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Frustrated Ealing in advanced talks to join URC

Neil Fissler

3 days ago

Ealing players run out for kick off during the RFU Championship match between Ealing Trailfinders and Caldy at the Tralifinders Sports Club, Vallis Way, West Ealing on January 13th 2024 in London (Photo by Tom Jenkins/Getty Images)

Ealing Trailfinders are in advanced talks with the United Rugby Championship about joining the competition if the WRU are successful in cutting a region ahead of the 2027-2028 campaign.

Ealing, who have won all 25 of their Champ Rugby games this season, have dominated English Rugby’s second tier since 2022 and are odds-on favourites to lift their fourth title in five years.

And despite not finishing outside the top two for the last decade, it is well documented that the door to the PREM has remained closed because their Vallis Way base doesn’t meet the RFU’s minimum standards criteria.

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Despite hosting the London Broncos game in rugby league’s Super League in the not-too-distant past, the RFU said that it didn’t meet the requirements around ground capacity and assurances over safety compliance.

And even though the minimum standards were tweaked in 2024 to allow clubs to reach the required capacity of 10,000 over the course of four seasons, Ealing still haven’t been able to comply. However, that is not a barrier as far as URC bosses are concerned.

The cost of a so-called P-share to join the Gallagher PREM, estimated at between £12m and £20m, is also seen as prohibitive to Ealing joining the top flight.

It is not the first time that a move to the URC has been mooted. Three years ago, they held talks about merging with the Ospreys, who, along with the Scarlets, are the two clubs most in danger of being axed at the end of next season.

Even though the merger failed to materialise, the progressive competition comprising clubs from Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and South Africa has maintained an interest in expanding into London following the success of one-off games in the capital.

It was only a week ago that talk of London Irish reforming and joining either the URC or the Gallagher PREM again reared its head. Irish’s investors now include Kyle Jordan, the son of the late F1 legend Eddie, who was part of a consortium that bought the club in 2023.

While there’s a push in South Africa for the Cheetahs, who lost their place in the URC five years ago, to be reinstated, others would like to see the Georgian outfit Black Lion admitted.

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Comments

35 Comments

Andrew Steele 3 days ago

Biggest mistake Union ever made was pandering to the conceits of the big clubs and going fully professional. The game disappeared up its own backside and the social game was destroyed by the introduction of leagues and league-dictated fixture lists, particularly beyond 1st team level where the rugby calendar traditionally consisted of games and drinks with clubs and opponents you'd known for decades. And players could turn up with their boots for whoever was short. So many clubs suddenly lost older players who just wanted a social game and clubs running 4 or 5 teams started struggling to get a 2nd XV out. The outcome was the exclusion of the marginal clubs like Ealing and Bedford.

TheFiend 3 days ago

Back Lion better option

Ed the Duck 1 day ago

Not when you understand the country’s political trajectory!

JD 3 days ago

The owners could easily meet the minimum Prem standards if they wanted to. It’s all about their business model - I still believe the rumours that they don’t actually want to be in the Prem. Their attendance is surprisingly poor compared to other Champ teams so it just won’t work.

Wayneo 3 days ago

Time for the URC to start considering a 2nd division competition, maybe with promotion/relegation.

Just look at the demand. London Irish, Ealing Trailfinders, Cheetahs, Black Lion, Romania, Spain, Portugal and potentially another 3 clubs from South Africa just to start.

Ed the Duck 1 day ago

Nice idea but costly, to say the least…

JW 3 days ago

Just partner with the arab investors of R360 (hopefully that’s also not a thing anymore) and make them good enough to join proppa.

ScottishPuma 3 days ago

This is an absolute nonsense. Why does rugby have to be so backward? Grow the game, there’s a reason the sport is struggling. Black Lion are the obvious choice, or look at a team from Portugal or Spain if you're keen to keep matches in a similar time zone.

JW 3 days ago

If they have the money, no brainer, otherwise you need WR to step up like they did/should in SRP.

SA 3 days ago

Question is, why would the RFU allow it?

World Rugby regulations insist on the host rugby board sanctioning any teams playing in their area joining other leagues so it’s only possible IF the RFU said yes.

Lofty 3 days ago

Interestingly would an RFU refusal be Restriction of Trading in British Law ?? If the RFU stop them bettering themselves thus increasing turnover then 1. Is that fair and 2. Would the RFU be outside the law ?

I for one hope it happens, and successfully, to show the Premiership and RFU what self serving k**bs they really are !!

DM 3 days ago

As long as the RFU themselves join the URC it would benefit them. With the PREM wanting to permanently get rid of promotion and relegation by replacing it with a franchise model that means the Champ sides have nowhere further to go. Ealing to the URC could in theory work as a fix for this.

Give them a few years to see how the crowds react to this new Anglo-Welsh shield in the URC and it could end up being the promotion and relegation fix for the Champ. It also gets the RFU’s foot in the door with having direct involvement/ownership unlike the PREM where they have very little.

JW 3 days ago

Why wouldn’t they?

SM 3 days ago

Well they could expand the league to 20 teams and play one round of matches eg: 19 matches per team if you include the travel to South Africa it should make the league more manageable with rest periods, if Wales drop one team then replace with 5 more teams eg: Black Lions (Georgia) ,Cheetahs (South Africa) , Jaguares and Pampas (Argentina) based in Spain and whoever fits the criteria

DM 3 days ago

I doubt an Argentina team would be added purely from a TV Timezone point of view. While the travel from Europe to South Africa is long the timezone compatibility for TV deals is very strong.

I also think they have a preference to keep the shield system as playing your local teams both home and away is significantly important for attendence revenue. Expanding to 20 and having to give that up I don’t think would be worth the trade for a risky rapid expansion for mostly developmental sides joining.

JW 3 days ago

Surely you would have a divisional format, you could go NFL style with just one cross over division each in a 14 game regular season, or dbl headers like SRP and 23 week if SA drop out of EPCR. Currently theres too many meaningless games though right (unless theres another idea to solve those).

Under The Tree 3 days ago

Would probably make more sense to expand to European based teams rather then Argentina. If you included 1 from Spain, Portugal, Georgia and big if Ealing / London Irish and Cheetahs. Then for shields it would make perfect sense for 5 South African teams, 4 Irish plus London team, 2 Scotish and 3 Welsh teams, rest of 2 Italian, Spanish, Portugese and Black Lions

TheFiend 3 days ago

Black Lion should rather join

DM 3 days ago

While that would be great for Black Lion it would not be as workable for the Welsh Shield. The WRU cutting to 3 teams means a much shorter travel distance to Ealing would be far easier and cheaper logistically.

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