League shake-up may be on its way
A MID-SEASON decision on promotion and relegation may have to be taken in the National Leagues while the exact make-up of the Championship from 2022/23 and beyond remains up for discussion.
National League Rugby’s (NLR) 47 member clubs – Old Elthamians have dropped out due to financial difficulties – have decided in principle on how many teams should go up and down, but nothing is definite until the Championship structure is confirmed.
The second-tier of English rugby has been in a state of flux since it was rebranded by the RFU for the 2009/10 season, and with promotion and relegation now on hold, the RFU have taken the opportunity to try and ‘re-set’ the competition.
An RFU ‘think-tank’ met on Wednesday for the first of several get-togethers over the next four months to urgently discuss its purpose in the game moving forward.
Chaired by the RFU director of performance Conor O’Shea, the Championship strategic review working group comprises a wide range of members from across rugby, including Championship Clubs’ committee chairman Steve Lloyd and NLR chairman John Inverdale.
Terry Burwell, one of the driving forces behind
the Championship when it replaced National League Division One as English rugby’s second-tier competition, is also involved, along with other wellknown figures such as Nigel Melville (PRL executive chairman), Phil de Glanville (RFU board and council member) and Sir Ian McGeechan.
Richmond FC deputy chairman Peter Moore and former Cornish Pirates chairman Ian Connell, who both sit on the Championship Clubs’ Committee, Simon MassieTaylor (RFU), Penny Stewart (Northumberland RFU council member) and Russell Marchant (Hartpury vice-chancellor, Principal and CEO) make up the remainder of the 12strong group, which will also receive input from other representatives of the game in due course.
Noticeably absent is former Saracens CEO, Ed Griffiths, who drew up his own comprehensive blueprint for the Championship last August.
His 76-page document came up with a wide range of proposals, none of which have yet been acted upon, but his 16-team, two conference system, is believed to be under consideration.
If that is implemented, more than one National One club, as is the norm, would be promoted, and fewer than three clubs may be relegated to the newlook National Two, which will be split into three divisions: South, Midlands and North.
From 2022/23, the plan is to have 14-team leagues at Levels 3 and 4 (National One and National Two).
“Depending on what the decision is of that (Championship) group – which will then have to be ratified by the Council – there will be an effect on the National Leagues,” said Inverdale.
“Until it is definitively decided how many clubs there are in the Championship, it is impossible to say what that effect will be.
“It is fair to say it is not cut and dried as to what things will look like this year.”
The Championship has struggled to find its place in the English rugby system and the move towards making it more of a development competition has done nothing for its spectator or commercial appeal.
The RFU have to decide what it’s principal purpose is – to prepare Englishqualified players and coaches for bigger and better things or stand as a vibrant competitive league in its own right.
A combination of both would be ideal but, whatever happens, Inverdale says the game needs to get the right outcome.
“The key thing is, we just have to get it right because the Championship has been a mess for too long,” he said.
“The 18-month hiatus we’ve had has made it very clear what the problems are and how things need to be solved in terms of public awareness of the Championship, its economic sustainability, its role as far as the player pathway is concerned … there are so many elements in it.
“Rather than messing around at the fringes this has to be as open-ended a discussion as it can possibly be, reaching a decision that benefits the Championship but, more importantly, the game as a whole.
“This can’t be a shortterm fix. There has to be a coherent plan to make the tier below the Premiership financially viable and of interest to the media and the public.
“I think so many decisions will inevitably be based on money and who is paying for what.”
Rams Rugby CEO Gary Reynolds is phlegmatic about going into the new National One season not knowing exactly how the land lies.
“It is more likely with a restructure of the Championship there will be an extra promotion or promotions to the Championship and fewer relegations, and nobody in Div One is going to moan about that,” he said.
“I think the RFU are working really hard at the moment and I am optimistic that we will end up with a good Premiership, a good Championship and a good Div 1 and Div 2.
“Bill Sweeney (RFU CEO) has got his head screwed on and he is beginning to get this sorted out.”