'The ultimate drive for a rugby player in this country is to play for England and long may that continue' - Goode
Yesterday’s reports of a possible breakaway league in English rugby are nothing more than an easy headline and an attempt to create a storm in a teacup.
The reality is that Premiership Rugby would be negligent if it didn’t consider every eventuality when senior figures meet for board meetings and the minutes that have been leaked from the meeting in question don’t suggest anything more than sensible contingency planning.
The quotes simply mention the need to address issues such as access to match officials and player insurance cover “if the RFU were unwilling to support change”.
That is the key point in all this because PRL currently has an eight-year agreement with the RFU that doesn’t run out until 2024. That relationship has not yet broken down and there is every chance that they will support change, there just needs to be more discussion as to what that means in practice.
The Professional Game Board, which includes the clubs and the RFU, is due to meet again later this month and there is sure to be yet more dialogue on ring-fencing. I’ve made my stance very clear on that matter and I don’t agree with it at all. However, there’s no doubt it is a major talking point at the moment.
There are 12 owners in those PRL meetings who have all been very successful in business and have very forthright opinions, so all sorts of things will be discussed and you can easily see how someone would raise the issue of what happens if the RFU chooses to fight against their favoured course of action until the bitter end.
The reality is that it will be a discussion between all of the parties involved and the minutes of a PRL board meeting don’t constitute an official plan for what they intend to do moving forwards.
At any company, anything and everything is discussed at board meetings and it doesn’t mean to say it is a serious plan that is on the agenda. The reports in the Mail are sensationalist and an attempt to sell papers and get more clicks on their website but I wouldn’t take it seriously.
All parties will be weighing up whether it could be the right thing for the game to suspend promotion and relegation for two or three years and allow teams like Cornish Pirates, Coventry, Ealing Trailfinders and others to catch up and get closer to being able to compete in the Premiership.
It only works if there is significant investment in the second tier to enable them to do so though. As I’ve said, I don’t agree with ring-fencing and, even though others feel very strongly in favour of it, I can’t see a breakaway league happening at all.
Let’s not forget that the RFU gives the clubs around £30m per year as well and they are going to want to work with them. Of course, everyone has vested interests but they all want what’s best for English rugby and will work together to achieve that.
Ian Ritchie is the perfect man to deal with this as well as he spent five years as RFU chief executive before becoming Premiership Rugby chairman. It’s very clever of Premiership Rugby to get him involved and he knows the pair have to work side by side.
The article also suggests that “any players involved in a breakaway league would not be eligible for Test selection”. That’s not going to happen because the ultimate drive for a rugby player in this country is to play for England and long may that continue.
The RPA are involved in talks as well with the players and they will want a clear pathway for them to be able to play international rugby so I just can’t see how there’s any chance of this coming to fruition and being allowed to “tear apart the English game and jeopardise the national team”.
There are obviously parallels with the foundation of the Premier League in football in 1992 but from the leaked minutes that we’ve seen I just think the issue hasn’t been reported in a fair and balanced manner by the Mail and it seems like a lot of hot air over very little.
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?
11 Go to comments