Ward in blast at 13-team Premiership discussion
BEN Ward, rugby director of high-flying Ealing, has slammed Premiership proposals for a 13-team, ringfenced Premiership and claims Championship sides are being cheated.
RFU chief executive Steve Brown recently admitted the governing body could relax their insistence on promotion and relegation being enshrined, with attitudes towards ringfencing among top flight clubs hardening since the demise of London Welsh.
Most, but not all, Premiership clubs view the constant yo-yoing of teams between the divisions as a costly drain on financial resources, and The Rugby
Paper understands the matter was listed high on the agenda at last Tuesday’s Premiership Rugby board meeting.
Under discussion is promoting Bristol into a 13-team Premiership, with the Anglo-Welsh Cup binned, along with a moratorium on promotion and relegation for at least three seasons in order to allow them and struggling clubs like London Irish to stabilise businesses.
However, Ward, above, whose side lie second in the Championship, eight points behind Bristol, claims this is a cop-out. He told The
Rugby Paper: “I understand some arguments but a 13team Premiership is random and just cuts things off for the sake of it.
“We’ve applied for a Premiership license this year and have ambitions to play at that level – and there are other ambitious clubs like Doncaster, Bedford, Yorkshire and Cornish Pirates, who are just in the middle of trying to build a Premiership standard stadium.
“This country should be able to support at least 20 professional teams. How you divide that – whether it’s 10 + 10 or 12 + 8 – can be debated, but we should be supporting ambitious teams and helping them grow, not shutting the door and saying ‘get lost’.”
Ward does not believe a three or five-year moratorium is viable, arguing: “Why would someone want to invest in a Championship club if there’s no guaranteed route to going up? They tried licensing in Super League and it didn’t work, so they scrapped it.
“I would like to see two leagues of ten. If you took the top teams in the Championship and brought down two from the Premiership, with two-up, two-down and an inter-divisional development competition, you’d create a strong set-up.”
Ward’s views will chime with many people in the game, but Newcastle managing director Mick Hogan believes mounting losses dictate the time for change has come.
Hogan told TRP: “For the long-term benefit of English rugby and England, the arguments for ending automatic promotion and relegation outweigh those for keeping it.
“People will always point to Exeter, but for every Exeter there’s been a London Welsh, Rotherham, Leeds or Bristol and it’s costing the sport tens of millions of pounds. Exeter are the exceptions and the debate should be over another pathway for ambitious teams.”
Hogan dismisses any argument that ring-fencing would create complacency at the foot of the Premiership, adding: “You look at NRL in Australia, which is a closed league, and Cronulla Sharks won it last year after finishing bottom two years before that.
“They were able to take a long-term view on building their team without the threat of relegation – that’s what would happen here.”