London Scottish set to head north for Super 8
LONDON Scottish hope to join an expanded Super 6 tournament in Scotland next season while remaining at their Richmond base.
A letter from the club’s executive committee and board sent to members on Friday says an informal offer has been extended to London Scottish by Scottish Rugby who are expanding the competition to eight teams.
“The Super 6 is proving to be a successful competition in Scotland and the clubs just voted to expand the tournament to eight teams in season 22-23,” said the letter.
“The SRU wish these two teams to be based in Glasgow and London, therefore London Scottish has been invited to join Super 8 in season 22-23.
“Preliminary discussions between SRU and RFU CEOs indicate that ‘the RFU cannot think of any reason why they would stop London Scottish playing in Super 8 so long as the amateur club remains rooted in the London community’. This would allow London Scotforward. tish to return to our roots as providing a player pathway for Scottish qualified players born or living in England to play rugby for Scotland.
“Also, from a financial perspective, each Super 8 team will receive £150k support from SRU, plus all of the travel costs will be covered. This is the same amount that we are currently getting in the Championship, although based on the current spending cuts this is by no means guaranteed going We also believe that a salary cap will be imposed which will be much closer to what we are currently spending on the squad – therefore making us much more competitive in the new structure.
“The playing standard will be equivalent to National 1 and 2 which we believe will be a higher level than London Scottish will achieve within the English league structure.
“It will also mean by playing in the Scottish leagues with a Scottish qualified pathway, there will be more commercial interest to our sponsors and investors and our key commercial stakeholders have indicated they would rather support Super 8 than Level 4 or 5 in England.”
London Scottish, who are rock bottom and winless in the Championship this season, hope their place in the Super 8 will be formally ratified by the end of December.
They understand the initial ‘franchise’ will be for a period of three years, with the potential for the format to be expanded to the Super 10.
The letter continues: “The current requirement for the Super 8 is that 75 per cent of the squad be Scottish qualified – but we expect that initially, we will receive some sort of dispensation in order to facilitate our transition to this requirement.”
The letter also explained that the club plans to continue as tenants at Richmond Athletic Ground for the “foreseeable future” and are in talks to extend their agreement with owners Richmond RFC.
“However, this is only one part of the club’s overall structure and we also need to take into consideration the Lions who are effectively the 1st XV of the Amateur Club, along with the mini’s, juniors and colts,” the letter added.
“We believe that in order to get RFU approval for us joining the Super 8, they will want the rest of the club to remain within the English club and community structure. To this end, it is imperative we find a new ‘home’ for the remainder of the club to establish a base from which we can grow and develop.”