' The rise to the top of the FA Rugby Championship reignited the promotion and relegation controversy from the Premier League. Why are their ambitions stymied?
What do you need to do to get into the Premier League? The answer depends on whether you think that the principle of promotion and relegation is inviolable and how you see the form of the highest level of English rugby.
Letting them rise and fall has one advantage — it is a simple philosophy that does not require special reflections. Let the clubs sink or swim and let the market run its course. You can't go against the market — who said that?
The problem is what happens when you don't have a clear plan for the higher levels of the game. You get what we get.
A Premier League that loses millions every year. In one, two clubs, Worcester Warriors and Wasps, have disappeared due to financial mismanagement, and the other, London Irish, is forced to pay salaries at 11 o'clock to prevent letters from leading to action and a strike.
You you see the Championship, which is a loose confederation of unbalanced interests, some wanting promotion, others just happy to be there, and a bunch of clubs up and down that fly between the second and third tiers.
While you can't help but admire the progress made by the likes of Jersey Reds and Ealing Trailfinders, it's not the same as blindly admitting that their interests are aligned with those of rugby in England.
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We are currently in the process of developing a new Professional Gaming Agreement (PGA) between the clubs and the RFU, and these negotiations are not what they used to be. In the past, clubs have felt able to play tough.
After all, didn't they finance the introduction and maintenance of the professional game in England after the RFU, due to malign influence, withdrew its responsibility for the transition?
How times have changed. Now we see clubs looking across the English Channel, jealous of a system they think works because the French Union is much more generous than the RFU, and wanting more handouts from a governing body whose main responsibility should be to play the community .
If you really want to know what is the difference between playing in England and France, it's pretty simple. In the south and west of France, the heart of French rugby, there is little or no football, and rugby has been the main sport for decades.
This not only fuels civic pride and the provision of public services, but also attracts investment millionaires and large corporations.
This translates into much more lucrative TV deals, which is why French clubs have higher maximum spending and operate at a different level than any other league in the world of rugby. This allows the regulated and successful Pro D2 to exist as a second tier, with both leagues having to confirm financial capacity before the start of each season.
I'm not denying the efforts of clubs like the Jersey Reds and Ealing Trailfinders, but the whole system needs to be fixed, not piecemeal. Crowds of 3,000 people and inadequate venues will not add to the Premier League, and anyone who thinks so is delusional. If you bring back the wild specter of seasonal promotion and relegation, all you will do is further destabilize the situation.
This is not football, which is ubiquitous in England and is supported by millionaires, multimillionaires, billionaires and entire countries. Pretending that rugby can ever emulate football's illogical finances is insanely unrealistic.
When the parties complete the next PGA, the RFU has every reason to want agreement not only on the composition, but also on the role of the Premier League and the Championship as a single structure.
It should support the clubs' desire to rise, but not every year . Whatever the agreed time frame, clubs should not be in a desperate fight to stay or move up, and this will allow everyone to build and plan more gradually.
Two other issues that the RFU can and should demanding changes is at least something like central contracts, even if not titled like that.
The RFU gives clubs so much money for the release of their players that they cannot put up with the situation when players appear on international duty waste; something was highlighted in Steve Borthwick's recent Six Nations report.
Finally, there needs to be a major restructuring of the academic system. Under the leadership of the Premier League clubs, it was a disaster, with players playing only a few senior games or not participating in the game at all. This system was the responsibility of the Premier League clubs, and look what it left us.
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