Heard the one about the average Premiership player's salary...?

Well I hope I make more money than this in the next world I hope there's a lot more riches there for me... ...I've got no manners nor a hand to shake Why should I tell the truth when it's easier to fake

Just give, give, give me more, more, more I'd like it all Give, give, give me more, more, more I'd like it all

Give, Give, Give, Me More, More, More - The Wonder Stuff

Well, according to Nick Cain in this week's The Rugby Paper, the average salary of players in the Premiership is £170,000.

And that's no joke.

The average.

That's £10,000 more than the annual funding Coventry Rugby receives from the RFU.

The combined salaries of the two best paid players in the Premiership (Owen Farrell on £820,000 and Charles Piutau on £1,000,000 - according to ruck.co.uk) would almost cover the entire RFU funding for all 12 Championship clubs. With international appearances, it would.

If the average Championship squad size is, let's say, made up of 35 players give or take, that's roughly 420 players in all, then the total RFU funding for the Championship would be worth a little less than £4600 per player. And that's without including any academy players, coaching and support staff, admin staff and so on.

How is that possibly sustainable? I appreciate it's a very simplistic way of looking at things and makes no allowances for the other income streams that clubs rely on, such as tickets sales, advertising, sponsorship, hiring out of facilities, food and bar sales etc. but it does at least serve to illustrate just how little Championship clubs benefit from central funding and how big the gap is between the haves and have nots.

I'm not sure what I imagined the average Premiership salary to be - less for sure. I know it's a short career and the risks of long term injury are high, but I wouldn't have put it at quite as much as that. They deserve all they can get, I'm sure. Good luck to them.

No, it's the disparity between the Premiership and the Championship that is so stark. It's more a question of Championship players deserving more, rather than Premiership players being paid less.

Last week Coventry's chairman sent out an open letter to supporters urging those who were in a position to do so to buy their season tickets early:

'As the club completes what has been a successful year, we continue to build both on and off the pitch and your support is most needed now. To consolidate the all-round progress that we have made over the last twelves months costs money - as simple as that - and by buying your Season Membership early you will contribute greatly to the funds needed so that we can get to work over the summer months'

At the time I was a bit skeptical as it was announced under the banner of 'Show us you're a #TrueBlue'. I know I do read too much into things at times, but it did come across as a little insensitive, suggesting as it did that, by implication, you're only a True Blue if you buy a Season Ticket now.

Given the current financial climate there are many supporters for whom that just isn't possible, with monetary decisions such as this having to be made on a regular basis, often dependent on what's left over at the end of the week. They're just as passionate about the club but because of their circumstances they can't afford to buy a season ticket, or even take up the offer of paying by instalments.

But #TrueBlue they most certainly are.

But what I wasn't taking into account then, and I hope I'm beginning to now, are the pressures facing the chairman and the board, too. These are desperate times and if the club is to continue to expand, both in terms of its success on the pitch and the growth of its commercial dealings off it, then it has to do all it can to compensate for the RFU's apparent disregard for rugby below the top tier.

It's taken me a little while to buy into Cov's #TrueBlue campaign and part of me is still a little uncomfortable with it.

However, with the RFU's current talk of further changes to the structure of the Championship and the uncertainty of just what those changes might entail and how they might impact on individual clubs, Cov has to do all it can, as quickly as it can, to make itself self-sustainable because the one thing the RFU has shown itself to be is anti-Championship.

What Bill Sweeney calls a myth is very much a reality and one that threatens to drive a wedge between the Championship and its governing body.

BS still, publicly at least, maintains that the Championship has a key role to play in the development and recruitment of players into the Premiership and then into the England team, but if the gap between the kinds of salaries being paid in the Premiership and in the Championship continues to widen, it is less and less likely that the Championship will be able to fulfil that role.

And still he continues to damn the Championship with faint praise;

'...it is, and will continue to be , a useful way for players to get additional experience, but we do not believe it is the primary place where premiership and England players are discovered or developed'

Useful - can he be any more disparaging?

Useful things are used - and that is exactly what is happening to the Championship. It's being used by the RFU to further it's own ends. Pure and simple.

I've not seen the RFU show any regard, let alone concern, for those Championship players who are the mainstay of the clubs, those who will never make the step up to the Premiership or even aspire to do so.

Those youngsters who might reach the Premiership, yes. Everyone else. Nothing. Not one iota of interest.

They are professionals, players who do so much to support the game, whether it be by working with talented players coming through or with youngsters in the wider community. They, and those in the leagues below, along with the coaches and staff who support them, are the bedrock of the game.

They are also the ones who appear least valued by Bill Sweeney and his peers. And it's shameful.

The message coming out of the RFU to any talented youngster looking at pathways to the professional game couldn't be clearer - join a Premiership academy and if the need arises we'll get you loaned out to a Championship side to get some further experience. On the cheap, too. We'll look after you, but down worry about them.

It's patronising in the the extreme and dismissive of everything that is good in the game below the Premiership. And there is much that is good. Very good.

And if that wasn't enough, it also appears that ring-fencing is back on the agenda, or at least an underhand attempt at it, anyway.

One of the changes to the structure of the leagues in 2024/25 being proposed by Bill Sweeney's review panel is the re-introduction of the bottom Premiership side v top Championship side end of season play off. Given the disparity in the funding of the two leagues, the advantages the Premiership side would have over its Championship opposition would all but ensure its success. As I said, ring-fencing by any other name.

Good as Ealing are, how would they have fared against Falcons this season? You'd have to back Falcons even now, but in a season where relegation was a distinct possibility and Premiership sides had recruited accordingly, well the odds would be stacked, deliberately so, against the Championship club. A side with over £5,000,000 of funding v one with just £160,000. It's plain ludicrous and I truly hope it never comes down to that. If it does then I wouldn't want to be a part of it, I really wouldn't.

With no real threat of relegation at the moment, many Premiership sides didn't recruit quite so strongly this season - and that just serves to drive down standards which is another potent argument against ring-fencing, but one which the RFU seems deaf too.

According to the Rugby Players' Association, there will be upwards of 70 Premiership players who will be without a club this summer. That's apparently 20 more than last year, the result of the effects of current economic uncertainties and presumably the demise of Wasps and Worcester too.

If the RFU wasn't spending so much time searching for its own backbone, it would see what an incredible resource it has at its disposal. If it truly wants to drive up standards, then get as many of these available players involved across all 12 Championship clubs, their salaries paid for (or at least part paid for) by the RFU. Think what 4 or 5 players with the experience of Will Chudley or even Tom Dodd could bring to a Championship club.

Surely they could have a really important role to play in the development of the game and for some it would mean they could stay involved in rugby rather than have to reluctantly look for gainful employment elsewhere. It would drive up standards, give youngsters just the sort of experience Sweeney has been advocating and help increase Championship attendances which in turn brings in more money for further investment.

It only needs someone with a bit of vision. I don't have any background in the game, but if I can see the possibilities, then I'm sure the great and the good over at Twickenham could, too. It's just one way to make use of a valuable resource that is in danger of being totally wasted. If the Championship is to be a nurturing ground for youngsters, then there needs to be an incentive for them to get involved in the game at this level. At the moment, all we hear emanating for the RFU with regard to the Championship is negativity and it's small wonder then that there appears to be a complete breakdown in trust between the Championship clubs and their governing body.

Nick Cain finishes his article with some chilling words:

This time the Championship clubs want their outstanding contribution to the professional game through their support of the pathway to be recognised. That means equitable funding...and if they are denied those fundamentals, a shift towards non-cooperation with the RFU and potential separation seems inevitable.

Nick Cain has his ear to the ground, for sure. So, are there plans afoot for a breakaway?

Ealing threatened something similar a few weeks ago when there was talk of them linking up with Ospreys following the RFU's continued refusal to allow them the right to play in the Premiership, a right that they earned and the RFU reneged on.

If a breakaway had the backing of all 12 clubs and could be funded at a level that would ensure its viability, then I think I'd want to be in, such is my distrust of the RFU at the moment.

Right. I'm done

And I'm off to watch Great Expectations.

Oh, the irony...

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