English rugby union adjusts to grim reality as RFU thrashes out new deal

Crisis-hit domestic game faces watershed season as remaining Premiership clubs await new professional game partnership

Memories of the Rugby World Cup are already fading. Regrets over chances missed, matches let slip away, even futile complaints about referees are receding into the background. Packed away for the next four years, perhaps, as the champions’ trophy tour concludes in South Africa.

Fans and players in England should be focusing on their bread and butter: the weekly churn of domestic top-flight fixtures, a full diary of dates up and down the country, with the Six Nations punctuating the progress of a packed domestic schedule.

But that is not the case for Worcester Warriors, Wasps or London Irish. A seven-week sojourn in France provided a welcome distraction for many fans, with the scrum-half Danny Care expressing his sincere hope that English success could “filter through” to the grassroots. But the domestic game now faces a new reality following Worcester’s demise more than a year ago, an event that ushered in a series of catastrophes.

First the Warriors, then Wasps, then London Irish folded. The collapse of Jersey Reds, the Championship title holders, was the latest blow. While the daily news cycle moves on, the disintegration of these clubs remains an ongoing tragedy.

“It has left a void in the city,” says Bob Low, a long-time supporter and board member of Worcester Warriors Supporters Association, a newly-formed body with what he calls the “romantic ideal” of returning elite rugby to Sixways. “There’s a definite void at the moment. You go the pubs and there’s something missing. And there’s certainly something missing from my weekends.”

It is a similar story for Duncan Kendall, vice chair of the London Irish Supporters Club, who still has player awards to hand out for last season for a professional club that no longer exists. “I need to go to a couple of Premiership games because I want to give the players permanent mementos,” Kendall says. “Our player of the season, Tom Pearson, is up at Northampton now. And Chandler Cunningham-South [young player of the season] is at Harlequins. It’s quite sad in a way.”

If this all sounds depressing that’s because it is, but neither it is an attempt to talk the game down. Had England held firm against South Africa in that semi-final and found a way past New Zealand the following week, there is little doubt the resulting hype would merely have papered over some ever-widening cracks.

Of course it is much easier to focus on problems rather than find solutions. Wasps are planning a revival, the Warriors too are investigating a potential route back. “There’s talk someone might put together a “phoenix” club,” Kendall says of the Exiles, whose amateur side celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. “But it would be a whole new set of people and players.”

Still, fundamentally, the numbers stubbornly refuse to add up for too many clubs. Inflated wage bills, over-reliance on wealthy benefactors and a general trend of falling attendances are just some of the issues. The suspension of relegation from the top flight, while reassuring in the short-term for clubs, is also having a pernicious effect: the lack of jeopardy that means for many fixtures is profoundly damaging to the product. Given the reduced number of games, too, a discount will surely be due to the TV rights-holders (TNT Sport declined to comment).

“I don’t think you can fiddle about at the edges of this problem because it’s so significant,” Leicester’s former chief executive, Simon Cohen, told the Guardian in June. “Unless you significantly change the governance model you’re not going to be able to do anything. I’ve seen lots of talk about getting more revenue. I think that’s a complete red herring. It’s about having a sustainable model.”

On which note, the Rugby Football Union is negotiating a new professional game partnership with the objective of restructuring what the chief executive, Bill Sweeney, calls a “broken” system. The hope is for details of the new agreement to be made public next month.

Closer marketing efforts between the RFU and Premiership Rugby will form part of it as well as plans for “hybrid” England player contracts. While marketing is a key pillar of any future strategy, social-media impressions do not pay the rent, and remodelling England players’ contracts feels like tinkering around the edges of a systemic problem.

Asked if player salaries must be reduced in coming seasons Exeter’s director of rugby, Rob Baxter, said on Sunday: “It will depend, because every club is set up differently. If you’re set up to be a profit-making business that has to settle debts, you will have to run your player wages differently to a club that can have an investor who’s prepared to throw money away at the end of every season. It’s not for me to decide which one is the right model and which one is the wrong model.”

While there is nothing inherently wrong with wealthy backers, it is far from a robust way to operate a business. Just ask anyone who works in professional cycling. “We’ve got to promote the good stuff and stop bringing up the bad stuff as the only important thing in the game,” Baxter continued. “My only hope [for the forthcoming deal] is that the game as a whole in this country comes to an agreement about how we can all talk and feel positively about everything that’s important in rugby.”

When Covid hit in 2020, London Irish’s Mick Crossan said he could no longer afford to run the club at a loss of £4m a year. “We were aware that Mick was pumping money in,” says Kendall. “But you don’t believe that’s ever going to stop. You believe it’ll sort itself out.”

There is a consensus that something drastic needs to change. Sweeney has said the forthcoming deal is a chance to set aside self-interest. It must be hoped that principle applies to the RFU, and Sweeney himself, as much as any other player in the game.

Erasmus three-peat in sight

After claiming consecutive World Cups – the 2019 edition as head coach; this year’s as director of rugby – it seems only natural for Rassie Erasmus to continue with South Africa and make a start on masterminding their trophy defence in 2027. The obvious caveat is that the only way is likely to be down, particularly in view of South Africa’s squad having the highest average age in France at 30.4.

Some key players will be gone in four years, but then consider the Springboks’ deep talent pool, Erasmus’s unrivalled ability to motivate, along with the 51-year-old’s useful knack of locating a winning edge in high-stakes knockouts. There is also the fact that all but one Webb Ellis Cup has been won by a southern hemisphere nation. The Wallabies are firmly in the doldrums and the All Blacks are also entering a rebuild; don’t rule out an Erasmus three-peat.

One to watch

Bath’s Friday night trip to west country rivals Gloucester is sure to be a passionate affair, but all the Premiership title hopefuls will be keeping an eye on Baxter’s youthful Exeter when they visit Northampton on Sunday. The powerful young second row Rusi Tuima – having recently switched from the back row – was named player of the match at Sandy Park as the Chiefs overcame Bristol, sending the 2020 Champions Cup winners top. If they continue to gather momentum this new-look Exeter may prove difficult to stop.

Memory lane

Wales’ JPR Williams is given a lift off the Cardiff Arms Park pitch following a 27-3 victory over England in the Five Nations tournament of 1979. Williams had announced before the match that it would be his last, but he came out of retirement to play against the All Blacks before eventually ending his international career in 1981. Williams continued to play club rugby in Wales and was still making the odd appearance for Tondu Thirds after turning 50. “A mixture of vets and youth. We win the ball and the youngsters do all the running,” he said.

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