RFU Supporting Rugby in North

The report has the following recommendations as its executive summary:

1.       Maintain and if possible increase numbers of “boots on the ground” in terms of development officers in the North of England.  Continue to allocate disproportionate percentage of whatever resources are available.

2.       Create a regular planned programme of prestige events including international games and hold them in the north.

3.       Consider any proposals coming out of PRL which equalise revenues between clubs.

4.       Ensure that senior England management do not informally encourage elite players to leave the north – it’s self defeating and highly damaging to northern clubs.

5.       Support proposals at the PRB emanating from PRL tightening up the regulatory framework in terms of illegal approaches, compensation payments and clubs operating outside their designated academy areas.

6.       Award rather than tender mid week international fixtures against SANZAR touring teams to a north team drawn from players playing in the northern clubs and from the northern regions.

7.       Consider the implementation of a hotspot project aiming to create rugby towns in each of the northern regions within the next ten years.

8.       Explore ways of ring fencing or targeting funding to Northern clubs through the next PRL/RFU agreement.

9.       Through the community game board look to explore ways to integrate the community programmes delivered to clubs and schools through RFU and PRL – currently there is a mismatch.

10.   Develop further the monitoring and support needed to improve the performance of academies in the 16-20 element of player development.

11.   Support and encourage all attempts by the northern premiership clubs to position themselves as organisations representing their region.

The full report can be read HERE

The first point to be emphasised is that there is no evidence that Rugby in general is struggling in the north at all, participation is very evenly spread across the country with no deserts of either club or schools rugby.  The north-west may not have as many regular men’s sides as Devon/Cornwall or Leicestershire and Notts, Lincs and Derby but it is hardly fair to call it struggling either.  The journalist’s cry that northern Rugby is “dying” is basically a pack of lies that falls down with the slightest zephyr of fact.  What is true to say is that the growth of the professional game in the south-east and the always strong bastions in the west and midlands has left the northern clubs struggling at the sharp end.  Whether this deserves a specially commissioned report is debatable, I don’t recall the outrage that the south west went almost a quarter of a century without a top division team or the current rumblings of disquiet from East Anglia and the south coast that they have never had a team feature in the top flight, but moot now that it has happened. 

Currently the north west of the country has one top flight team, no second division teams and three third division sides in promotion pushers Fylde plus mid table Macclesfield and Sedgely Park, the north east has one top flight side, no second tier side and two third division sides with Yorkshire having three Championship sides and one third tier side in Wharfedale.  By comparison London and the wider south east has 4 Premiership sides, 3 Championship sides and 4 third tier sides (although Barking is now relegated they will be replaced by either Richmond or Old Albanians or both depending on the results of the promotion play offs); a generous definition of the east midlands gives us 2 Premiership sides, 2 Championship sides and no third tier sides (though Loughborough Students will be in the third tier next term), another generous definition gives the west midlands a Premiership side, a championship side and 3 in the third tier, although both Stourbridge and Birmingham & Solihull are now relegated; the west country has two premiership sides, the championship leaders and Cinderford in the third tier and the south west has 1 Premiership side with 2 in the Championship but none in the third tier.  The two rogues left are Cambridge although they could be argued into either the generous definition of the east midlands or the south east and Jersey who are wholly anomalous club and not worth further regard when discussing regional balances.  So across the top 40 clubs the north has 10 sides and across the top 24 they have 5.  Considering the report says 20% of the adult sides in this country are from the north and 25% of the general population these figures really don’t cry out that the region is in crisis, just that Yorkshire struggles with infighting and Newcastle have, for whatever reason, been a side mismanaged recently.  This doesn’t mean that the report’s conclusions are wrong or should be ignored but it does remind us that if a region is in need of a RFU-centred boost then perhaps it is actually the south coast or the east coast where there are no men’s teams in truly national competition.

The report considers why there are no northern equivalents of Bedford, nor Exeter, Worcester, Bath or Gloucester.  According Fylde’s Head Coach Mark Nelson the answer is simple, League.  “St Helens (pop. 102000), Wigan (810000), Warrington (80000), Wakefield (76000), Salford (72000).  All are Super League Clubs. With the exception of Wigan, none has a Football League Club.  I think it is a fair conclusion to say that there are exact equivalents to the Southern Clubs mentioned in the report only they play Rugby League.”  On top of this in the Championship the Yorkshire clubs are very close to each other, Doncaster and Rotherham share the closest derby outside of London with Leeds 30 miles away too, whilst this will have a stimulating effect on local interest it is also very small pool to be fishing from in terms of both spectators and sponsors especially when one considers the rival attractions with multitudes of football league and Rugby League sides on the door step. 

As for the recommendations 1, 9 & 10 are completely uncontroversial and should be supported; the north does face unique challenges due to the RFU’s mismanagement over a 100 years ago and the slight disparity of resources committed is probably the best way to spread the RFU’s resources, especially in the north east where there is less rugby league associated bigotry towards the sport.  Particular concern should be reserved for the lower number of England age group players coming from the north.  Whilst these are not 100% accurate they certainly provide one measure of where the top young players are coming from.  It is important to stress that this decrease is due to the south and the midlands getting their act together and improving their coaching and academies; probably due to the increased competition particularly in the west country (Bath, Bristol, Gloucester and Worcester all have academies) and London which has four academies.  Frankly I can’t see how this will improve without the clubs themselves improving significantly and independently.  One option is to remove Leeds’s academy and turn it into a Yorkshire one, just as the south west used to be non club specific until Exeter took it over.

Proposal 2 & 6 are similar ideas and should be considered together, the idea of big event games being played in the north is an appealing one, with the emphasis on a stream of regular events rather than one offs.  The idea of a Heineken Cup final in Manchester is a good one although I think moving the Premiership final to the north would be a mistake.  Like it or not it is our club’s showpiece final and a day out at the home of English rugby is part and parcel of that.  One idea that is not given any thought is that part of this series has to be organised by the clubs off their own bat.  Sale has experimented with a game in Bolton, but that is too small and has had no back up.  Why have Newcastle never played a game at St.James’s Park?  Kingston Park is only a few stops down the metro so translating big crowd for a one off to bums on seats wouldn’t be such a problem, more like Quins using Twickenham than Sarries using Wembley.  Reviving the North of England as a representative team is part of this plan, with regular games playing their part in the planned series of events.  This is a lovely idea in theory but it throws up some practical issues especially in the theoretical mid week games against SANZAR sides.  Why would non-northern clubs release players for this side when they had games the week before and after?  If England deem Toby Flood surplus to requirements then surely his employers, Leicester, would want him rather than releasing him to play for another employer.  There is also the problem that if the northern sides did agree to release their players that they would surely be annoyed at having to play weakened sides whilst southern sides would be at full strength.  Seeing as this whole report was commissioned due to the struggles of the professional sides something that would adversely affect them and only them seems a rather self defeating proposal. 

3, 5, 8 and 11 are also similar ideas and should be considered as such.  3 & 8 are dangerous ideas which should resisted at all costs, at no point is it explained why sharing money equally between 12 is such a brilliant but sharing between 24 or 40 isn’t.  If a fairness argument is used over equal distribution then surely it should apply to all not just the self serving members of the defacto regions in PRL.  The idea of giving these failing clubs yet more money, whilst denying it to the likes of Rotherham, Doncaster or Fylde is frankly disgusting and shows the arrogance of the ruling elites.  Proposal 5 is yet another attempt by the three “top” northern to protect themselves at all costs.  The idea of banning young men who want to better themselves leaving is stupid, it should be up to these clubs to provide facilities and development that attracts players rather than drives them away.  It should be remembered that Newcastle’s academy’s most famous graduate, Jonny Wilkinson, wasn’t from their RFU appointed region and these proposals would have to cut both ways banning the northern clubs in the future from recruiting talent from the rest of the country.  It is plain to see why the northern clubs would want to be considered regional flag carriers but impossible to see how the RFU could justify supporting this.  Or why the areas blithely promised to these clubs would support them, the problems with the governing body ordering people to follow a regional team can be seen in Wales where Pontypridd and Neath are actively in civil war with their appointed regions.  An odd rugby nut from Sheffield may well buy into a Leeds=Yorkshire initiative but the average man on the street never will.  Teams with truly wide ranging support like Gloucester, Leicester or Bath have built this up naturally over decades and by responding to demand rather than forcing themselves on these clubs as their masters. 

This is why I think proposal 7 could be a good one.  Its aim would be to provide the funds to improve stadia and infrastructure in aspirant northern clubs to enable Rugby to become the dominant or at least co-major sport in town.  The proposed towns of Harrogate, Chester and Hartlepool might not be the best but the fundamental idea that the RFU should be granting money to clubs to improve spectator facilities and sustainably support professional wages is a good one, but one that should not be limited to the north.  There are no major clubs in the Black Country, East Anglia or the south coast and the RFU should support the growth of rugby nationwide, the strength of rugby in London shouldn’t disguise its weakness in the wider south east.  A word of caution that this proposal has the sticky finger marks of Mark Evans all over it with the idea of the model rugby club that ignores Leicester, Bristol and the London clubs roughly half of professional rugby. 

Overall the problem with this report is that it comes at this issue from all the wrong angles and consequently comes up with all the wrong solutions.  It interviewed people from Newcastle, Leeds and Sale but not Rotherham, Doncaster or any other professional sides nor any of the grass root clubs it seeks to allocate; consequently in some areas it merely parrots the defensive line of thinking already in the “top” clubs.  The bold facts are that rugby in the north is as strong as any other area in the country, just that the professional sides are woefully administrated or over ambitious.  There is as much hope of making a large professional rugby side in Leeds as there is of making Leicester or Gloucester hotbeds of League, under that consideration Leeds Carnegie with their decade in the top tier and cup win have been hugely successful with the decision to merge Headingly and Roundhay completely justified.  Expecting them to compete regularly or commercially with the sports big hitters is daft and only setting them up to fail.  In Newcastle rugby is literally on the fringes of the city whilst football is at its heart, however they have only been in existence since 1990 and until recently had known nothing but success.  Some poor decision from the top has but the club into a period of decline but there are no signs it is permanent and relegation has been a blessing rather than curse on many sides.  Sale is a strange beast; a 150 year history that they are desperate to ignore and a desire to name themselves after a homosexual water polo club seem to be causing instability.  A desire to attract people from further than Chesire and south Manchester is understandable but by constantly moving about and trying to disassociate themselves from their history has done more harm than good as it makes the diehard local fans feel ignored and disillusioned.  Fans by into history as much as current success or marketing gimmicks and they have bags of it.  Rather than three self appointed super clubs the north needs more teams capable of sustaining 2-3 thousand fans, the way to do this is to open up the top tier to more clubs by increasing promotion and relegation to 2 up and 2 down and by watering down the criteria for promotion.  Rotherham and Doncaster can’t grow as clubs off the pitch whilst they are barred from making any further progress on the pitch, the oxygen of publicity that comes with premiership rugby could ignite many fires in northern rugby, so we need to stop dampening the Championship in the carbon dioxide of ring fencing and regulations.