Nick Westby: Ring-fencing a step closer as Championship clubs become wary of joining elite

Yorkshire Carnegie and Doncaster Knights are two honest clubs run in the right way; financially prudent with a solid academy structure underneath.

Carnegie, of course, have been there and done it when it comes to playing at the top table of English rugby, but now in their seventh season of exile, they appear further away from a return to the Premiership than ever before.

Doncaster have never looked better equipped on the pitch after two seasons spent trading blows with better-resourced clubs at the top of the division.

But they are two clubs with contrasting ambitions which serves as a microcosm for the dilemma that English rugby union’s second division has become.

Carnegie are desperate to get back into the Premiership but are not willing to throw millions of pounds they do not have to try and achieve it. Not this season anyway. Carnegie want the long-whispered proposal of a ring-fenced 14-team top tier to come to fruition.

The next time that might happen is 2021, and with the cache of Sir Ian McGeechan, right, lobbying for it in the corridors of power – stressing the importance of a geographical spread in the top flight and the strength of the club’s academy – they harbour hopes that they will eventually get their wish.

They cast the net for fresh investors last month, with the sum of £8m required over the next three-year period to help them not only try and win promotion but maintain the standards they continue to set as a professional operation.

Quite where that money will come from is anyone’s guess and quite what the end-game will be if such finances are not forthcoming is a scenario Carnegie’s directors do not want to contemplate.

Ring-fencing the top flight with the 12 current clubs plus Bristol and Carnegie is the Headingley club’s more legitimate hope, but among the stumbling blocks to that is the question of why would 12 clubs want to split funding 14 ways?

Down the A1 at Castle Park, Doncaster Knights have put out mixed messages over the last two years about their own aspirations.

The first season in which they shocked the division by reaching the Championship play-off final with Bristol, the noises were positive about them hosting Premiership rugby should something that had hitherto been unthinkable play out.

Then last Spring, on the eve of a second tilt at the play-offs, Doncaster issued a statement saying they would not be pursuing promotion should they achieve it. That statment was pretty damning and summed up the state the Championship finds itself in.

“Having previously looked at promotion we feel it’s simply unaffordable and out of our reach in the current structure and financial arrangement for pro’ rugby union in England,” read the directors’ statement.

“Our preference now is to continue to play expansive and winning rugby in the Championship rather than find ourselves bereft of the time and resources needed to construct a squad fit for Premiership competition where history has shown the promoted side rarely prosper or survive. The club’s priority has to be to guarantee the continuity and employment of our squad.”

They were not alone. Ealing Trailfinders, another semi-finalist, said the same. It is understandable – why leverage your future on one season when you know you are going to come straight back down? Just look at London Welsh, who are no more.

So what we are left with is a 12-team second tier with only two clubs seeking promotion.

Premier Rugby have muddied the waters further by increasing the Premiership A-league fixture list from six to 10 games in a bid to step up the intensity of what is a meaningless competition and create a better bridge between reserve and Premiership rugby.

It is a mess of a situation, and, quite frankly, disrespectful to the 12 clubs in that division – Rotherham Titans included – that are looked upon so unfavourably by the governing bodies.

There are any number of solutions:

A fairer distribution of wealth among the top 24 teams.

The ring-fencing of the top 14 and a franchise system akin to the one Super League used.

Or even three leagues of 14 with a semi-pro third tier that creates a pathway for players, which is something Doncaster coach Clive Griffiths has been forwarding for years.

Griffiths is among a number of knowledgable people at all levels who want what is best for the sport as it enters the third decade of the professional era.

Starting with a solid, long-term manifesto for the second-tier, one that supports the Premiership and puts clubs and players at it heart, has to be one of the game’s more pressing concerns.