Three areas where rugby could grow
Reports earlier this week that Premiership Rugby might be considering taking ‘prestige club games’ to more new venues around the county to promote the brand and attract new fans set me wondering where exactly are England’s neglected rugby heartlands.
Or, to employ a more positive spin, which are the most fertile but most under developed areas in England for rugby growth? And in the same breath why not consider which once great rugby areas need to be resuscitated. Which areas could indeed possibly sustain a top-flight professional club, always assuming that Premiership Rugby and the RFU even want such a club or franchise to emerge. You do wonder sometimes.
This subject was much discussed in the years leading up to RWC2015 on the assumption that a glorious England triumph would trump even RWC2003 and kick-start a new golden age for English club rugby and massive expansion at all levels of the pyramid. An expanded Premiership, a fully professional Championship in the tier below and ambitious clubs in the National Leagues buoyed by new sponsors.
Ah, ignorance was bliss. England’s inglorious departure from the tournament in the pool stages seemed to put paid to everything. That pivotal moment of anticipated heightened public awareness which RWC2015 was meant to bring never materialised. Well let’s indulge in a little blue sky thinking again, it does no harm and somebody should.
Strategically I’ve always thought there are three areas worthy of nourishment and special attention. Brighton taking in Sussex and adjacent coastal regions; Liverpool tapping into Lancashire’s rugby tradition and Norwich which could provide an outlet for Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge. I’m tempted to add Leeds and Yorkshire but there is a groundhog day element to that one.
Brighton and Sussex first
because for me it’s the most practical. If the stars aligned it could happen. And I don’t just say that as a resident of England’s most glorious county, or strictly speaking two counties – West and East Sussex. Brighton is a sport minded city of 300,000 which serves a county population of 1.7m. Excellent transport links. Possible use of Falmer Stadium (31,000 capacity) which has already hosted one great rugby event, namely Japan’s World Cup victory over South Africa in 2015.
Sussex has, quietly, been a low-key rugby hotbed over the decades and centuries without ever getting recognised as such, mainly because their best players automatically migrate to the London clubs and beyond.
There are already some major rugby nurseries in Sussex – Brighton College (Harlequins’ first port of call when talent spotting), Eastbourne College, Christ’s Hospital, Hurstpierpoint College and Worth College to name just five. And Sussex also spawned one of the more
remarkable clubs of the 20th century, Felbridge Juniors where I was a proud playing member.
None of the 34 indigenous clubs has ever had the drive or inclination to aspire to senior status but plenty of talented players have emerged not least in recent years: Joe Marler, Joe Launchbury, Billy Twelvetrees, Marcus Smith, Alex King, Jordan Turner-Hall, Ollie Phillips, the Chisholm brothers at Harlequins and England Sevens captain Tom Mitchell.
All sorts of other interesting rugby characters past and present are rugby products of Sussex even if they made their names elsewhere. Ireland prop Justin Fitzpatrick and Matt Mullen, once of Worcester and Wasps; Scotland full-back Hugo Southwell and Scots lock Kieran Lowe, former Ireland wing Justin Bishop, Wasps and England prop John Green, former Bristol captain Roy Winters and current England women speed merchant Jessica Breach.
So rugby undoubtedly has a presence, but it could have a bigger footprint with a bit of targeted encouragement and Brighton would have to be at the epicentre, no question. What an attractive addition to the fixture list that would be for travelling fans looking for a weekend away.
It’s not an entirely new concept, Brighton and surrounds have been on the radar before. More than once Wasps had a serious look at Brighton when they were considering their various ground moves over the decades and I remember chatting to Nigel Wray about Brighton and the south coast generally during an early European weekend in Toulouse many years ago.
As for Liverpool and Lancashire, it’s one of English rugby’s great tragedies and indeed mysteries how that area has become a rugby wasteland at elite level. In the early years of the Courage League they boasted three topflight clubs – Waterloo, Liverpool St Helen’s and Orrell – all of whom were soon headed for obscurity. To lose one is unlucky, two plain careless, three simply unforgivable. English rugby was asleep at the wheel back then.
There are 83 active clubs in the county – the grass roots are still strong – and there must surely be a way of tapping into that latent love of the game. Sale, originally a Cheshire club of course, gives Greater Manchester an outlet but what about the equally mighty Liverpool and its Lancashire sports mad hinterland?
Back in 1993 the North took on the All Blacks at Anfield and lost 27-21, a splendid rugby occasion but the experiment was never repeated which is a shame. Of course football is huge and rugby league a strong counter attraction, but it was ever thus in that part of the world. It didn’t lessen rugby’s appeal back in the day and it shouldn’t now with imaginative marketing especially with relations so amicable between Union and League these days.
Which leaves Norwich which would admittedly be more of a punt but worth investigating. A brilliant thriving city of 220,000 and is a big fish in a small pond so to speak with East Anglia which in rugby terms means the Eastern Counties. It has a Premiership football club, well for a few more weeks anyway, but there is room for another show in town.
As with Sussex, the Eastern Counties is a bit of a sleeper rugby-wise with Leicester in particular benefiting from a steady stream of their best players over the decades and centuries. Jack van Poortvliet, the Youngs brothers and Freddie Steward being the most recent examples.
Again you have a fair number of junior clubs – 53 – with no local outlet at the next level for either players or fans. There are some very decent rugby schools within the three counties such as the Leys, Gresham, The Perse and St Joseph’s College Ipswich but everything over that side of the country seems very much out on a limb, not unlike Cornwall where the Cornish Pirates have fought such a valiant battle for recognition.