Funding plans for women just bizarre

THE RFU revealed a bizarre £220 million 10-year plan for professional women’s rugby that appears to be based more on fantasy than on any objective appraisal of its own parlous financial position, which impacts all its member clubs.

In the process the RFU pandered to just two of the club leagues whose wellbeing it is meant to safeguard, namely the 13-club men’s Premiership and the 10-team women’s Premier 15s.

The RFU stated that its plan involves a partnership between the two leagues, which are already joined at the hip given that eight of the Premier 15s teams are run by Premiership clubs. This has been spurred on by RFU claims that, despite the pandemic, English women’s club rugby playing numbers have swelled to 40,000 – an increase of about 10,000.

The partnership raises the spectre of the RFU rubber-stamping a Premiership franchise policy which ringfences the top tier of the men’s and women’s professional games. That is a matter of great importance because it could lead to a damaging split in the English game, with many clubs breaking away from the RFU.

The fantasy element in the RFU’s vague proposal is the massive £22m-a-year investment in the Premier 15s for the next decade, despite the league only being in its sixth year, and attracting very small crowds.

An RFU investment of £2.2m in annual funding for each Premier 15s team would be extraordinarily divisive and totally disproportionate given that the Championship clubs – who have helped over decades to develop significant

numbers of England and Premiership players and coaches – are barely surviving on yearly central funding of £160,000.

The RFU should be bringing the game together, not promoting discord.