This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the latest from the Prem, the exodus from Wales and a lop-sided Sunday…
The ring begins to close
We’re used to a bit of chop and change in rugby. Formats are tweaked and twisted, nations and teams exit one competition and go to another.
But the change set to hit English rugby within the next couple of years – as revealed by The Guardian on Monday morning – is well beyond the usual tinkering and attempts to dress up the old as something new.
Prem Rugby is set to launch a tender process to secure some fresh investment into England’s top league, but the process depends upon the RFU approving the change from the current club league with promotion and relegation into a franchise league closed off to the mortals for the next five years. That approval is hoped for in February; the closing-off of the league could be this season already.
Essentially, that means Prem Rugby is set to take full control of the top tier, centralising the teams’ business management and commercial operations which is thought would provide an immediate cost saving of around GBP 2m. That, admittedly, would only scratch the surface of the GBP 34m that the clubs lost last season, but it would be a start. All 10 shareholder clubs within the current Prem Rugby set-up are on board with the proposal, while the proposed injection of cash could go a long way to wiping out the clubs’ current amassed debts.
The clean theory is that the RFU would then be clear to invest in and manage the rest of England’s club rugby scene and the national team, while the Prem manages itself.
The less clean practice contains a whole host of potential points of conflict, such as international player management, the disgruntlement of tier two clubs such as Ealing and the Cornish Pirates, who have been making many a costly investment over the past few years to try and get the infrastructure right for a promotion bid and would quite rightly feel sold out by the RFU were the proposal to be approved. Moreover, it has not escaped notice that the likely candidates for the next tranche of investment hail from the USA, a market which rugby continues to expend a huge amount of effort trying to crack, and whose sports league model is much more ring-fenced and franchise-based than the traditional European one. The question will be asked: are we selling out a bit there?
That the 10 franchises are envisaged to expand to 12 will be scant consolation to those left out; while a Cornish franchise is likely to be well-received because of the addition of a geographical region, Ealing’s franchise credentials will be pretty thin weighed up against the possibilities for teams from regions like Yorkshire, the West Midlands or even Wales (see further down the page).
Meanwhile, those outside the ring will justifiably ask whether fresh investment will be well-used. The last time it happened, the GBP 200m injection from CVC six years ago in return for 27% of the Prem’s commercial rights, the clubs generally went on a spending spree, which ultimately led to the disappearance of Wasps, Worcester and London Irish (three other potential franchise candidates who would no longer have to climb the ladder as they do now, but could buy their way in instead).
But the league itself is in better nick. Audience is up both in the stands and on the screens, while the latest TV rights deal secured more cash per season than the last. It’s hard not to think that on the back of the better league (not to mention the reduction on workload because of fewer fixtures), the national team is enjoying an upward trajectory; in that regard alone it is hard to foresee the RFU saying no to the clubs’ plans to develop further.
It’s been talked about for yonks, but it seems set now to happen: English rugby is to go full franchise on the back of American money. How far down the pyramid could the model reach? Draft days? Central contracts for all? Collective Bargaining Agreements?
It might not be to everyone’s taste. But compared to the R360 idiocy, it looks like a solid blueprint.
Wales begins to empty
That some players would leave is hardly a shock, but the exits of both Wales international captains, Jac Morgan and Dewi Lake, to Gloucester from the Ospreys, has to be a boot to the ribs of the already prostrate WRU.
It’s not a good sign for the Ospreys either, with the WRU decision as to which of its four professional teams to cut still looming. That Morgan and Lake opted to leave can be attributed at least in part to the uncertainty, never mind about the money. Fly-half Dan Edwards has been strongly-linked with Leicester, while internationals Gareth Thomas and Kieran Hardy are also being courted.
‘Gritty and abrasive’ Dewi Lake completes his switch to the Gallagher PREM
The union issued a defiant statement vowing to create a structure that would rival anything outside of Wales in the wake of Morgan and Lake’s announcements, but that the Welsh players are choosing to base themselves in England must particularly sting.
Yet a thought was raised among all the reaction which resonated loud and long with Loose Pass: if the investors wanted two or three really marketable franchise teams to be a part of the new Prem, they could do a lot worse than looking towards the other side of Offa’s Dyke. Would the WRU find such an overture easy to turn down – given the potential liquidity on offer? Highly unlikely.
It’s been mooted before, but an Anglo-Welsh league looks currently like a solution that would tick a lot of boxes for all concerned.
The rotated round
For Loose Pass’ thoughts on the current state of the European Cup, see last week’s column. But this week was even worse.
Of the 12 fixtures, at least nine were played with one or both teams featuring rotated squads with star players rested. Leaving aside the superb game between Bath and Toulon, the average margin of victory on Sunday was 45 points in favour of the home side.
Thank goodness for that Bath v Toulon game, not to mention the dramatic spectacle of Glasgow’s windswept win over Toulouse. But the hankering for the tournament of old goes on.