Andy Goode: Ring fence the Premiership? I'm 100 per cent against it
It’s hardly surprising that more owners of Premiership clubs appear to be keen on ending relegation now that so many teams are at risk of the drop but it can’t be allowed to happen.
I’m 100 per cent against it. It goes against everything that the league has been built on over the years. Just think about Exeter going from the Courage League Division 4 around 20 years ago to becoming Premiership champions in 2017. That couldn’t have happened if the league was closed off.
The Chiefs were only promoted in 2010 and the gap between the top tier and second does look like a chasm at times now but that’s only eight years ago and look where they are now.
Bristol were the latest team to win promotion from the Championship and they’re sitting seventh in the table and hammered the most successful club in the professional era of English rugby at the weekend.
I’m not sure London Irish will be in a position to compete next season but the focus should be on how we can make the Championship a more competitive and commercially viable league, not on how we can keep all those teams out of the big time.
There are currently just four points separating sixth place and bottom in the Premiership and that’s a refreshing change from the usual two-horse race to avoid relegation. It’s also why these calls for the league to be ring fenced seem louder than they sometimes have done in the past.
The likes of Leicester, Northampton and Bath are genuinely at risk of relegation this season and some of the bigger clubs have definitely changed their tune on this issue as a direct result of the fear of what relegation could mean for them financially.
That is short-sighted and owners could make emotional decisions based on where they are at the moment. That shouldn’t be allowed to happen and I know any plan will have to be run past the RFU but someone impartial should be making this decision, not a group of people with a massive vested interest.
Apart from anything else, getting rid of relegation would make the league a poorer product and how that can be allowed to happen is beyond me, especially with the news this week that CVC might be about to purchase a 30 per cent stake in Premiership Rugby for £240m.
CVC were involved in Formula 1 before and that’s about as uncompetitive as you can get, with the likes of McLaren and Ferrari so dominant. You could say that Saracens and Exeter are the McLaren and Ferrari of the Premiership but the league as a whole is hugely competitive and we don’t want to lose that.
You only have to look at Super Rugby and the PRO14, where there is no relegation, and it’s a dead competition halfway through the season sometimes.
It can’t be good for ticket sales, sponsorship or, most critically, television companies if there are more dead rubbers in the second half of the campaign. I think the product would dwindle if relegation was scrapped and it’d be an awful decision commercially, as well as from a sporting point of view.
I understand the argument that some have made in the past that not having the threat of relegation looming over clubs would allow them to operate more freely and also blood more young players in big games but it’s not a good enough reason to do this.
I don’t buy that it needs to happen for player welfare at all and if the rumours are true about the proposal for it to become a 13-team league with the Premiership Rugby Cup being abolished, then you’re actually taking away a competition that gives young players valuable game time.
You could take the view that it’s a good idea to ring fence the top tier just for a few years if there’s actually evidence that all of those in the second tier have no prospect of being able to make the step up before then and doing so would actually help them to get closer to being able to compete but I’m not sure it would and I think it’d be a backward step.
I used to love them as well because you knew the importance and you’d get really up for those games. That’s why you play sport, to compete.
On the flip side, I remember one year at Worcester when we were safe from relegation with three games left and the buzz just wasn’t there in those matches. It wasn’t that we weren’t bothered as players but the same competitive and emotional juices just aren’t flowing in those games.
I played for the Sharks away at the Lions in Super Rugby as well at Ellis Park and, despite it being a derby, there were more away fans than home fans there because we were fighting to make the play-offs but their season was over.
That’s not good for the product commercially. And, I think if you ask them, players nowadays don’t want to be involved in those dead rubbers either and would much rather have the prospect of relegation on the cards to keep things competitive.
This is by no means the first time that a proposal to scrap relegation has been mooted and an official statement from Premiership Rugby even confirmed that “it’s been on the agenda for 20 years and will always be debated”.
That doesn’t make it right and this time around it smacks of self-interest even more than in previous years with so many of the traditionally biggest names in the league at genuine risk of losing their top flight status.
You’re killing dreams by ring fencing the Premiership. The likes of Cornish Pirates, Ealing Trailfinders, Jersey, Coventry and others might not be in a position to compete in the top flight right now but they’ve worked damn hard to get into the position they’re in and who’s to say they can’t be the next Exeter. The opportunity for them to achieve something similar cannot be taken away.
Comments on RugbyPass
Super rugby is struggling but that has little to do with sabbaticals. 1. Too many teams from Aust and NZ - should be 3 and 4 respectively, add in 2 from Japan, 1 possibly 2 from Argentina. 2. Inconsistent and poor refereeing, admittedly not restricted to Super rugby. Only one team was reffed at the breakdown in Reds v H’Landers match. Scrum penalty awarded in Canes v Drua when No 8 had the ball in the open with little defence nearby - ideal opportunity to play advantage. Coming back to Reds match - same scrum situation but ref played advantage - Landers made 10 yards and were penalised at the breakdown when the ref should have returned to scrum penalty. 3. Marketing is weak and losing ground to AFL and NRL. Playing 2 days compared with 4. 4. Scheduling is unattractive to family attendance. Have any franchises heard of Sundays 2pm?
10 Go to commentsAbsolutely..all they need is a chance in yhe playoffs and I bet all the other teams will be nervous…THEY KNOW HOW TO WIN IM THE PLAYOFFS..
2 Go to commentsI really hope he comes back and helps out with some coaching.
1 Go to commentsI think we are all just hoping that the Olympic 7s doesn’t suffer the same sad fate as the last RWC with the officials ruining the spectacle.
1 Go to commentsPersonally, I’ve lost the will to even be bothered about the RFU, the structure, the participants. It’s all a sham. I now simply enjoy getting a group of friends together to go and watch a few games a year in different locations (including Europe, the championship, etc). I feel extremely sorry for the real fans of these clubs who are constantly ignored by the RFU and other administrators. I feel especially sorry for the fans of clubs in the Championship who have had considerable central funding stripped away and are then expected to just take whatever the RFU put to them. Its all a sham, especially if the failed clubs are allowed to return.
9 Go to commentsI’m guessing Carl Hayman would have preferred to have stayed in NZ with benefit of hindsight. Up north there is the expectation to play twice as many games with far less ‘player management’ protocols that Paul is now criticising. Less playing through concussions means longer, healthier, careers. Carter used as the eg here by Paul, his sabbatical allowed him to play until age 37. OK its not an exact science but there is far more expectations on players who sign for Top 14 or Engl Prem clubs to get value for the huge salaries. NZR get alot wrong but keeping their best players in NZ rugby is not one of them. SA clubs are virtually devoid of their top players now, no thanks. They cant threaten the big teams in the Champions Cup, the squads have little depth. Cant see Canes/Chiefs struggling. Super has been great this year, fantastic high skill matches. Drua a fantastic addition and Jaguares will add another quality team eventually. Aus teams performing strongly and no doubt will benefit with the incentive of a Lions tour and a home RWC. Let Jordie enjoy his time with Leinster, it will allow the opportunity for another player to emerge at Canes in his absence.
10 Go to commentsLove that man, his way to despise angry little men is so funny ! 😂
4 Go to comments“South African franchises would be powerhouses if we had all our overseas based players back in situ. We would have the same unbeatable aura the Toulouses, Leinsters or Saracens of this world have had over the last decade or so.” Proof that Jake white does not understand the economics of the game in SA. Players earning abroad are not going to simply come back and represent the bulls. But they might if they have a springbok contract.
22 Go to commentsA lot of fans just joined in for the fun of it! We all admire O'Gara and what he has done for La Rochelle
4 Go to commentsThe RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
9 Go to commentsWell that’s the contracts for RG and Jordie bought and paid for. Now, what are the chances we can persuade Antoine to hop over with all the extra dosh we’ll have from living at the Aviva & Croke next season…??? 🤑🤑🤑
16 Go to commentsWow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
16 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
14 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
4 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
5 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
6 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
22 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
22 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
10 Go to comments