Tempting to cut Prem loose but I doubt it’s sustainable

THE top tier clubs wield a vastly disproportionate influence over English rugby by virtue of their monopoly over England Academies and their legal entitlement, under the Professional Game Agreement, to RFU funding.

Hopefully, this is soon to be significantly reduced under the PGA’s break clause.

It would, surely, be inconceivable that any such situation could be allowed to continue, were PRL’s recent proposals – effectively to remove themselves from the pinnacle of the RFU league system by ending automatic annual promotions and relegations and making entry to their privileged ranks available instead only to clubs willing and able to buy shares in “PRL Inc” – to be implemented.

As Jeff Probyn wrote in last week’s TRP, it would be tempting to take to their logical conclusion PRL’s effective UDI (unilateral declaration of independance) by withdrawing the right to run England Academies and this must be eminently workable.

Jeff ’s other proposal, however, that England players would not be picked from the ranks of such an independent league, while also instinctively appealing, would present much greater challenges.

Leaving aside the short term problem of existing England players’ contractual ties to Premiership clubs, where would new internationals find their full time training and playing environments, when not on Twickenham duty?

The RFU could, of course, divert some of their PGA payments to Championship clubs but, without the underpinning provided by the PRL moneymen, how sustainable would this be, without perpetuating the current situation of inadequate funding for the community game?

Is there enough support for the game in England to sustain two fully professional leagues without beggaring the grassroots of the game? Recent pre-Covid evidence suggests not.

If those currently in charge of Level 1 clubs and at the top of the RFU cannot reach agreement on more equitable arrangements to underpin the future of the whole game in England, then there may be no option but to test this capacity, bringing huge uncertainty for all – not least the Premiership clubs themselves.

John Allanson