Plans to expand Tier Two to 14 on hold says Melville
PLANS to expand the Championship from 12 to 14 teams next season have been postponed after clubs failed to reach a consensus on pushing through the move.
However, RFU professional rugby director Nigel Melville insists the proposal could be revisited as part of wider discussions over season structure from 2019.
With the tier two playoffs having now been scrapped, some clubs favoured expansion as a means of providing more guaranteed home games, while others voiced reservations over squad sizes and having to divide existing money more ways. Melville told The Rugby
Paper: “We’ve been discussing with clubs the future direction of the Championship and one of the options was 14 teams.
“Others wanted to stay at 12 and it certainly won’t be happening next season, but there’s a follow-up meeting later this month ahead of a Professional Game Board meeting and maybe a 14team league is something we’ll look at in future.
“I’m looking at the whole thing in terms of the global season – where we’re heading above and below and how it all fits together. We’re taking all ideas on board and nothing is off the table as far as the Championship is concerned.”
Meanwhile, Melville revealed the unloved British & Irish Cup is to be scrapped and next season replaced by a domestic competition for Championship clubs only.
The format is likely to involve regionally based pools, potentially with quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final, although that is to be confirmed.
Melville explained: “We thought that the B&I Cup might go because there’s no great appetite from the three sides (English, Welsh and Irish) and it’s not really working.
“There’s a lot of travelling involved and the variance of teams has been very up and down.
“There’s not a lot of spectator support for it, or commercial support either, so we want to look at other domestic-based options, probably regionally as well to cut down on the travelling and increase the number of local derbies.
“We’re currently looking at what the format should be because we need to make sure clubs get the right number of home games.”