>> Griffiths: RFU must hit ‘go’ in Championship
Thankfully the noises coming out of the first meeting between Nigel Melville at the RFU and the Championship clubs’ chairmen earlier this week were more optimistic and positive than they have been for a long time. From what I have heard there was a better understanding between all parties about the direction the league needs to take and what the clubs need to get it there.
Let’s hope everyone can deliver on that early dialogue and give the Championship the platform and the funding that it deserves.
For far too long off-field issues have allowed to detract from what is a very good product on the pitch. Everything you want from a competition can be found in the Championship: physicality, unpredictability, excitement, good quality players and matches where there is a real intent to play. Personally, I love it.
Apart from ourselves, who’d have predicted that we would have made the top four last year from a ninth finish the year before? All the ingredients are there from a playing perspective to make the Championship a commercially attractive proposition. I’m mystified as to how long it is taking to make that happen since its introduction in 2009.There’s 24 hours in any given day!
Some people have said that the Championship is at a crossroads, a league where east meets west with no clear identity. At the moment, we’re stuck at a red light at those crossroads. Someone needs to bite the bullet, press the green button and make a clear statement about what is the Championship’s purpose. As a director of rugby at a Championship club, it is hard to set targets when the goalposts are constantly changing and the structure of the top end of the league system is shrouded in uncertainty.
As for the Steve Lloyds and Tony de Mulders (Doncaster benefactors) of this world who have put money into building these clubs up, all they want to know is what they are in this for? Where are we going? Are we going to be a fully professional second tier league, a la France, or are we going to go part-time a la Wales? There aren’t the resources in Wales to fund a fully professional Premiership but surely you can’t tell me that’s the case in England, too?
You definitely need two professional leagues, I have absolutely no doubt about that, with a semi-professional third tier underneath. Personally I would like to see the Premiership and Championship expanded to 14 clubs and potentially streamline the LV=Cup and British & Irish Cup. Three tiers of 14 teams equals 42 committed and ambitious clubs that all want to fulfil the criteria laid down by the governing body.
While the play-offs exist between the two divisions – and hopefully that remains the case beyond the end of 2016/17 season, because that’s where most of the interest in the league stems from – the Championship winner will forever be handicapped unless the season ends well before the end of May. Had we upset the odds and beaten Bristol in the play-off final, we’d have had to start building a squad fit for the Premiership the very next day. It might be nervy for a club like Bristol who have invested millions into getting back up but that’s how it is, that’s the rule! If you are good enough you will get over the line.
The Championship needs more money – period! To run a professional outfit, taking player and staff wages, travel, accommodation, kit, medical care, insurance etc. into account, you need a minimum of a £1m. By the time you take away deductions for officials and things like that you can reduce the figure we get from the RFU quite considerably! Just doubling TV revenue, a pittance around the £25,000 mark, would pay for so many extra outgoings. I’m informed that a lowend rugby budget in ProD2 in France last season was €4million, which dwarfs anything in the Championship outside of the relegated Premiership team.
We had four players in the Championship Dream Team last year. One we sold to Bristol (player of the year, Rob Hurrell) and we had to up the wages of the other three to keep hold of them because of interest from teams with bigger budgets.
As a result, we’ve had to cut our squad down for the forthcoming season. Going down the dual-registration route to top up your squad is all well and good but if you hit an injury crisis at the same time as the parent Premiership club, then you’re in a bit of strife.
It’s not like the money wouldn’t be well spent. The Championship is not only a great competition in its own right but plays a very important role in the conveyor belt of talent coming through via English club rugby.
Speaking as a Welshman, if England get the top end of the professional game right structurally it could spell very bad news for the rest of the world. Harnessed properly, England has the depth of playing resources that means it could be challenging the All Blacks for years. At the moment, though, we are haggling over bits and bobs, and it is so frustrating. If they are happy with the current league set-up, at the top tier, then fine but let’s make that public and we’ll all know where we stand going forward.
“I’m mystified at how long it’s taking to make the Championship a commercially attractive proposition”