealing, a well funded and ambitious club, now looking further afield because their ground does not have a 10,001 capacity. We are sport so small in size the need to have a ground that large seems laughable. But where is the excitement of seeing the same old 10-11 teams play each other every season?.there is none, and as much as BT Sport try to galvanise excitement and emotion, when true jeopardy is not present (relegation) and ambition/hope extinguished (promotion) the game is as good as dead.

The damage done will take at least a generation to resolve. But a start would be the Premiership being merged into the national pyramid, for the ?elite? clubs to remove their egos and selfish desires that are contributing to our sports demise. The RFU putting on some adult trousers, rather than the elasticated ones that currently cover their soft pampered bellies as they ignorantly stroll along enjoying the yearly profits from the 6 nations and HQs hospitality. And start working for all clubs and for all players. Any club should be able to make it to the top of the game, and any player the same. Until we treat this as a game for all, rather than for the few, we are simply counting time until the life support is finally switched off on rugby union for good.

Agree with your entire post and want to add that it's not just the fact that the Premiership will consist of the same 10/11 clubs but also that the trophy is one club's to lose rather than a number of genuine contenders.

[BlackAndGoldSunglasses]

The plight of the Championship is just another reason the RFU is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century.

The entire organisation needs disbanding and a new body setting up. A professional standard one.

57 old farts? Have we come anywhere since then?