Major blow for England after profitable week for RFU – Andy Goode

The news of Aled Walters’ departure to one of England’s main rivals is a major blow to the RFU after a profitable week for the union. There are those who think the selling of the naming rights for Twickenham is also bad news but rugby is far from awash with cash and the prospect of an additional £100million coming in over the next decade is something nobody should turn down.

Let’s be honest, unless the insurance company still have their name attached in two or three decades’ time, everyone will still be calling England’s headquarters Twickenham rather than Allianz Stadium and the RFU have a massive, much-needed cash injection. What’s the downside?

Anybody accusing the union of selling their soul or going against rugby values simply isn’t living in the real world. This is the reality of professional sport and the only surprise is that it hasn’t happened sooner.

Wales, Ireland and Scotland have all done it, as have many teams at club level, and it’s extremely rare to find a stadium in American sports or other commercially successful leagues such as the NRL without a naming rights partner. That says a lot.

Every stadium has its price and you have to credit the RFU for getting what appears on the face of it to be the right partner and a deal which seems to compare very favourably with other similar agreements.

It would probably have made it slightly more palatable for the traditionalists if the new name had been Allianz Twickenham or Allianz Stadium @ Twickenham, or some other such amalgamation, but we aren’t privy to the negotiations behind the scenes.

You have to see it from Allianz’s point of view and perhaps a name like that is only worth £5m per year to them instead of £10m. Two of the biggest Premiership clubs in Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints have gone down that route but every negotiation is different.

It is interesting that the East Midlands duo and Saracens, whose ground was Allianz Park prior to the salary cap scandal and is now StoneX Stadium, are the only English top flight clubs to have a naming rights partner.

There may be complications for a club like Bath, for example, and others may fear a backlash from old school fans I suppose but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few others follow suit in the near future.

As for the RFU, it is now imperative that the revenue from this deal goes to the right places as opposed to into Bill Sweeney’s bonus or the players’ pockets and I’m sure there will be a few thinking a raise could be coming their way.

Only time will tell but the right noises are coming out at the moment with word that there could be more support for the sevens programme and particularly that there will be a strong focus and commitment to invest in the community and grassroots game.

That should be music to everyone’s ears given the trials and tribulations that a lot of clubs have been through over the past five years or so but the devil is always in the detail and we just have to hope that the right people are in place to make sure the money goes to the right places.

Allianz will, of course, want to see a return on their investment and the RFU have to be accountable and transparent in letting us know where the cash is being spent and the difference it is making.

Businesses will have been interested in aligning themselves with Twickenham in the past but the price probably wasn’t right or there might not have been the right relationship with the union and the sport.

Allianz already sponsor the top flight of the women’s game in England, the Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby, and have links going back a long way so you have to assume they are a good fit and the terms of the deal show they are in it for the long haul.

You are always going to get traditionalists being critical of a deal like this, especially in rugby, but it’s another revenue stream and why wouldn’t you grab it with both hands and sweat the asset that is the most iconic rugby stadium in the world.

If that move shows the strength of the RFU, the departure of Walters, England’s head of strength and conditioning, to Ireland is a massive blow and you have to say a big shock considering what we have seen from the outside.

We will probably never know the true reasons behind the move but he has clearly done a good job with England, seems to be universally liked and respected and had a pre-existing relationship with Steve Borthwick from their time at Leicester.

Walters has a hugely impressive CV, winning the Rugby World Cup with South Africa in 2019 as well as the Premiership title with Tigers in 2022, and he has only been in his current role for about a year after joining England at the end of the 2022/23 season.

The RFU coffers might not be as full as they once were, despite the news of Allianz’s cash injection, but it is still one of if not the biggest union in the world so it is highly unlikely that money was the biggest factor in the switch.

Whatever the motive, Borthwick will struggle to find someone as successful and experienced to fill the void and Andy Farrell is getting a man with a terrific reputation who might just be the missing link that takes Ireland on to an even higher level.