Behind The Lines - tomorrow's what we're on about

Tomorrow's what we're on about

Tomorrow's what we're on about

Not yesterday

It's up to man to understand

To have success upon this land

He better have some faith

Have some faith

Have some faith

Have some faith

Have some faith

Prediction - Steel Pulse

There's still a good few weeks yet before even the friendlies get under way, but the release yesterday of the Championship fixture list has at least served to focus attention a little more sharply on the 23/24 campaign, as well as further whetting the appetite for what promises to be the most interesting and, potentially, the closest of contests since Cov was promoted back in 2018.

Okay, Ealing are arguably favourites once again, but they were back in September and we all know how that panned out.

And despite some pretty impressive recruitment once more on Ealing's part, the gap between the top 3 or 4 teams is narrowing and as both Jersey and Coventry showed in the final half of the season just gone, it's not all about individual players, it's also about working as a team and playing to your strengths. Jersey, Coventry, Doncaster and Bedford have all strengthened their own squads so it's likely that the top clubs will find the league even more competitive this season coming.

Good for supporters and, above all, good for rugby, too.

Coventry's latest media initiative, 'Behind Coventry Lines' certainly suggests that this is a squad of players that are close and one that appears to be full of confidence; hardly surprising given the run of results post-Christmas. Cov has itself made one or two marquee signings and in Matt Kvesic the club has acquired a player who has already widened the club's audience simply through his arrival as evidence by the recent feature article in 'The Rugby Paper'. The international call ups of Pat Pellegrini and now Paddy Ryan (less so I accept given he's just arrived at Cov) will give the squad a boost too; it's recognition of not just those two individuals, but also that the level the club is now playing at is good enough for them to be considered for their respective countries.

Everyone involved in the club has played their part in achieving that and that surely has to bring the squad even closer together as a result.

'Behind Coventry Lines' is a fantastic addition to the club's growing canon of media outputs, a lighthearted, but unexpectedly informative look at what is involved in pre-season training. It's obviously going to be episodic, although just how regular the releases are going to be is as yet unclear. If it continues into the season proper, this fly on the wall approach could be really interesting, especially if results don't always go the way we would like them to. It's all very well when the club's on such a high, but I do wonder if the players and coaches will be quite so accommodating if things don't go quite to plan.18 months ago such an idea wouldn't have got off the ground that's for sure.

It's not quite Netflix material as yet (although it's probably better than anything Megan or Harry have so far come up with), but for anyone even remotely interested in Coventry Rugby, or even a supporter of the Championship generally, it's required viewing.

Cov's continued focus on social media output is all the more important if some of the predictions concerning the future of the Championship being made in the national press are to be believed.

Take Gavin Mair's article in Monday's 'The Telegraph' for example. In it, Mair explores some of the possible changes to the Championship over the next season or two, coming to the conclusion that:

...the most likely pathway would involve a move to a franchise system that will see clubs able to gain entry if they can prove they meet a revised minimum capacity of 10,000 but is also likely to include levels of support, strength of brand name, size of social media following and a long-term vision for growth.

Leaving aside for the moment my total aversion to any form of franchise in sport, it's interesting that Mair (and therefore presumably the RFU) should focus on such peripherals as 'brand name, social media and long-term vision'. For me, as far as sport is concerned, access to leagues should be about promotion/relegation and financial prudence and little else.

But if Mair is right, and I fear he probably is, then a shift in emphasis towards a club's ability to pull in the punters is little more than a means to an end, namely to ensure the swift(ish)return of Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish to the Premiership fold.

How else could you justify their return to the top flight? It would be immoral of course, but the RFU appear rather more concerned with their own self-preservation and returns on investment than they are with fiscal propriety, so we should expect nothing less from them than a complete volte face and a return of the three wayward clubs akin to that of Jacob's repatriation with his dad as recounted by Luke in the New Testament.

If Coventry Rugby wants to sit alongside the big boys at one of the top two tables in the reorganised Premiership, then sadly it is going to have to play along with what the RFU are suggesting and look at ways of increasing its social media followings as well as developing its branding far beyond what it currently is.

Yes, it can top the league but that is no guarantee of promotion in itself as both Jersey and Ealing have found to their cost. The goal posts have shifted and Cov has to re-adjust accordingly. It might be abhorrent to those of us who still hold the game to be one built on the values of honesty and integrity, but if Coventry is to progress further, then it has to sell a little of its soul to the highest bidder.

Whilst the difficulties the club face are not insurmountable, they are definitely problematic.

The 10,000 seater stadium is something that is clearly being addressed at the moment, with lots of work appearing to be done behind the scenes to develop the ground into a stadium that is fit for purpose in terms of Premiership criteria and one that is commercially viable in the sense of bringing in revenues that will ensure financial sustainability. I have complete faith in what the Chairman and members of the Board have said on this matter, so I'll leave that aside.

Strength of brand name and and size of social media following though are an entirely different ball game...

For any supporter who has followed the club any length of time, it's really hard to accept that Cov is no longer one of the top clubs. Historically it might have been, but since the mid 80s and the beginning of the professional era, Cov's decline has been dramatic and with the exception of a brief flirtation with the Premiership back in the mid-90s, it has struggled to regain any sort of following beyond it's relatively small, but very loyal, fan base.

And there it remains.

Even within the confines of the Championship, leaving aside any sort of comparison with the Premiership, it is well down the league table of Twitter followers - surely a fairly accurate, but not decisive, indication of its social media reach, a measure of the success of a club determined by the RFU if Gavin Mair's article is to be believed.

The table below is comprised of the top 22 Premiership/Championship clubs (plus recently relegated Richmond) as well as Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish, ranked by the number of Twitter followers each club has:

Club 000s

Leicester 164.9

Gloucester 140.6

Northampton 128.1

Bath 125.5

Harlequins 124.9

Exeter 124.5

Saracens 121.5

Wasps 114.8

Bristol 101.8

Sale 67.3

London Irish 58.8

Worcester 58.5

Newcastle 53.7

Cornish Pirates 17.6

Nottingham 14.7

Jersey 14.6

Bedford 14.3

Hartpury 13.4

Ealing 12.5

London Scottish 12.2

Coventry 11.8

Doncaster 11.7

(Richmond) 11.0

Caldy 6.4

Cambridge 6.0

Ampthill 5.8

So, if the RFU is to base one of its tests of Premiership 1/2 suitability on the size of a club's social media following, then Cov has some work to do. For a team in the bottom half of clubs in the Championship (in terms of the above table) to somehow attract numbers of followers on a par even with that of, say, Newcastle in the Premiership can be no more than a pipe dream as of now. To put it into context, the entire Twitter following of all 12 teams in the Championship is less than that of Leicester. (It's perhaps also worth mentioning that even Coventry City has fewer Twitter followers than Leicester, something which I did find surprising given football's global appeal these days). The gap between the haves and the have nots isn't just a monetary one any more.

All Coventry Rugby can do is carry on striving to produce the kind of material that we are currently seeing and hope that performances on the field catch the eye enough to encourage rugby followers outside of the city to show an interest in the clubs social media output and then like (and retweet) what they see. Whilst I don't think for a minute that 'Behind The Scenes' is a response to the RFU's possible demands for Prem 2 status, it certainly helps promote what it is doing and won't do its cause any harm at all.

And if you can widen your social media audience, then it will have the knock on effect of developing the brand, opening the club up to more followers and hopefully widening advertising opportunities at the same time.

A win/win really, whichever way you look at it.

It's about building for the future - after all, it's tomorrow that we're on about.

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On a completely different tack, the arrival of Rhys Anstey on loan from Ealing is another very welcome addition to the squad in an area where we have lacked a little depth over the last couple of seasons. The fact that one of our main competitors is willing to entrust the club with one of its own says much about the high regard Cov is held and the respect Head Coach Alex Rae holds within the league. AR is a former lock himself so it makes sense in many ways, but it does present something of a conundrum should both teams be vying for honours when Coventry host Ealing in the return fixture in March.

I'm presuming there's no clause in Rhys' contract to say he can't play against his parent club, so if that is the case then it puts him in quite an invidious position given his divided loyalties. Hypothetically, what if Ealing asked him to divulge the lineout calls, or the likely team selection in advance or tactics...I'm sure that wouldn't be the case but sport is sport and whilst Ealing and Coventry are both above that sort of skullduggery, it does create opportunities to take advantage?

Wouldn't it be better just to ban loans between clubs within the same league - that would prevent possible cries of foul play in certain situations, even where none exist? Just wondered what the official line is...

Anyway, really looking forward to what Rhys can bring to the club - we've added two young locks to the squad, both of whom look to have a big future in the game ahead of them.

Exciting times!

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