a quick reaction to the RFU Championship rugby announcement
Today's news that the RFU is cutting funding to the Championship is both shocking and no surprise at all.
There has always been a general level of contempt for the 2nd tier of English rugby. It's pretty much a closed shop, the relegated team from the Premiership usually go straight back up and anyone else that does make it up usually lacks the resources or the time to recruit to be competitive in the top league.
There is one obvious exception in Exeter Chiefs - their promotion was now about a decade ago.
Two common arguments against the Championship are:
it's worse than the Premiership
It is worse than the Premiership. The level is worse, the salaries are worse, the facilities are worse, the care is worse and the coverage is worse. It's worse for everyone, except perhaps genuine fans of the clubs involved who don't have to put up with their match schedules moving to accommodate television schedules.
it doesn't sustain itself/it's a business
Rugby as a sport doesn't sustain itself. There is almost no club that can sustain itself and the RFU have done a consistently bad job of running the game for some time, squandering the windfall from a home World Cup (where England didn't make it out of their group) to the point where they've laid off staff and cut funding to both the professional and grassroots game.
what to do
I played the last 4 years of my professional rugby in the French lower divisions where the club's objective was to get to Pro D2 (the RFU Championship equivalent). They managed this a couple of years too late for me to be a part of it but they have managed it.
Now, in Pro D2, there are 5 teams that have risen from the French 4th division that are now competing against traditional powerhouses like Perpignan and Biarritz. Teams often make it up to the Top 14 and stay there, Lyon being a recent successful example. Mobility between the leagues is more possible than it is in England.
Now, Pro D2 is what the Championship is to the Premiership. It's worse. Salaries are worse (although can still be quite hefty), the standard is worse, it's even less organised. But somehow it not only attracts big audiences, it regularly produces players and teams that go on to the top level and thrive.
The main thing, if you're a business, is to not compete with a superior product. Pro D2 doesn't.
Pro D2 is played on Thursday and Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. The majority of matches don't compete with the Top 14 for attention.
Why does the Championship compete with the Premiership? It's idiotic.
Options for the Championship are:
move the games to a Pro D2 style schedule
This wouldn't be great logistically but would grant the possibility of showing more games on tv, exposing the league to a much greater audience. Competing with the Premiership for an audience share is nonsense.
It would make it hard for away supporters to attend matches though - this is less of an issue in France as the country is so big, there's not a big culture of attending away matches.
make it a summer league
What's bad about the Premiership? We live in the UK where our climate is often less than conducive to a spectacle on the field (even if I'd say that the game has never been a better spectacle). In the Championship, where pitches are regularly not good, holding games in the summer would make soggy surfaces less of an issue and would lead to exciting, running rugby (in theory).
Summer rugby enables teams to sign up BUCS players, who would be available in their summer holidays, to play meaningful senior rugby in their offseason.
make it a part time endeavour
This appears to be what they really want. If this is the case and they feel that the Premiership Cup is a better vehicle for development, though it seems to be a wildly pointless competition, then they could at least be honest about it and let everyone sort themselves out. And maybe give them more than a couple of months notice to find a new job.
I don't expect much from them though and really, neither should anyone else.
Related Links
I’ve previously written about the RFU Championship for Talking Rugby Union - it’s a 2 parter and you can find it here and here
You can find out about how precarious life is as a lower tier sports pro in my book Fringes - get it here
If you want to discuss any of this with me then hit me up on Twitter or email me