'We have currently 11 of 12 clubs about to lose money for the third year running...it's a broken model'
Newcastle chief Mick Hogan has called for an end to Premiership relegation on the eve of a match that will have a huge say in whether the Falcons preserve their top flight status for next season.
The Semore Kurdi-owned club are favourites for the dreaded drop to the Championship, a favouritism that will be reinforced if the bottom side fail on Sunday to beat nearest strugglers Worcester, who are nine points above them along with Bristol with eight matches remaining.
Managing director Hogan believes the league needs to be ring-fenced for the sake of its financial future and quality of entertainment. “I’m not saying this just because of the fact we’re currently in 12th and would be favourites to go down. It’s a view I have held consistently,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s the same in every sport. I fully support promotion and relegation in football because it has got so many big clubs and the gap, while it is there, is not as big. The gap now in between the (rugby) Premiership and Championship is enormous and it’s only really the top team, London Irish, that have any chance of coming up and kicking on.
“The other thing people say is ‘you’re stopping the aspirations of smaller clubs’. Listen, they have had 25 years to get to the Premiership. How long do they want? It’s fair to say that if it hasn’t happened after 25 years it’s probably not going to happen.
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“And if you come up now with the way the system is and the funding and all the rest, you’re going to need £20/£25million to stay up there. That is too much money that is going to have to be spent to sustain the club at an artificial level.
“I do get the argument as well where you can’t stop the aspirations, but at what cost? We have currently got 11 of the 12 clubs about to lose money for the third year running. It’s a broken model.
“A broken model because we’re all spending far too much money on players – and for six or seven of the clubs that money is not spent on players to try and win the competition, it’s spent on players to try and stay in the competition. That’s not right.”
They don't come much more important than this for @FalconsRugby ?@WorcsWarriors will be looking up the table after a nerve-racking late victory on the weekend ?
Start of a Falcons resurgence? ?
Read more:https://t.co/EAZ6Q0yt6Z pic.twitter.com/uSpLBNSWwq
— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) February 27, 2019
Ranked 10th out of 12 in the top flight in terms of turnover and wage bill, Newcastle, who have just three wins in 14 games this season, are a club whose crowds are lower than the league’s average and struggle to reach the salary cap’s ceiling.
Hogan believes ring-fencing would attract more investment into the league and encourage clubs to throw off the shackles on the pitch, providing spectators with a more glittery spectacle.
“If we had a Championship that was at the level of investment and the size of the clubs in the football, I’d be all for it. There’s an obvious reason why there is promotion and relegation within football. They have 92 professional clubs.
“We have got within rugby only 15 full-time clubs. The rest in the Championship are part-time. I get that promotion is great for clubs and everyone points to Exeter. Now Exeter did a fantastic job in getting up and then they have kicked on from there, but Exeter are very much the exception rather than the rule.
“For every Exeter there has been a Rotherham, there has been a London Welsh, there been a Leeds who have gone down. Worcester and London Irish have been up and down a number of times. Bristol have been up and down a number of times. There are far more examples of where promotion and relegation doesn’t work and perhaps one obvious example where it does.
“It can prevent long-term thinking, it can prevent investment. It just puts strain on vision. I know that people say it’s about rugby, it’s on the field. I get all that but I just believe as well that squads would be stronger if we didn’t have relegation because clubs would invest more in English-qualified players and take a longer-term view on them.
? Your #GallagherPrem table ?
@ExeterChiefs return to the summit of the table ?
It's anyone's guess for those coveted 3rd and 4th spots ? after @gloucesterrugby ? @Harlequins ? @SaleSharksRugby and @SaintsRugby all picked up big wins ?
Who will make the top 4?? ? pic.twitter.com/A75hvzhxFc
— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) February 24, 2019
“I’ll throw this stat at you – six of the seven World Cup winners so far have come from a system where there is no promotion and relegation. The only one is England and that was 16 years ago. Are the two linked? I think they are because we have a style of play now in the Premiership that is all about not losing. It’s not very expressive as some of the other nations.
“Again, you look at the PRO14 where there is no promotion and relegation. How many of their teams have won the Heineken Cup and have been doing better and better year on year?
“Wales will probably win the Six Nations this year. Ireland have been dominant recently. It’s such an attritional game now that you have to be able to rotate squads perhaps more than we are able to in the Premiership and you can do that if you know there is no fear of relegation.
“It [no relegation] doesn’t stop the ambition of clubs like Leinster wanting to win every year and Scarlets, there is no lack of ambition in the PRO14. But what there is is a system without relegation that promotes entertaining rugby.
“The Premiership does as well, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not that negative approach to playing you can get in the Premiership.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Bar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
9 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
35 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
35 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
35 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
35 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. All the Kiwis sticking up for this unprincipled individual because they can't accept justified criticism, he has zero credibility or integrity. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
35 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
35 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
2 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
35 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
18 Go to comments