Don’t knock us for promoting rugby says Exeter Uni boss
KEITH Fleming, rugby director at Exeter University, has slammed traditionalists who claim college sides should have no place in the National Leagues.
Exeter University will take their place in the South West Premier League (Level 5) next season after five promotions in seven years and are intent on following the examples of Hartpury College and Loughborough Students by climbing higher.
Close ties with Exeter Chiefs mean nine former or current University students now train full-time with the Premiership side, including England No.9 prospect Jack Maunder and lock-cum-back row first teamer Sam Skinner.
Hartpury and Loughborough’s presence in the Championship and National One respectively has been questioned, with critics pointing to the advantages such clubs gain from dualregistration ties and bespoke training facilities that are unavailable to most community clubs.
However, Fleming, above, said: “I find it amazing that people criticise because every club in the country want university guys playing for them, but what they don’t want to do is play against the university sides because we might beat them.
“We’re not damaging the values of the game, we’ve got 300 male players and between 70-100 female players in a university of 22,000 students and we’ve been the top rugby institution in the country for the last five years.
“We put out nine men’s teams and two women’s teams on a Wednesday and up to six teams on a Saturday as well, and those players want to play with their mates. They’re not mercenaries who go off and play for different clubs, they want to play here.
“Community clubs have the same opportunities and what they need to do is look after their recruitment and retention better. If they want promotion by default because a university side is not there, I don’t think that’s what rugby should be about.
“It’s a competitive league system, everyone’s got to play home and away and, from our perspective, we have a huge turnover of players so we actually have to work doubly hard to maintain and improve our standard.”
Fleming, who took over as rugby director when Rob Baxter moved on to the Chiefs’ coaching staff in the mid-Noughties and acts as matchday manager at Sandy Park, is proud of Exeter University’s progress.
He said: “Rob coached the university team when we were at the old County Ground and we only had two teams then, so we’ve created a bit of a monster.
“It’s been developing for over a decade and with Chiefs becoming a top-class Premiership club, we’ve got to ensure our boys are on a professional programme.
“To have nine players on full-time contracts at Chiefs shows it’s working and we never forget our primary function, which is giving students an education.”
Fleming added: “If we can get into National Two at some stage that will be fine. I’m not sure how anybody can criticise us for making players better and giving them fantastic life experiences.”