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Jones singling out Dolly should make RFU sit up and take notice - Andy Goode
Eddie Jones’ singling out of Nic Dolly for praise this week should make the RFU sit up and take notice about the plight of English rugby’s second tier. We all know how many players have benefited from cutting their teeth in the Championship but to have the England head coach heaping special praise on someone who was playing for Coventry eight months ago should attract some attention to what’s happening with the league.
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Central funding to the Championship has dropped drastically from £670,000 per club in 2017 to £150,000 now (£80,000 from the RFU and £70,000 from the Premiership) and clubs were only allowed loans rather than grants in order to survive the pandemic.
It’s a complex issue, of course, but the fact that Dolly can go from playing against Doncaster to mixing it with the Springboks in under a year shines a light on the value of the league and the RFU has to do more to support it.
The landscape in French rugby is different but the PRO D2 clubs receive over a million euros a year in TV revenue alone. The odd Championship game used to be shown on Sky as part of the deal to show England’s autumn fixtures but that ended a few years ago and hasn’t been replaced.
A broadcaster isn’t just going to come in now and pay big bucks to show Ampthill v Hartpury or the like but the RFU needs to nurture the league so that one day in the not too distant future a decent TV deal might be on the cards.
"What a story!"
– Eddie Jones capped 23 new players in 2021 and he has given special praise to one of the England newcomers #England #AutumnNationsSerieshttps://t.co/aaeBdlGwkO
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 23, 2021
Crucially, the pathway for clubs to be promoted needs to be there in the long term as well. We know that isn’t the case next season but the play-off between the sides finishing bottom of the Premiership and top of the Championship in 2023/24 should make a difference.
That only works, though, if the clubs in the second tier are supported to an extent where they’re able to not only compete in that play-off but also compete off the field and reach the standards required to play in the Premiership.
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In the event that some clubs don’t want to be promoted in the short term, or don’t feel they’re in a position to be, they still need to be supported and affiliated to a Premiership club in order to provide a pathway for players and ensure that the competition is viable.
Dolly has just beaten the world champions and played in front of a crowd of 82,000 at Twickenham but the RFU have decimated the funding for the very teams that kept him going while he was striving for an opportunity to make it big.
He had loan spells at Rotherham and Jersey before being cut by Sale and then rebuilt his career at Coventry until Leicester plucked him from obscurity earlier this year. As a young player, you’re going to learn far more in the Championship than you will in the Premiership Rugby Cup, with some of the scorelines we’ve seen in that of late, or any academy league.
Plus, Jones has been talking a lot about players remaining grounded recently and is the kind of coach who loves a bit of tenacity, grit and hard work, all qualities that are generally hallmarks of players who have served their time in the English second tier.
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The Dolly story shows the RFU can’t just focus on the England team and the Premiership, it needs to get back to properly backing the Championship and clubs a bit lower down the pyramid as well.
Whether it’s unearthing a diamond in the rough or providing a place for young stars of the future to earn their stripes in a hard-nosed league, the Championship serves a hugely valuable purpose in English rugby and it’s high time the RFU gave it some support.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
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