RUGBY CAN’T ALLOW TOP CLUBS TO SHUT THE DOOR

uP for discussion again, the scrapping of promotion and relegation between rugby’s Premiership and Championship. only two clubs have ambitions to go up, Bristol and yorkshire Carnegie, it is claimed — and only Bristol can afford it.

yes, there is a precedent in the rise of exeter Chiefs, but others who have trod their path to the Premiership couldn’t wait to come down again and cut the budget. one can certainly see the economic arguments, particularly if a review process is also established, so that a genuinely ambitious and successful Championship club still has the right to be considered.

yet, as always, this is a moment in time. We could freeze any league in any given season, and what wonderful dreams and stories would be crushed? If there was another exeter in, say, five or 10 years, could we rely on the Premiership club owners to acknowledge their worth to the sport and welcome them in?

The protectionist instinct is very strong among wealthy men. They are not natural sharers.

So whatever sense ring-fencing might make financially right now, the laws governing future access must allow for the sport to grow in regions not yet even contemplated, for investors to revive clubs that might currently seem lost causes, for the balance of power to change, for the league to expand beyond our current imaginations.

Most of all it must acknowledge sporting excellence and merit, rather than just an open chequebook.

otherwise the new structure is merely another self- serving carve-up to protect an established elite. And we’ve had enough of those already.