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RFU unveil plan to help Championship clubs cope with pain of radical budget cut

By Online Editors
(Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

Bill Sweeney has revealed the RFU will look to phase in its radical cut to Championship funding over a two-season period to help the affected clubs adjust to their new situation.

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The RFU announced on February 12 that its current payment of £534,000 per year will drop to a 2015 level of £288,000 per club. That resulted in the second-tier clubs claiming many jobs were now under threat due to the funding shortfall. 

Sweeney, though, has claimed the cuts will now be phased in. ”We’re looking at phasing that reduction over a longer period over two years,” he said to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “We have gone to them and said: ‘Look, we can reschedule these cuts over a period of two years, and work with you in terms of how to how to manage that situation’.

“The other thing we said is, ‘Let’s sit down and work together as a group and figure out what is the role of the Championship’. We haven’t just cut this to save £3m. We’ve cut it because we are not clear of the benefit we’re getting from that spending.”

The RFU were roundly criticised by clubs for its cost-cutting measures, but Sweeney insisted that the £3million reduction was needed so the RFU can fund other parts of the game.

(Continue reading below…)

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“We have 2,000 clubs out there. There are a lot of things that we want to do around developing the women’s game, facilities and the grassroots game, and that needs funding and we simply can’t fund everything to 100 per cent. How do you apportion the money appropriately? And do we feel we’re getting the right correct level of return?

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“If you actually look at the spend on the Championship since 2015, our cuts in the professional game have gone down 15 per cent, our cuts in the community game have gone down five per cent. If you take out that 100 per cent increase that Championship clubs (have had), it’s gone down by three per cent. So actually, they have borne less of the pain of the last five years.

“I can promise that I do personally care very much. We do care very much. We’ve got 560 people here at the RFU. We’re all very passionate about rugby. I’ve worked in the corporate sector now in the sports sector. And one of the things I can say to you is it’s a privilege to work in the sport that you love.

“But when you make decisions in the sporting world, you’re dealing with people’s emotions, and it’s very difficult.”

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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