Four top-flight women’s teams could be demoted in shake-up
RFU to bring in grading system to raise standards Steps taken to make the game more ‘professional’
The Rugby Football Union insisted sustainability must take precedence over professionalism as it outlined plans for the next three years of the Tyrrells Premier 15s, which could include up to four teams in England’s top flight women’s domestic rugby competition being demoted at the end of the coming season.
Launched in 2017 with a £2.4million, three-year investment from the RFU, the Tyrrells Premier 15s remains the biggest financial investment in domestic women’s club rugby. As with the first two years, this season – the opening round of fixtures which begins on Sept 21 – will operate a “locked league” system, whereby no sides are relegated to the Women’s Championship, the amateur second tier of women’s club rugby.
Instead, The Daily Telegraph can reveal that each of the existing 10 Tyrrells clubs – including two-time champions Saracens – will be independently audited and ranked over the coming months in an attempt to maintain their Tyrrells status until 2022-23.
The top-six teams will be automatically invited to join the elite league for the next three campaigns, from the 2020-21 season until 2022-23.
The remaining four will be invited to apply for a retendering process, which will be automatically extended to both West Park Leeds Ladies and Thurrock Ladies, last year’s champions of the Women’s North and South Championships respectively.
Natural steps towards further professionalising the competition would include the introduction of player contracts or match fees for first-team players, which are not set out in the three-year plans. But Nicky Ponsford, the RFU’S head of women’s performance, insists the league should continue remaining “professional with a small P”.
“We have to make sure the league is sustainable,” said Ponsford. “If we move too quickly towards professionalism and start paying players, then actually we’re in danger of the competition becoming unsustainable. We’ve got to make sure the commercial revenues and attendances are driven up first because we want this league to be here in 10, 15, 20 years’ time.”
Most players in the current Tyrrells are amateurs and do not receive a salary from the RFU, other than those who are contracted by national rugby unions on either a 15s or sevens basis. These include the likes of Emily Scarratt and Katy Daley-mclean, who were among the 28 England players to be awarded full-time contracts in January, as well as Scottish professional duo and Harlequins players Jade Konkel and Chloe Rollie.
“Clubs know that the infrastructure has got to be right,” continued Ponsford, who suggested small steps such as bolstering attendances across the board remained a priority. “It’s not good enough for one club to [have] regular attendances of over a thousand, it needs to be all the clubs who are in that situation.
“Those are the real bits that will make a difference and we have to get to that point before we genuinely start talking about the whole league becoming professional or semi-professional.
“I think it’s something that will happen, but I’m not prepared to put a timescale on it. There’s a few things underpinning what we do before we move to that level.”
To secure a place in the Tyrrells next season, teams will be assessed on whether they meet the RFU’S “minimum operating standards”.
Club governance, match-day and training environments and clubs’ marketing and commercial viability are among the key areas which will be scrutinised, before teams are ranked from one to 10 according to their auditing score.
The best four teams selected after an interview and assessment stage will be invited to join the league from the 2020-21 season. The proposal means that potentially a maximum of four teams could be removed from the Tyrrells Premier 15s at the end of the 2019-20 season and relegated to the two Women’s Championship competitions.
While no direct investment will be made in the Women’s Championship to close the seemingly growing gap between the second tier of women’s club rugby and the Tyrrells, Ponsford revealed that “basic minimum standards” would be put in place in the league “to help give clubs direction”.
“We’re not in a situation where our resources are everything,” she said. “It’s slightly tenuous to think it’s all about the RFU resources.
“It’s about the clubs which have ambition and commit their own resources to help bridge the gap and put themselves in a good position.
“That doesn’t mean the RFU won’t commit time and energy into supporting clubs, but the emphasis is on clubs to help drive those standards and put themselves in a position to tender for a place.”