Worcester dropping out of the Premiership is crazy, relegation should be scrapped

A 14-team Premiership will give you a true development programme where you

have got top-flight rugby at the end of each development structure. You are

then linking regionally with schools that you can relate to, clubs that you

can relate to, as well as coach education. Everything fits together.

They do say that the top two leagues are professional but there is a huge

difference between being part of the Premiership and seeing a full

development plan and being part of the GKIPA Championship where the money is

much tighter. At the moment it is only London Welsh, Bristol and Leeds that

could go into the Premiership by meeting all the criteria.

With what Chairman Cecil Duckworth has done at Worcester, with their ground

and hotel, and how they have developed the area, it seems strange that such

an investment can now be left high and dry in the Championship.

We are trying to put a business plan together to make the professional game

work and yet we put owners or investor groups under pressure by doing this.

We are saying on one hand that the Premiership is supposed to be a collective

business, but on the other hand people who have invested significant amounts

of money can suffer this fate. If the Premiership consisted of 14 clubs it

would get rid of that anomaly.

It makes sense that the Premiership works as a business of 14 clubs. Then you

have got stability. Then you have got people investing who can put together

a three to five-year development plan, where their money goes into the

infrastructure of the club, the facilities, education and player development

– and it does not go straight into the players’ pockets. As it stands, the

danger is that rugby union goes like football where you get some money in

the game and all it does is raise salaries.

Another thing it would do is to improve the standard of rugby. It would give

coaches and players the opportunity for competition, yes, but also to

develop the game and tactically push it forwards, because there could be

that openness in the play that the fear of relegation often shuts out.

Relegation does make it a tough league. But people also ask why our game is

not as good as that in the southern hemisphere, and this is a reason. If you

are looking at a wider perspective and are trying to make English rugby as

good as it can be, then I am just not convinced relegation is a good thing.

With relegation you just get less rugby being played because sides are

desperate to stay in the Premiership. But it is a short-sighted approach,

based around trying to accumulate points rather than developing rugby

players.

Some people seem to think without relegation the Premiership would be less

competitive. All I would say is, coaches and players involved in serious

sport are the most competitive people you will meet, they do not want to

finish second, never mind bottom of any competition. If you are not

competitive, you do not play competitive sport.

Without relegation, you can challenge the players to play a different type of

game and to up the skill levels. The coaches would have no excuse. You would

end up with the best prepared players for international rugby.

I would like to see promotion/relegation built in every five years when the

top two clubs in the Championship play-off against the bottom two clubs of

the Premiership.

That would also allow the Championship clubs who want to go for it to sort

themselves out, to build a business rather than, say, scraping into the

Premiership, getting the money and going straight back down. It is one hell

of a commitment to challenge for the Premiership and my experience with

Leeds tells me that some clubs in the Championship would never be in a

position to do that.

Another thing it would do is allow better planning of the season’s structure.

The best structure is a joint venture between the international game, where

the money is, and the club game that is wanting to establish itself as a

business and to attract crowds.

The crowd figures flatter a bit at the moment, I think. The big crowds at

Wembley and Twickenham give a false indication of average crowds. We need to

be filling every stadium every weekend because the rugby is so good.

Nowadays, because the side going down get a parachute payment, you are strong

enough financially for the following 12 months. It is only if you do not get

back up immediately that it becomes a real issue. You are then losing share

capital from Premiership Rugby.

Not that the parachute payment is entirely fair. You could argue that the team

going up should do so with some Rugby Football Union support because they

are the champions of the RFU Championship. It is a tough call going back up

because, due to the play-off games, you do not qualify until June, so

getting players and committing to a squad is very difficult. Exeter are the

only ones to have broken that mould. They got promoted, hung on in there and

built from there.

One way is to buy your way in. Bristol, who have finished the Championship

regular season at the top of the table, have taken a huge gamble this

season. They are probably funding two or three times that of any other

Championship club.

I am obviously biased but at Leeds we are trying to produce a business model

that not only gets us into the Premiership but also allows us to stay there.

For the sake of two teams why do not we have a broader business plan and have

14 teams, without relegation. Then we can have a real go at business

stability, player development and sustaining a high-quality product, in

England and Europe.

Article source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/rugby-league-gentle-brushes-krs-spin-121826904.html

Worcester dropping out of the Premiership is crazy, relegation should be scrapped