Charlie Hayter, till recently in charge of England’s 7s enterprise, but now the RFU Women’s Rugby Performance Manager, has issued a mission statement that includes the wish to build ‘the most competitive, progressive and sustainable [league] in the world’.
It’s the word ‘sustainable’ that catches the eye. We can readily understand why the RFU started up its new Premier 15s league cautiously in 2017. It decided on a 3-year cycle with no changes in between, as it felt its way towards the most sensible structure.
A second 3-year cycle followed, but now a 10-year block beckons. That is an immensely long time-span in an ever-changing world. Can the RFU be any more certain of sustainability now than in 2017 and 2020?
Four clubs will have bitten the dust by the time this third version of the league comes into force next season. Richmond and Firwood Waterloo were kicked out three years ago; two more will surely follow soon.
The one feature that quartet will have in common is lack of funds. Richmond’s CEO in 2020, Steve Hill, complained bitterly of the blatant inequality of funding among the ten clubs. The position has not changed since. The clubs that have struggled near the bottom of the table have been precisely those with the fewest £50 notes to fling in the air.
The RFU is committed to spending £2.4 million on the future of the league, but will that money be more effectively divided? If each club received an imaginary £1, the clubs with the wealthiest alternative resources would still climb to the top of the pole.
If the RFU carries through a likely policy of backing the admission of (men’s) Gallagher Premiership clubs, then there is little financial stability to be found there. Of the two newcomers already admitted Leicester Tigers represent that category; Ealing Trailfinders the other, which is those who enjoy the generosity of a rugby-loving millionaire. In their case it is Sir Mike Gooley, who has pumped many millions into his club.
Realists might suggest it’s better for a sport to generate its own wealth, rather than depend on the benevolence of a few individuals.
Those of us who remember the earlier days of the women’s Premiership can marvel at the advances made since 2017, but they still are nowhere near enough to pay the bills of a fully professional structure.
Men’s pay-levels in the professional game have reached unimaginable heights. I recall a head teacher claiming that a former pupil of his, by then an England international, earned far more than he did, and that was some twenty-five years ago! The gates at Gallagher Premiership matches are nowhere near large enough to cover these expenses.
How will the Prem 15s clubs make out with their much smaller attendances? You might like to guess how much the top female (test-) players will be earning by the end of that 10-year strategy.
The areas of support that really must be secured include media coverage, sponsorship and better targeted publicity.
As for the media, the BBC made a welcome approach with its live stream coverage of Prem 15s matches. But a glance down their choice of games this season revealed great caution. Basically it is the top teams who have been favoured. And it is vital that they appear on a main channel as per the Six Nations, not tucked away behind red buttons and the like.
Players’ shirts are now covered in the names of sponsoring companies which, though unsightly, are a welcome sign of support. The problem is to keep them coming back. At each annual review a treasurer may decide they need to make urgent cuts; the hunt starts again.
Though attendances have grown, they are nowhere near large enough to cover the huge expense of a professional set-up. (There will always be a number of players preferring to remain amateur).
Hayter adds that the plan is to ‘build on the current league’s success’. Yes, it has much to be pleased about; its growth over the years 2017-23 is plain to see. But the weaknesses that remain strike me as almost insoluble.
(Lead photo shows Charlie Hayter playing for England in 2002.)
