Exclusive: Premiership reserve teams to play in Championship under radical RFU proposals
Plus, why the plans see the second tier once again being treated with disrespect bordering on disdain
www.telegraph.co.uk
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Premiership reserve teams to play in Championship under radical RFU proposals
- Thread starter LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)
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www.telegraph.co.uk
What about the A league?
Seems like another move to kill off rugby below the premiership.
Clubs don't have enough players to fulfill A-league fixtures, so their squads will have to grow - and stop sending juniors out to the championship to get game time; so Champ squads will have to grow, but to do so with less funding, and less help.
Whi is it that English rugby just cant do joined up thinking?
15ish years ago, there was reasonable (not great, but reasonable) funding in the Champ, especially comparative to the Prem, and there was pretty good competition there, and many clubs with ambition for promotion.
But we refused to throw them even one single bone.
We crooked the scales in favour of the demoted team, we increased the Prem salary cap out of reach for anyone else, we insisted on MSCs that were unrealistic (and yet 4-5 Champ clubs still kept plans in place to reach them for a fair while).
We denied them a title sponsor, we denied them a TV contract, we denied them a realistic shot at joining the closed club (Exeter left it later than ideal), and more recently, we've made them reliant on loanees from the Prem - and we kept at it until they gave up and investors quit.
15ish years ago, we needed to bring the Champ within PRL, shrink the Prem to 8-10 clubs (no Prem rugby during the international windows), with 14-12 in the Champ (RFU to temporarily fund 1-2 based on location if there weren't enough ambitious clubs who wanted to join of their own accord [though I don't think that would have been necessary 15ish years ago]); TV deal that covers both, and a Cup competition that includes all 22 clubs (+ 2 invitational teams to make the numbers work (Wales/Scotland?), but don't use them to shut out the lower clubs). Increased promotion / relegation spots, and massively decrease the "disaster" of relegation.
Pseudo-ring-fence at that level, between fully professional and semi-professional would have been valid - with formalised criteria for ambitious lower clubs and / or failing higher clubs to be welcomed / ditched.
A pyramidal structure, with increased quality throughout, and proper links within, proper funding, support and academies.
But no the 13 PRL clubs had to stick together and refuse to share their pie; and did everything they could to ringfence themselves - a plan they're continuing with.
Clubs don't have enough players to fulfill A-league fixtures, so their squads will have to grow - and stop sending juniors out to the championship to get game time; so Champ squads will have to grow, but to do so with less funding, and less help.
Whi is it that English rugby just cant do joined up thinking?
15ish years ago, there was reasonable (not great, but reasonable) funding in the Champ, especially comparative to the Prem, and there was pretty good competition there, and many clubs with ambition for promotion.
But we refused to throw them even one single bone.
We crooked the scales in favour of the demoted team, we increased the Prem salary cap out of reach for anyone else, we insisted on MSCs that were unrealistic (and yet 4-5 Champ clubs still kept plans in place to reach them for a fair while).
We denied them a title sponsor, we denied them a TV contract, we denied them a realistic shot at joining the closed club (Exeter left it later than ideal), and more recently, we've made them reliant on loanees from the Prem - and we kept at it until they gave up and investors quit.
15ish years ago, we needed to bring the Champ within PRL, shrink the Prem to 8-10 clubs (no Prem rugby during the international windows), with 14-12 in the Champ (RFU to temporarily fund 1-2 based on location if there weren't enough ambitious clubs who wanted to join of their own accord [though I don't think that would have been necessary 15ish years ago]); TV deal that covers both, and a Cup competition that includes all 22 clubs (+ 2 invitational teams to make the numbers work (Wales/Scotland?), but don't use them to shut out the lower clubs). Increased promotion / relegation spots, and massively decrease the "disaster" of relegation.
Pseudo-ring-fence at that level, between fully professional and semi-professional would have been valid - with formalised criteria for ambitious lower clubs and / or failing higher clubs to be welcomed / ditched.
A pyramidal structure, with increased quality throughout, and proper links within, proper funding, support and academies.
But no the 13 PRL clubs had to stick together and refuse to share their pie; and did everything they could to ringfence themselves - a plan they're continuing with.
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I don’t mind the idea of the partnering between prem and champ clubs (would also throw Uni’s also)
Most prem teams already have that going on for example
Tigers—> Nottingham —> Lough Uni
Something similar to the minor league during this time of no relegation.
This just seems dumb
Most prem teams already have that going on for example
Tigers—> Nottingham —> Lough Uni
Something similar to the minor league during this time of no relegation.
This just seems dumb
Yeah, exactly what I was going to say - be better if everyone had official partners
Yeah we're the same...
We have loan our kids to Doncaster and Rotherham.....
I don’t really know what kind of attendance the championship gets but are there enough fans to have a proper professional second tier competition?
Do we view the championship as a proper league or a development one for the premiership, we really need to decide and fund properly either way.
Do we view the championship as a proper league or a development one for the premiership, we really need to decide and fund properly either way.
They currently get a good 1,000-2,000 per home game (which has been static for years), despite the lack of investment, lack of promotion, and effective ring-fencing.
I'd be confident that some actual investment, higher quality teams, TV appearances and regular cracks at the Prem clubs would all build attendance, shirt/burger/beer sales, and sponsorship revenue.
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Perfect idea, would allow those players moving out of academies to go to Uni team or Championship team. Maybe salary could be removed from cap if they play a year in championship.
Also better for players to be playing regularly and developing against old pros.
See it a bit like the 'farm' system in US Baseball and Ice Hockey, where a player gets 'farmed' out to another league to get more experience. For example, a pitcher might go and play to get experience of doing long stints, where in the MLB team they might spend a season on the bench, losing that ability to pitch for a long innings.
A young prop would do much better in the Championship playing regularly, rather than being warm up fodder for main team every week.
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There was some chat that quins were about to buy /take a major stake in L Scottish. Idk if that is relevant here but it might be
As i mentioned above, we have an affiliation with Doncaster and Rotherham.
We've had a young LH with Doncaster for 2 seasons now...Conrad Cade...and hes been one of the best LH's in the league. He made his debut for us a few weeks ago.
I think the Champs is a great "blooding" Ground for players. Theres some proper seasoned old pros in there.
Would they be allowed to, considering they play in the same league structure/are only one league apart?
Vaguely remember the powers that be stopping the Stade Francais' owner from also purchasing a German club because, in theory, they could end up as opponents in the challenge cup one day
Stade and the German club have/had the same owner. European rugby kicked the German club out of the challenge cup because of it.
but you know, no other teams in Europe have the same owners
but you know, no other teams in Europe have the same owners
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Not sure - maybe it's different cause they aren't professional?
This feels like another step towards ring fencing. This has me really concerned cause I think promotion/relegation is vital to good competition. We are about to have a work stoppage in baseball because only 10 out of 30 teams are fielding competitive rosters. You need to have a real threat to these teams in order to get quality games.
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What on earth led you to that conclusion?
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Well they can't play in the same league anyway so it might change the rules?
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Why not? Quins have previous for getting relegated and now PoT has been removed as one of the MSCs, you'd have to think that if Scottish were in the frame for promotion, a ground share at the Stoop would be on the cards.
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Scottish should share with Wimbledon, they should also return to trying to get funding from SRU. They could become a great development team for them.
Quins should be looking slightly further afield and look into Surrey and North Sussex.
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