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Major restructure of English rugby to be debated - reports
The owners of the Gallagher Premiership clubs are meeting today to discuss the £275m offer from CVC Capital Partners for a controlling stake in the competition, but that is not all that is on the agenda.
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According to a report in the Guardian today by Rob Kitson, a number of other issues are on the slate to be debated, including a reduced Champions Cup and a Ryder Cup-style competition between the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere clubs.
One suggestion is that the 20-team Champions Cup, which had previously been reduced from the 24-team Heineken Cup, be further reduced to a 16-team competition, thereby offering high-profile and elite matches in each round of the competition. In this structure, the top five teams from the Premiership, Top 14 and Guinness PRO14 would qualify for the competition each year, in addition to the previous season’s Challenge Cup winner.
Another change which has been suggested is to have the top sides in Europe and the southern hemisphere meet in June – which will, unless northern hemisphere club seasons delay their season start, be a free month after 2019, due to World Rugby’s restructuring of the season – to decide which are the best club sides in the world.
According to the Guardian, it would be a 13-fixture event, with the first hemisphere to seven wins declared the overall winner.
Of course, that will only add fixtures to the already congested calendar, something which Premiership clubs reportedly believe can be solved by clubs fielding squads of 60 players or larger moving forward. This is seen as a way of making the Premiership Shield a more competitive tournament and increasing its profile, whilst also allowing for greater squad rotation in other competitions.
Part of the goal of making the Shield more competitive is to increase the exposure the competition gets by hosting the games in parallel with the senior Premiership fixtures. For example, any weekend that a Premiership side is playing away from home in the flagship competition, their reserve side will play at home in the Shield.
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The Premiership owners seem to be going all-in on the newly rebranded Shield competition and the prospect of it becoming the official second tier to the Premiership is also being considered.
The proposal being discussed is that the 12 Premiership reserve sides, plus London Irish and the best-finishing non-promoted side from the Championship, which last season would have been Ealing Trailfinders, contest a 14-team second tier competition. If Irish or Ealing were to finish top of the pile, they would be promoted to the Premiership, but if one of the reserve sides were to emerge as champions, no side would be relegated from the Premiership that season.
At the bottom of this new second tier competition, there would be a playoff with the winner of the Championship, with the winner of the playoff spending the next season in this reimagined Shield competition.
These proposals may never see the light of day, but they illustrate well the ambition of the Premiership clubs to create a profitable and sustainable future for themselves, although many will argue that this could well come at the expense of the England national team and the lower tiers of English rugby.
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It is clear that it is not just the takeover bid from CVC being discussed today that could have significant repercussions for English rugby moving forward.
Comments on RugbyPass
Shame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
2 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
2 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
2 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
2 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
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