Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'Suddenly people want something to happen now. Well, no, that's not how it works'

Mike Brown of Harlequins (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images for Harlequins)

Plans among Premiership clubs to do away with relegation to the Championship amount to little more than “wishful thinking”, according to Rugby Football Union (RFU) interim chief executive Nigel Melville.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 12 top-flight teams are set to begin discussions about expanding the division to include a 13th side, abolishing the one-up-one-down format in the process.

But former England captain Melville rejected the possibility of such changes being brought into effect any time soon. 

“I think that’s called wishful thinking isn’t it?” he said. “Suddenly people want something to happen now. Well, no, that’s not how it works.

“It’s a competition regulated by the RFU. Should Premier Rugby want to change their structure, they can bring that to the PGB [Professional Game Board] for a vote there and then it would be put to the [RFU] Council. Nothing is going to change as regards this season.

“It’s been talked about since 1995, and usually about this time of year. It’s always when you’ve got a bunch of teams on the brink of a relegation scenario.

“This year, we’ve got six or seven teams within four points of each other, all looking over their shoulder thinking, ‘it’s going to be one of us’.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Those are the regulations, that’s what’s going to happen this year – one team will go down, one team will be promoted. If we do want to look at this in the future, it will have to be approved by the RFU.

“You’ve got to look at the integrity of these competitions. We have 13 teams effectively – 12 in the Premiership, one gets relegated each year and that team’s bouncing back up again.

“Is that good for the Championship? You would question that. We need a few more teams to compete. The gap is getting wider and wider as the wage bills increase. We’ve got to really think about it.”

After nine rounds of the 2018-19 Premiership season, Newcastle Falcons sit bottom with 15 points, although sixth-placed Bath are only four points better off.

ADVERTISEMENT
Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

KOKO Show | July 22nd | Full Throttle with Brisbane Test Review and Melbourne Preview

New Zealand v South Africa | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

USA vs England | Men's International | Full Match Replay

France v Argentina | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

Lions Share | Episode 4

Zimbabwe vs Namibia | Rugby Africa Cup Final | Full Match Replay

USA vs Fiji | Women's International | Full Match Replay

Tattoos & Rugby: Why are tattoos so popular with sportspeople? | Amber Schonert | Rugby Rising Locker Room Season 2

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

N
NH 35 minutes ago
'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

17 Go to comments
J
JW 50 minutes ago
Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

68 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Mixed Lions injury update on McCarthy, Smith, Hansen and Graham Mixed Lions injury update on McCarthy, Smith, Hansen and Graham