Premiership II plans announced

He started it LOL

Jester10 wrote:

Quite a bit of Bullying here about a poster.

Indeed. A cowardly, playground mob-mentality has sadly prevailed here.

I believe that it is best not to engage with it any further. Perhaps the days of being able to agree to disagree are a thing of the past.

Edited by Se7en - 22 Apr 2025 at 20:53

Is a warning something similar to a threat ? Big smile

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana

Back to the top.

There is a reasonably credible rumour that the long awaited re-launch announcement will be at 17:00 hrs today.

Despite the hoo-ha last October of major new broadcasting and sponsorship deals, there seems to be some doubt that this has been achieved, and that what we’ll get is simple confirmation of the 14 club structure with a new name. That might seem a tad cynical, but who knows eh?

TeflonTed, 2 miles from Sixways

It appears the huge announcement today was… absolutely nothing.

Championship Prediction League Winner 11/12

Have they posted more information? They just tweeted at 5pm a video with some clips and calling the league a “proving ground” with a different logo.

Championship Prediction League Winner 11/12

And some very dodgy Cambridge fans watching the defeat at Doncaster.

I hope the Doncaster tickets included a disclaimer permitting the use of the fans images.

Sweeney Delenda Est

Champ Rugby?

Did they get a 5 year old to come up with that? Apologises to any 5 year old supporter.

Play offs, yeah exactly what we wanted after kissing the cup goodbye. More reasons to endure the season drag into June.

RFU want a pro league…a shame amateurs come up with this.

The older I get, the more the RFU leave me confused.

I like the playoffs. The majority of teams are going to be fighting to make top 6 or avoid bottom 3 so every game is meaningful. Top 6 playoffs this year would’ve been fascinating. Not much between 2-6 and Bedford and Donny have both won away at Ealing this season.

Championship Prediction League Winner 11/12

Guardian article on issues still to be decided.

English rugby union’s second tier will be rebranded as Champ Rugby from next season in a move designed to raise standards and add greater aspiration and jeopardy for clubs. Beneath the glitzy launch, however, many questions still remain.

Simon Gillham, the Tier 2 chair, said that the new-look league of 14 clubs would bring a “gripping conclusion to the season” – with the top six entering a playoff tournament for the right to face the bottom-placed Premiership club for a promotion place.

However, Gillham confirmed that discussions have not yet concluded on terms for promotion, with minimum operating standards still to be agreed.

Sale centre Rekeiti Ma’asi-White bursts through to score against Leicester

The thorny issue of whether a promoted club will have to purchase a P-share, allowing them to participate in the Premiership’s financial benefits and governance, has also not been decided.

Ealing Trailfinders did not meet the minimum standards for promotion this season despite winning the Championship, and Gillham refused to speculate on the chances of a club from Champ Rugby going up next year.

However he insisted: “We will do everything to be at the table and to make sure that there’s proper aspiration and there’s proper jeopardy. That is absolutely what we are determined to do.”

Another complicating factor is that Rugby Football Union chief executive, Bill Sweeney, recently warned that promotion and relegation “does not work”, while Premiership clubs are angling for a ringfenced league based on franchises.

But Conor O’Shea, who sits on the Tier 2 board as well as being the RFU executive director of performance rugby, said that “grown-up conversations” would take place to ensure the dream of promotion remained a possibility.

“As it stands, at the end of next season there will be a promotion/relegation playoff based on minimum standards,” said O’Shea. “We know that only Doncaster met them this year. The discussions are, how do we improve that? How do you make it accessible without breaking clubs?”

“There is a heck of a lot of work to do,” he added. “Our focus is the step change we want to make in the Champ. It’s already a great competition, but we want all the standards across the board to grow.”