RFU told Championship clubs ?on the brink? and will not be able to fill second tier without help
Exclusive: Chairman Simon Halliday fears slashed funding risks ultimate disconnect between professional and community game in England
By Daniel Schofield, Deputy Rugby Union Correspondent 12 July 2023 ? 3:01pm
The Rugby Football Union has been warned that Championship clubs have been left on the brink by funding cuts that threaten the future of the second tier, according to the league?s new chairman, Simon Halliday.
The RFU and Premiership Rugby want to launch a rebranded ?Premiership 2?, built upon a franchise model that could include Wasps, Worcester and London Irish, for the 2025-26 season but Halliday cautioned there may not be enough participant clubs to fill the division after a funding reduction of around 80 per cent. In 2020, Championship teams had their funding cut from ?600,000 to ?288,000, which was then slashed to around ?160,000, a supposedly temporary Covid-19 measure that quickly became entrenched. Once insurance and travel costs are taken out, most clubs will have little more than ?50,000, which is why several teams have moved away from a full-time programme and others are considering following suit.
?You cannot kick the can down the road any more,? Halliday told Telegraph Sport. ?There is no more road left because clubs are on the brink. You have to be worried about how some clubs have been able to do it themselves without any help. These are not poorly managed clubs, in any sense, but they have to know why they are continuing to put money in. If you don?t take care of them then you create the ultimate disconnect between the professional and community game and I don?t think you can ever get it back.?
Former England centre Halliday has worn many different hats in his time in rugby administration having sat for eight years on the RFU council as well as spending six years as chairman of European Professional Club Rugby. For years, England and its clubs have got by through sheer weight of numbers, in spite of the system rather than because of it.
But with three Premiership clubs having bitten the bullet in the past 12 months and the national team underperforming, Halliday?s message is clear: collaborate or be left behind by your rivals.
?I remember sitting in a room in 2015 with the head of rugby union in Ireland, their commercial director, the performance director and the heads of the four provinces,? Halliday said. ?This is the year they lost in the World Cup quarter-finals and none of their provinces made the European quarters and I remember [Leinster CEO] Mick Dawson saying: ?Don?t you worry about us, we will be OK. We are building it all up through the academies and universities.? It was clear everyone was on the same page and I walked out knowing they were going to be OK.
?France got its house in order a long time ago. With England, it has taken a lot longer to embrace that collective approach. We didn?t make it our business to change. We have left it a lot longer and now we are playing catch-up.?
That was evidenced by the 52-31 defeat England suffered against France in the Under-20 Championship semi-final, following on from a 42-7 loss to the same opposition in the U20 Six Nations. Just as notable as the Six Nations scoreline was the fact that English players had made just seven elite appearances for their clubs versus 108 by France. ?That?s a function of having no strategy,? Halliday says. ?Ironically I helped to set up the academy system many years ago and it was not supposed to be a waiting room where they hold tackle bags indefinitely.?
?We are just up the road from London Irish but no one called?
This is where the Championship can play a vital role in offering game time to youngsters who are otherwise kicking their heels in training. ?We are right here and ready to help,? Halliday said. ?We need to establish that we are part of the pathway and connected to young players getting game time and proving themselves.?
A perfect example of that is Theo Dan, who started the season at Ampthill on loan from Saracens and finishes it as one of three frontline hookers in England?s World Cup training squad, more than half of whom have played in the Championship at some stage in their career. ?The feeling is that for the clubs over a period of years ? and this has been said by the RFU management ? our contribution to the pathway was incidental,? Halliday said. ?They have done the work to show that this is not the case but I find it distressing that this group of clubs are having to prove themselves when their value is obvious.?
Working as a strategic advisor to Ealing Trailfinders, Halliday has experienced first hand how remote the RFU can appear. ?We are just up the road from London Irish and no one made a single call to Ealing to ask how we can help any of the young players from their academy, which I find unbelievable.?
?Championship clubs are having decisions imposed on them?
The biggest sticking point of all is the minimum standards criteria which governs who is eligible to be promoted to the Premiership. Last season, only Doncaster, who finished sixth, would have met the threshold. In Ealing?s case, they would either need to secure planning permission in one of London?s fastest growing boroughs or look to a groundshare to gain entry to a play-off against the Premiership?s bottom-placed team this coming season. ?Groundshare is a quick way to break your revenue model. Look at London Irish. Groundsharing broke them amongst other things. We agree there needs to be a set of standards, but it is about how you draw them up so you allow clubs to develop. Newcastle?s average gate is around 5,000. You have to be careful not to make those criteria barriers. When we do set up those rules at the top regarding access to the Premiership from Premiership 2 you have to work out what those bridges are because otherwise it [ring-fencing] becomes self-fulfilling.?
Halliday is keen to emphasise that any increase in funding would be conditional upon meeting targets such as English Qualified Players. The Championship wants to play its part but most of all needs to have the views of its clubs heard. ?We need proper consultation into the new Professional Game Agreement or it simply will not be successful. Consultation is not getting the occasional debrief. It is: ?What do you think? Do you agree? And if you don?t, why not?? And that doesn?t happen,? Halliday said. ?That?s where the Championship clubs feel very hard done by, which predates my arrival, is that they do not get any chance to provide feedback. They just have decisions imposed on them. You can?t dictate a solution to a third party. You have to be open minded and respect their viewpoint.
?For example, the Jersey board are openly asking the question of why they are continuing to invest if they are getting no support from the governing body and that is from last year?s champions. We need clarity. Investors need clarity. Players need clarity. Supporters need clarity. We are running out of time to continue with stand-offs. We can?t afford to get the next few months wrong, it is that critical.?
Always a Wasp
Topic: RFU told Championship clubs ?on the brink? and will not be able to fill 2nd Tier (Read 1377 times)