Franchising is not the way forward for English rugby

THE article last week regarding Mick Hogan’s concerns about rugby in the North is no doubt founded on genuine concern, but is inaccurate in a couple of areas.

The RFU is divided into four regions. It is actually going to be only eight Northern Clubs in the top 40 next season, but there are 11 Midlands Clubs as well, so the Midlands and North, who group together at National 2 North (Level 4) have 19 out of 40 – hardly a massive imbalance.

Furthermore, the South West will have only seven clubs in the top 40, with no clubs in National 1. No one is shouting about the death of rugby in the South West, but they have just the same issues below Championship level re funding.

The competition from Rugby League is always going to be there, but I suspect that Mr Hogan is rather more personally concerned with the lack of feeder clubs (having lost Wharfedale, Tynedale and Blaydon in recent years to Nat 2 or below) where he can send young Falcons players on loan to develop them.

Perhaps if they had done this more empathetically in recent years, these clubs would not have been relegated in the first place.

However, there must be tremendous opportunities for the Falcons to get out into the community and boost one (or maybe all three) of these great community clubs and help them return to higher levels.

Regional quotas are definitely not the answer! ROB HEGINBOTHAM via email