Pre-season - what you give is what you get

It's not important for you to know my name

Nor I to know yours

If we communicate for two minutes only

It will be enough

For knowing that someone in this world

Feels as desperate as me

And what you give is what you get

Start! - The Jam

In a gesture of solidarity with the players of Coventry Rugby who have just completed their first week of pre-season training in conditions that don't exactly lend themselves to intense physical exercise, I've decided to undertake my own 'Cov Blog' pre-season.

Nothing too arduous at this stage mind; a few posts now and again in the build up to the friendlies, before a more regular output as the season begins in earnest. For the moment then, it's just a case of offering a few personal thoughts about the RFU Championship in general and Coventry Rugby in particular.

In the five weeks or so since I last posted so much has happened, of which much is deeply disheartening. Continued uncertainty remains as to the exact format the new season will take, especially the number of clubs involved and the on/off saga of promotion and relegation to and from the Championship. The demise of London Irish has further darkened the already muddied waters.

The RFU has spent the last few months running around looking for its backbone, offering little in the way of any clarity as to how next season will look, whilst supporters have been asked to invest in season tickets without undertstanding the details of what it is they're buying into.

And whilst its clearly not their fault, clubs have been pushing a product without really knowing what it is they're actually selling and because supporters are, more often than not, loyal to their clubs, they've been purchasing them if not blind, then certainly with more than a degree of myopia. It pushes commitment to the extreme. Clubs like Coventry are fortunate that so many of their supporters are brand loyal - in most other spheres of life, they would look elsewhere. Sport is so tribalistic it can rely on a core of supporters keeping the faith even in the most trying of circumstances.

And has for the impact on clubs and their recruitment for this season, well it would be interesting to hear from the coaches themselves as to just how difficult this must have been.

Such uncertainty does cause unrest though, especially amongst supporters of those clubs for whom next season isn't one to get overly excited about, other than being involved in a long, drawn out struggle to avoid finishing in the bottom half of the league...

...and, of course, the potential consequences that come with that in the light of the RFU's potential restructuring of the top two tiers the following season.

Not altogether unsurprisingly after such a successful campaign last season, Coventry Rugby has tweeted that season tickets sales are at an all-time high for the beginning of June, but that won't necessarily be the case for teams that found themselves at the lower end of the table in April and for whom the prospect of finishing any higher this coming season looks just as bleak. I really do feel for them.

There was (still is?) talk that a top 8 finish in the Championship this season (23/24) would be enough to ensure a place in Premiership 2 the season after, following the RFU's proposal to make the top two leagues in the English game fully professional. However, with the demise of Wasps, Worcester and now London Irish, I'm not altogether sure how this will pan out.

If it is indeed the case that the 3 or 4 teams at the bottom of the Championship next April find themselves in National One (or equivalent), then for the likes of London Scottish, Caldy, Nottingham and perhaps even Hartpury and Ampthill a dogfight over the course of the next 9 months looms large.

Not the most enticing of scenarios, that.

And not one that is likely to get you committing to a season ticket unless you are a real die-hard which, for the likes of those teams I've highlighted above with crowds often well under a thousand, there aren't that many - certainly not in the numbers that Coventry and Bedford enjoy.

Any downturn in attendances has to be a worry in the current financial climate, so perhaps some very difficult times ahead for clubs in the Championship too.

With income pre-season greatly reduced, it's potentially money that clubs can ill afford to lose.

(A big caveat here, I've been out of circulation for a while so I might well not be up to speed here - if that is the case I can only apologise).

Whilst I have every sympathy for supporters of the three Premiership clubs that suffered a financial collapse last season, a petition that has recently appeared on Change.org requesting Wasps, Warriors and Irish be granted a license to play in the Championship 2023/24 is a little rich. Most of the fans whose Premiership clubs are going through the process of administration are genuine rugby supporters whose love of their club, and of the game too, is without question.

But being in the Premiership seems to engender a complete disregard for the game below the top tier amongst not just the PRL and the RFU, but in some instances the supporters and coaches as well. It is, to all intents and purposes, little more than a closed shop, ring-fenced and determined to protect itself at all costs, even if it is at the expense of the wider game at semi-professional and grass roots levels.

I do understand that it must be heartbreaking to watch helplessly as your club is forced into administration and then plunged to the depths of the national rugby pyramid and I genuinely empathise for those genuine fans for whom this is such a wretched time. It so nearly could have been Coventry on a couple of occasions in the not so dim and distant past. That said, in the situation Wasps, Worcester and London Irish now find themselves, I hope I would accept that it is the management of all three clubs that is at fault, irrespective of the spineless machinations of the RFU, and that there was only ever going to be one outcome.

Rules have been broken, sanctions imposed - accept them and move on.

What you give is what you get...

To seek an automatic entry into the Championship, as demanded in the aforementioned petition, is completely contrary to the 'family' ethos of a game which has always prided itself on respecting everyone involved in rugby, both on and off the pitch. Worcester, Wasps and sadly London Irish, too, simply forego any entitlement to remain a professional outfit when for so long rules have been flouted and so many hearts broken (including those outside of the rugby fraternity). It is simply naïve and really encapsulates just how arrogant Premiership clubs are towards anyone outside of the top tier.

I don't think it's intentional, at least not on the part of supporters anyway, but such beliefs are the inevitable result of an isolationist approach to rugby on the part of the Premiership clubs and a lack of moral fibre on the part of the RFU to confront CVC and those who pull the purse strings.

In the petition's preamble, the instigator explains:

'Fans of rugby union clubs Wasps, Worcester Warriors, and London Irish, have seen their clubs collapse after more than a century of existence due to the financial circumstances beyond the control of the fans.

Fans are not going to go and watch other clubs. Rugby Union needs to keep these fans involved in the game. All three clubs routinely get attendances at least 5 times that of the average Championship game.

Let us play in the Championship, with the ability to be promoted if we are successful - and extend that ability to all the other Championship clubs.

Good for rugby, good for the Championship, and good for the fans.

It saddens me to say it, but such an attitude to many of us outside of the Premiership appears both arrogant and condescending. Were this to ever happen, the RFU would have to do a complete volte face and retract its original decision, confirming itself not only to be cowardly and irresolute but also showing the contempt it has for all rugby below the elite level.

It's not going to happen, of course, but just by putting such a petition out there demonstrates how even supporters of Premiership clubs become indoctrinated into believing that the only rugby that really matters is played in the top tier. Anything else is of little consequence.

I'm not sure if the instigator of the petition has really thought through its consequences but were the three clubs to be allowed into the Championship this coming season, it would mean 15 teams involved in the league. Given Worcester, Wasps and London Irish would almost certainly finish in the top half of the table, that could mean as many as 6 or 7 of the current Championship would have to be relegated to accommodate them the year after when the top two leagues are reduced to just 10 clubs in each (to include the side promoted from National One). Apologies if the numbers don't add up, but the premise still stands.

Imagine the outcry from supporters of all those clubs in the Championship who would suddenly find themselves cast adrift from the Championship at the end of next season and with the likelihood of no opportunity to return once Premiership 2 is not just ringfenced but barb-wired and mined to ensure all possible intruders are kept at a distance.

It's going to be messy enough as it is, but in that scenario...

That definitely wouldn't be good for either rugby as a game or even for the Championship in particular.

If the writer is indeed correct in saying that 'fans are not going to go and watch other clubs. Rugby Union needs to keep these fans involved in the game. All three clubs routinely get attendances at least 5 times that of the average Championship game', then they will be there in their numbers to watch their respective clubs in the bottom tier. Imagine the boost grass roots rugby would get from playing in front of crowds in excess of 10K - it would create far more interest in community rugby and bring money into the game where it is arguably most needed.

Now that definitely would be good for the game.

Interestingly, after three days of being 'live' and having been widely promoted on social media, the petition has amassed just 466 signatures thus far - hardly indicative of any mass support even from within the three affected clubs, let alone the wider rugby community.

If the RFU's plan is to reduce the top two leagues to just 20 fully professional sides in 2024/25, one which has plenty of things going for it in the current economic climate, then for Coventry supporters at least, the coming season won't be one that offers much in the way of real interest outside of making sure that the club finishes in the top half of the table to ensure they remain in tier two in 24/25.

That's probably a little harsh on my part as that's by no means a given, but such was the progress made by the club last season, failure to do so would be something of a shock. And with the arrival of Matt Kvesic, together with a number of what look to be excellent signings as well, it would appear that Coventry are planning not just to consolidate on a very creditable third place finish last season but even strive for one or, dare I say it, even two places better. It certainly looks like they're making a statement to that affect, anyway.

But with the prospect of no promotion for the winner of the Championship, yet again it will be another season that won't offer quite the same levels of excitement - and we've had a few of those of late. In fairness though, finishing above either Jersey and/Ealing would be a real achievement in itself.

But if you're a supporter of Scottish, Caldy or Nottingham et al, then there's not a lot to look forward to other than 'relegation' next April even if you finish in the bottom three or four. Hard to get overly excited by that, really.

---

'It doesn't matter if we never meet again

What we have said will always remain

If we get through for two minutes only

It will be a start!'