Plan has flaws – but London Welsh’s predicament does game few favours

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There are a lot of people in and around Premiership rugby – players and coaches, broadcasters and corporate backers – who have already decided that some form of top-flight ring-fencing is an inevitability, and that it will come to pass on cue, at the end of next season. There are others, many of them rank and file supporters, who believe that the elite clubs are supping with the devil, and that the spoon is terrifyingly short.

English rugby has grown used to big arguments over the 20 years since the international authorities declared the sport “open”, and if subsequent fallings-out between the governing body and the professional club movement have achieved anything, it has been the slow development of a more elevated, grown-up form of discourse.

But this issue has the potential to drag the sport back to the infantile era of the mid-1990s, when discussions on the future of the club game were more suited to the playpen than the boardroom. The traditionalist wing of the Rugby Football Union council will resist any move to build a wall between the Premiership and everyone else, hence the politically driven response of Ian Ritchie, the RFU chief executive, when pressed on the subject last month.

“To make such a change would be a big thing,” Ritchie said. “As things stand, promotion and relegation is enshrined in our regulations and any possible move away from that will have to be considered in the round, not just on the basis of a business case put forward by the clubs. And no, it is certainly not a fait accompli.”

Ritchie’s problem – and, indeed, that of the second-tier Championship clubs – is the continuing absence of any formal proposal document from the Premiership chairmen and chief executives. “How can we comment sensibly on something we haven’t seen?” asked Geoff Irvine, the Bedford Blues chairman who represents the interests of the Second Division at RFU level. “My feeling is that there’s an awful lot of water to pass under the bridge before any changes are agreed.”

But the Premiership teams, emboldened by their victory in the great fight over the future of European club rugby last year, are on firmer ground than the governing body’s backwoodsmen might think. No union aficionado in his or her right mind wants to see a repeat of this season’s London Welsh travesty – no crowds, no wins, precious little hope – and one way of avoiding it, unpalatable as it may be, is to ensure that the only clubs performing in the top flight are those properly equipped to do so.

The Premiership’s grand idea would almost certainly benefit both the union game in the north of the country, where it is currently weak, and the national selectors, who want England-qualified youngsters involved in top-flight competitive rugby and could well see numbers grow in a relegation-free environment. Indeed, a very senior figure at one of the London clubs said recently that the success of this venture depended on the support of two men: the England head coach, Stuart Lancaster, and the RFU chairman, Bill Beaumont – both of them northerners, both desperate to see England punch their full weight on the Test stage. You can see where he was coming from.

In the best of all possible worlds, the game would be preparing to discuss a properly funded Premiership takeover of Championship rugby along the lines suggested by Stephen Vaughan of Gloucester. But that would require a breadth of vision and a decisive brand of leadership way beyond anything we have seen in English rugby since the year dot. The idea on offer is interesting, but small beer by comparison.

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The end of relegation - Pros and Cons

It’s a good idea because...

l Premiership rugby is no place for underfunded, overmatched teams who win promotion almost by accident.

l Medium-term stability attracts new investment, some of which could even fund stadium improvements.

l England-qualified youngsters might get the chance to play, rather than just train with established “names”.

It’s a bad idea because...

l The “dead game” syndrome could be a turn-off for those who love nothing more than a relegation dogfight.

l Exeter, promoted as recently as 2010, have been a fabulous addition to the Premiership.

l The Second Division in France is THE most competitive league in Europe.