Now it’s Newcastle’s turn to head abroad

NEWCASTLE are to play a Premiership ‘home’ game in Philadelphia next September which again shows how Premiership clubs care little about, and do not represent, the areas in which they are situated.

Why not play an occasional fixture in Durham or Cumbria?

Kent and Essex are part of the supply chain feeding Saracens’ academy. Yet a few seasons ago Saracens played a ‘home’ game in Brussels; no apparent thought given to playing in one of the counties upon which the success of their academy depends.

A friend in Cornwall tells me that if Exeter played an occasional home match in the Duchy, the response would be fantastic. Yet nothing. At the same time the Cornwall RFU are expected to channel their best young talent up the A30 to Exeter.

Counties should need no more convincing that total reliance by the RFU upon the self-interested Premiership clubs is not in the interests of English rugby as a whole. JEFF GAGE via email