How is the Premier 15s progressing?
The Premier 15s reaches a break in proceedings. Once the 2023 version is complete, we will be staring into the bright rays of a brand-new 10-year-programme, no less. Can the newly structured league really sustain ten competitive clubs?
The current Position
The one unexpected face at the top table is Gloucester-Hartpury. They are reaping the harvest of the funding from the Gloucester club, plus the quality of the coaching staff and the very nature of Hartpury College. They lost to Sarries, but that is their only black mark thus far.
For the rest it’s as before, though Quins are finding life tougher despite a change in Head Coach. Sarries had a poor spell of three losses, when they were missing a cohort of Red Roses. Exeter continue as the most ambitious of the ten, but the limitation on numbers of overseas players next season may mean they need to win this year’s final or bust.
For the record, the top four read: Exeter 65 pts, G-H 64, Sarries 55, Bristol 46. The margin between numbers 1 and 4 looks huge, but in semi-finals anything can happen.
Some Background
I have attempted to outline the main issues surrounding the league on previous occasions:
http://4theloveofsport.co.uk/2022/07/05/thinking-big-thinking-long/ (5 July 2022)
http://4theloveofsport.co.uk/2022/09/02/the-rfus-10-year-plan-for-the-premier-15s-under-severe-pressure/ (2 September 2022)
http://4theloveofsport.co.uk/2023/01/17/pro-rugby-in-disarray-a-damning-report/ (17 January 2023)
http://4theloveofsport.co.uk/2023/02/01/the-allianz-premier-15s-where-do-we-go-from-here/ (1 February 2023)
The newly established company having to make the big decisions, the Women’s Premier 15 Ltd (WP15), is in deep negotiations with all its member clubs. But it works strictly on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. That may be the only sensible policy, but it leaves the general public in the dark. They include some who matter rather a lot, the very people who come to watch and support.
Professionalisation
The third piece above concerns men’s rugby. But the effect on women’s rugby is all too plain to see. If the men’s game is running out of control, what chance do the women have of establishing a stabler version?
I have felt from the start (2017) that the funding arrangements put in place were inadequate. Richmond’s complaints when they were ousted seemed to confirm my uneducated guess. Three years later Wasps provide an even more extreme case of money simply running out. None of the cash the RFU set by to support the 2020-23 version of the Prem 15s was available to help them out.
Will the new arrangements act as better life-buoys?
Although we are looking at a programme due to last till 2033, adjustments will surely have to be made along the way. ‘Events, dear boy, events’, said the former Prime Minister, MacMillan, and events won’t stop happening.
‘A sustainable professional league’ still seems light years away.
Funding
The RFU’s working party set the projected revenues at £174 million. The league itself would cost £220 million. The gap between the two estimates would be covered by the RFU itself. (We should bear in mind that these figures were reached some two years after the pandemic arrived to alter the face of world finance).
The revenues assume the active participation of television companies as well as sponsors. At the moment the BBC is struggling to keep its head above water. That leaves ITV and Channel 4 as the other two free-to-air media outlets. Otherwise it means relying on pay-to-view TV, where viewing figures are far smaller.
We have only to look at the unholy mess that professional men’s rugby is in to call these forecasts pie in the sky. The salaries paid to the players far outweigh money coming in through the gates.
Equality
In the new professional age is it the prime task of each club to feather its own nest, or should there be a feeling on mutual assistance? For example: a club falls on hard times; do the other nine simply buy up all their best players or rally round and help?
No need for examples.
One essential ingredient here is the movement of players. The richest, most ambitious clubs can simply make an offer to a player, and she decides whether to accept or not.
To my innocent mind it was quite unfair for Saracens to buy in Alev Kelter as the 2021-22 season reached its climax. An already strong squad added yet another outstanding player to ensure success. Saracens overturned a big loss earlier against Exeter Chiefs to win one more trophy. And with that Kelter had gone.
Will the WP15 still allow clubs to distort a season like that for their own ends? There is a ‘Governing Body Endorsement’ (GBE) in place, but did it cover Kelter’s signing last year? (https://www.englandrugby.com//dxdam/71/71192cfe-b779-4bd6-92ee-59b1de73ad74/RFU%20Women’s%20GBE%20Criteria.pdf)
The company has taken steps to ensure a stricter balance between English players and others. They have set a minimum number of England-qualified players appearing on every team-list. That will mean a large-scale exodus of overseas and Celtic players, leaving only the cream of the crop.
The Newcomers
We have yet to discover how the two new entrants (Ealing Trailfinders and Leicester Tigers) managed to convince WP 15 that they could put together squads of sufficient quality to survive the buffetings that the Prem 15s inevitably brings.
Tigers have kindly published 31 names of their current squad. They are:
Tanya Bird, Georgia Bradley, Louisa Burgham, Bryany Chalk, Katie Childs, Rebecca Church, Charlotte Daley, Molly Draycott, Zoe Evans, Ella-Mae Fereday, Charlotte Fray, Ali Gale, Abi Gordon, Lucrezia Iavarone, Jade Jones, Natasha Jones, Roisin McBrien, Leilah Mills, Becky Noon, Lucy Nye, Amy Relf, Morgan Richardson, Harriet Roberts, Molly Sanghera, Ellie Turner, Kat Turner,
Ofure Ugiagbe, Zoe Warrington, Georgia Westwood, Holly Williams and Samantha Williams.
One or two familiar names here, most notably Becky Noon and Lucy Nye. Tigers have enjoyed great success in their current Championship division. How will they fare as the only club to be promoted from that level? Will Vicky McQueen feel the need to strengthen the squad by buying in from elsewhere? Will Loughborough Lightning, just down the road, sustain losses?
Of an Ealing Trailfinders squad, not a sign; their fixtures for the current season remain a blank. We do have an interview from last month between Giselle Mather and Matt Merritt (https://www.rugbypass.com/news/ealing-trailfinders-women-deep-roots-and-big-ambitions/) which is full of optimism and ambition, but no team.
What assurances was Mather able to give the RFU that persuaded them to give Trailfinders the golden key, while giving two other clubs (one of which Mather served so admirably) the boot?
She took herself to the World Cup to survey the scene; we can easily imagine she had a cheque-book available. Certainly she is looking to attract the best players from wherever, Red Roses, Black Ferns, you name them. She knows that the academy players she has at Brunel and Henley, though highly successful at their level, won’t be enough to sustain the position Trailfinders are targeting.
Has the WP 15 really found a way of sustaining all ten (nearly) professional clubs? We shall see.
