Premiership final masks turmoil simmering below rugby’s surface

It’s not a sexy topic but rugby union can’t get away from the fact the top of the pyramid needs strong foundations to sustain it

At first glance English rugby has increasing reasons for optimism. A shiny, happy grand final awaits at Twickenham on Saturday involving two teams laden with quality homegrown players. The national team are showing genuine signs of life, as they hope to demonstrate against the All Blacks next month. Both sides also insist relations between the Rugby Football Union and the Premiership clubs are less fractious than for many years.

Dig a little deeper, though, and the reality is less glitter-strewn. There are only 10 of those aforementioned Premiership clubs still standing and increasingly few are in rude financial health. Adult male participation at club level continues to decline. A growing number of parents are wondering if there might be less fraught school sports for little Jonny or Mary to play. And, as this week’s latest cry for help from the Championship makes clear, there may soon be a cavernous void where a vibrant and ambitious second tier of clubs should be.

This tends to be a less sexy topic than, say, discussing the potential weekend impact of Northampton’s Fin Smith or Bath’s Ollie Lawrence. But both of those England squad members, in their way, are pertinent examples of the winding road that many professional players have to take. Both were left high and dry when Worcester went out of business in 2022. Smith has played in the Championship at Ampthill while Lawrence was drawn to rugby partly because his father used to play for Moseley. Maybe they would have made it the top anyway but the point is this: breeding good young English players is about more than just a ringfenced 10-team Premiership.

This longstanding argument is reaching a crucial stage. In their latest message the Championship clubs have made it abundantly clear they can no longer accept the relative crumbs being offered from the top table under the terms of the proposed new Professional Game Partnership (PGP). They are bluntly warning of more clubs potentially going bankrupt which “would also further isolate the Premiership to the detriment of the game in England.” They talk of “arbitrary decisions” by the RFU having left the Championship clubs in “a precarious position” and argue that, because of the continuing funding imbalance, a proposal for a playoff between the bottom Premiership team and the winners of the Championship is essentially window dressing.

The last point cuts to the heart of the matter. With a winless Newcastle Falcons bumping along the bottom of the table, there is less of the jeopardy beloved of television executives. The absence of promotion and relegation from the equation is understood to have been among the reasons why the Premiership eventually had to accept a reduced £26m sum per annum for their latest two-year television deal with TNT Sports. Once CVC Capital Partners’ 27% share of the commercial cake is sliced off, sources suggest the 10 Premiership clubs are likely to end up receiving about £1.9m apiece a year. Compare that with the soaring figures in France, where the Top 14 broadcasting deal is set to rise in value by 13.3 %.

It reflects an increasing tale of two contrasting philosophies. In France the big game this weekend is the ProD2 playoff final between Vannes and Grenoble, being played in Toulouse. If Vannes win, it will be the first time a club from the north-west region of France has reached the Top 14. What a story that would be, in addition to being another reflection of club rugby’s growing footprint across the country.

It is rather different in England. Take the Cornish Pirates, who finished second in this season’s English Championship. Their heroic long-term backer, Sir Dicky Evans, is in declining heath and announced a ‘Sunset Plan’ in 2022, giving notice that funding would cease in 2025. There has been interest from a couple of international consortiums but, as things stand, staff wages are not guaranteed beyond January. This season only Doncaster Knights satisfied the minimum standards and facilities criteria currently required for any side to be admitted to the Premiership.

If these strict rules are retained and no funding parity is introduced for promoted clubs it becomes almost impossible for “outsiders” to join the party. Championship officials argue promotion and relegation is “an essential feature” of the game in this country and that a ringfenced Premiership increases the risk of people losing interest in the game. “The PGP is about the next eight years at a time when the game globally and nationally is changing rapidly, so this is a pivotal moment,” read their statement on Monday. “If there are not changes now, it will be too late.”

The RFU, in response, says it will be “disappointed if the Championship clubs choose to disengage in the process” ahead of a crucial RFU Council meeting on Friday week. But, ultimately, it boils down to priorities. Do they want ambitious clubs below the Premiership? The Championship says proposed future RFU funding for the entire 12-team league is £4m, much of it ‘value in kind’ assistance. Per club it barely buys the torso of Finn Russell, Bath’s kingpin fly-half. Is the RFU really saying that everything beneath the Premiership is irrelevant to the health of the game? That a club pathway to the top tier is no longer desirable? All while shelling out £33m per annum to 10 ‘elite’ clubs who may or may not be financially stable or competitive? Saturday’s final will be fun but not everything in English rugby’s garden is rosy.

Time to put beers on ice?

Without focusing unduly on events in the main stand in Bath at the weekend, the relationship between alcohol and rugby is back under the spotlight. This weekend will see about 80,000 spectators flooding into Twickenham and lots of them will be thirsty. No problem there – at least in theory. But there is a difference between enjoying a beer or two with friends and ruining the day for everyone else, whether through drunken boorishness or incessant toilet trips. Some away fans complained of being verbally abused at Bath and there are reports of standards of stadium behaviour slipping across all sports. Rugby’s biggest selling point, bar none, is its cheerful and welcoming off-field reputation. If that disappears, it really will have a problem.

One to watch

Saturday’s Premiership final between Northampton and Bath brings together the two top sides in the regular season table, both more than capable of delighting neutral fans. Saints will be hoping to produce their preferred brand of sharp, positive-minded rugby while Bath will have the aforementioned Russell twirling his baton. But keep an eye, too, on the opposing packs and Northampton’s totem, the 35-year-old Courtney Lawes. Regardless of what Russell conjures, it is going to take something extra special to deny Lawes a happy ending in his last game for his home town team.

Memory lane

15 May 1999: Lawrence Dallaglio, Rob Henderson, Gareth Rees and Alex King of Wasps celebrate with fans after beating Newcastle in the Tetley’s Bitter Cup final. The victory came after they were runners-up in the previous year.

Still want more?

Relive how both teams booked their spot in the Premiership final, as Fin Smith scored 17 points for Northampton while Niall Annett’s late try edged Bath to victory against Sale.

Owen Farrell’s final match for Saracens may have ended in defeat but he leaves England as one of the greats, writes Michael Aylwin.

And police have launched an investigation after an alleged altercation between a supporter and Jonny Hill that left the fan with a cut above his eye.

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