Dickinson concern over long term effects of ring-fencing
PREMIERSHIP ringfencing would be a disaster for player development, says Ealing and former Northampton back rower Sam Dickinson.
Dickinson, who cut his teeth at Championship side Rotherham before progressing to win a Premiership title with Saints and earn caps with England Saxons, believes cutting off the topflight would hammer aspiring players and clubs.
Dickinson, 33, told TRP: “There’s been talk of ringfencing for a long time but it will be bad for rugby as a whole, especially for professional rugby because I couldn’t see that continuing the Premiership.
“Ealing’s a completely professional set-up with a huge amount of ambition, but if you ring-fence the topflight you’ll lose people wanting to put money in because there’s no incentive.
“The Premiership clubs might live to regret that because it’ll have a negative effect by reducing the number of players equipped to make the step up.
“And who are Premiership clubs going to turn to if, as they do now, they want to send their players to a pro team to get experience? I struggle to see how cutting off the top 12 clubs can be any good for the country.”
Dickinson added: “You make it hard enough for Championship teams when they come up anyway because financially they’re massively handicapped, but to then say we’ll cut you off on top is completely unfair.
“I’d like to see a bit more help being passed down, not less, because there are plenty of players coming up from the Championship to the Premiership but there’s very little by way of reward going the other way.”
Leicester’s signing of Jersey’s James Voss takes the number of Championbelow ship players joining top flight clubs this summer to 12. Dickinson said: “Since I last played in the Championship in 2012 a lot of things have changed. It’s more professional and the standard is much higher, so why you’d want to change that I’m not entirely sure.”
Meanwhile, Dickinson says Ealing’s ambition persuaded him to sign a two-year deal in February after failing to agree terms at Saints.
He explained: “Saints tried to sort something but ran out of space to expend more money, so we got to the point where it was time to move. There’s huge potential at Ealing and they want to push on.”
Dickinson says Northampton’s sacking of Jim Mallinder in December left him disappointed but believes his old boss will be back. He explained: “Everyone knows the value Jim added to Saints but you had the feeling we were running out of time to dig ourselves out of a hole.
“He fell on his sword and took one for the team. We all share responsibility for that and it was a tough season, but he’ll bounce back and Saints will hit refresh.”
Ealing have silverware in their sights with a B&I Cup semi-final against Bedford to come. Dickinson added: “It’s a big incentive to win some silverware and when you look at the signings we’ve made for next season, with a guy like Jordan Onojaife coming in from Saints now, we’ll look to push hard for top spot.”