As with so many of England’s games this autumn the outcome remained in the balance until the final moments. Bill Sweeney and his fellow Rugby Football Union top-table occupants had to look nervously up over their right shoulders and wait like everyone else before the final numbers materialised and the result was safely bagged. Sweeney had avoided a vote of no confidence and survived to fight another day as the RFU’s chief executive.
It wasn’t a big surprise. Team Love It had beaten Team List It, as so often seems to happen in these sort of domestic arguments. The final margin was 206 for and 466 against with 36 abstentions and barely half the eligible stakeholders bothering to vote. Decisive in one sense, rather less so in others. Which neatly sums up English rugby’s split persona just now.
Because while the RFU and Sweeney may have come through this particular battle there is still a much bigger war to be won. And a lot of trust to be restored. Listening in to the special general meeting, what was repeatedly apparent was the disconnect between several of the union’s officers and many of the little people they purportedly represent. The president, Rob Udwin, rattled through the Q&A section with the air of a man – “We’ve got a few more questions online … sod’s law” – who prefers his democratically elected stakeholders to be seen and not heard.
At times it felt a bit like eavesdropping on the fifth hour of a family row when both sides are struggling to remember exactly why they started bickering in the first place. Sweeney’s mega salary and controversial bonus were not touched upon, which was somewhat ironic given it had been the catalyst for the entire SGM process. He will have endured more comfortable evenings but can now look forward to getting the drinks in at every grassroots club which supported him.
The RFU can also point to the passing of a second motion in support of governance reform which should, in theory, offer a route out of the sticky spot in which it has latterly been mired. Better communication, more rugby development officers and less administrative red tape have all been promised, along with devolved regional powers. “I ask that you now give the RFU the opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to progress,” said the interim chair, Sir Bill Beaumont, solemnly. “Now is the time to pull together … this shouldn’t happen again.”
The bad news for the two Bills is that not everyone feels that way, particularly in those clubs just beneath the Premiership who have seen their funding slashed on Sweeney’s watch. Many remain frustrated at the way the central cake is being sliced, with the Premiership receiving a guaranteed £33m per year for four seasons while support for Championship clubs has been steadily reduced.
This has been exacerbated by the latest rejection of Ealing Trailfinders as a potential Premiership side for supposedly failing minimum standards criteria which, allege some, were cynically tweaked from what had been agreed behind closed doors. Ealing have yet to comment publicly on the decision but privately they are said to be fuming. “It’s drivel,” said one source, referring to the RFU’s statement on the issue. “Ealing have told the Tier 2 board they don’t accept any of the statement.”
It is also understood that any trust or confidence in the RFU has long evaporated, not least since Ealing’s owner, Mike Gooley, was told by Sweeney it would cost him a further £30m to be admitted into the Premiership. The meeting between the two men in Gooley’s office is said to have come to an abrupt end there and then.
The net result is that the bottom-placed Premiership club will not be required to negotiate a playoff at the end of this season and cash-strapped Newcastle, assuming they can find the necessary backing, are to remain part of the elite despite their increasingly uneasy financial situation. It has further fuelled the belief in certain quarters that the RFU is paying mere lip service to the idea of retaining full promotion and relegation between the Premiership and the Championship. “The closed shop is on its way,” predicted another source. “It’s happening. That’s what they want. End of.”
This is being disputed by those now in charge of trying to build a new-look Tier 2 competition which works for all concerned. “We all want a healthy professional game and our goal must be to have a system that creates flourishing, sustainable clubs as well as one that yields ambitious clubs that are ready for the Premiership,” said Mike McTighe, chair of the Men’s Professional Rugby Board. “We are clear about this mission and it will be achieved far quicker if we all pull together.”
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Simon Gillham, chair of the newly formed Tier 2 board, is another experienced figure keen to substitute the bad blood of previous negotiations with something healthier. “Teams who want to achieve promotion through the leagues need to be supported in their goal,” he stressed. “We aim to build an attractive and financially sustainable Tier 2. It’s clear that stable leadership at the RFU is key to this work and we’re pleased that the [vote] outcome gives the game exactly that.
Which all sounds fine, in theory, if you subscribe to the rose-tinted view that Worcester, assuming they can repay all their creditors after going into administration in September 2022 with debts of over £25m, will parachute back into next year’s Championship – as seems increasingly probable – without mishap. Or that a surefire way of uniting the game is to back many of the same people who were content to leave the second tier to wither on the vine in the first place.
A more optimistic scenario is that the RFU really has absorbed the key lessons of the past few painful weeks and that change is finally a-coming. “Let’s move forward rather than always looking back,” pleaded Beaumont, moments after joking about wanting to refer to Roker Park instead of the Stadium of Light as the stage for the opening game of the women’s World Cup in Sunderland later this year.
English rugby will certainly be hoping for a brighter off-field future because the alternative is too grisly to contemplate. “If there isn’t serious change there will be more and more of this,” cautioned one seasoned onlooker. “I think the SGM is only the beginning.” For the time being the RFU has dodged a significant bullet but lasting peace remains a way off.