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Ring fencing premiership and championship

Great ideas, but the clubs also need to stick to the rules this time. Far too many will look at this purposed new rules and find ways round it. It's got to stop.
 
The RFU seem to focus so much of their attention to getting more ladies into rugby which is working. Then they wonder why men's rugby is falling. Maybe if they put any care into it they might see results.
 
TRF_Olyy said:

Interesting article in the telegraph today about the state of the amateur game
Essentially: youth, up to colts level, thriving - adults nosediving
Click to expand...
Maybe due to the overbearing demands of leagues.
Maybe at a certain level, say level 5, leagues are local, to reduce travel, and maybe less games.
Clubs could be funded by RFU, for successful increases in playing numbers.
 
higgik said:
Maybe at a certain level, say level 5, leagues are local, to reduce travel
Click to expand...
Leagues are already local from level 5 down (technically they're regionalised from 4 down, but the region's stretch really far so like Birmingham and Cornwall are both in the same western region)
 
So I just happened to come across what happened orrell yesterday. Apparently the the 2000s were a big time for asset stripping sports clubs. That was going into a recession and now we are post pandemic.

Didn't really know where to put this but this is kind of the generic English pyramid thread.
 
TRF_Olyy said:
Leagues are already local from level 5 down (technically they're regionalised from 4 down, but the region's stretch really far so like Birmingham and Cornwall are both in the same western region)
Click to expand...
Exactly.
Below the Championship have 4 regions with 64 teams split into each.
No promotion to Championship.
2 groups of 8 in each region, 14 league matches, with a regional play off for top 2 in each group in region.
Regional winners play National play offs with final at Twickemham.
Below this have county leagues, again maximum division size of 8, with 14 games.
 
My level 7 club have 170mile round triceps in the league. It's better than it was but it doesn't help numbers and people don't want to lose their whole Saturday to rugby with a 10:30 coach trip and not getting back until 7-8.
 
Bill Sweeney can't hide from this one behind the PRL. The Champ and it's clubs are the RFU's responsibility.

Rugby in the UK is crumbling down around everyone's ears and he sticks his head in the sand with his 668K yearly salary and does nothing.
Blokes a waste of space.

This won't be the last club this season I am sure of that.
 
All clubs should be audited and have long term plans

Which the RFU can do

But it won't change anything, clubs who can't afford will be taken down the leagues regardless.

It's like Worcester people complained that the RFU didn't audit the new owners, the RFU did that with Irish and gore complaints again.
 
LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan) said:
Why was a club of Jerseys size fully pro if it couldn't afford it???
Click to expand...
Yep: Small island, average crowds about 1,000
It's, realistically, not viable for them to fully pro without significant outside funding - which is what they've said in their press release: Sponsors/Investors didn't commit
Apparently they used to be funded by the Jersey government but that money's dried up




Agree on it being silly to blame the RFU fully for all of this as well - definitely have a part to play but money is the biggest thing, and the RFU can't afford to bail anyone out
 
Yeah. Feels like mismanagement to fund a team that must have been relatively expensive if it was good enough to win the league when you can't afford it.
 
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LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan) said:
People saying the RFU can't hide
But what can they do? Yeh the wage is crazy but it's what CEO's charge.
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That's pretty much the way that I see it. Clubs and their supporters love to blame the RFU for anything that goes wrong because it's more palatable than looking closer to home at what went wrong. It seems pretty hypocritical for people who are quick to point to the RFU being a shambles to structure their business in such a way that it's reliant on them for survival.

That's not to say that a better-run RFU wouldn't have more money to invest in the game and that increased / better governance couldn't mitigate against disasters like this.
 
LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan) said:
People saying the RFU can't hide
But what can they do? Yeh the wage is crazy but it's what CEO's charge.

Why was a club of Jerseys size fully pro if it couldn't afford it???
Click to expand...

Agreed, but with big money comes big accountability. Organisations are usually pretty quick to change at the top when things go south, but that's not happened here.

But the clubs also baffle me. Ambition's great, but if you can't afford it, don't spend it. Doing otherwise is straightforward mismanagement.

While we'd like a vibrant pro game its pretty clear that, currently, one division is barely sustainable let alone two. Grand future plans are great but we need to stabilise what we have and get some solid foundations in place, walking before running etc.
 
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