Doncaster Knights' Prem Rugby ambition remains despite drop from full-time and halving playing budget, insists Steve Lloyd
The decision taken by Doncaster Knights this week to scale back their full-time playing squad to a hybrid model does not spell the end of Yorkshire’s ambitions to have a team in rugby union’s Prem - it just may mean a different approach is required to get a club from the county back there.
That is the verdict of Steve Lloyd, one of two men to have bankrolled Yorkshire’s leading club for the past two decades, who this week effectively said he would not continue throwing good money down the drain chasing the dream.
Instead, Doncaster will revert to a hybrid model of part-time players next season supplemented by those who have a full-time contract beyond the end of this current campaign.
Lloyd estimates it will cut the playing budget in half. Given Doncaster are one of the few full-time operations in Champ Rugby, and struggling badly on the field at that, it is a move that on the face of it takes the Castle Park side further away from realising their top-flight ambitions.
Yet Lloyd believes it is a sensible move to make given part-time models have been a success in the second tier, and that the debate over having promotion and relegation or a closed-shop franchise model, continues to rage on.
“It’s one we’ve been considering for some time, for a variety of reasons, with finance at the head of it,” Lloyd said.
“The bottom line is we just can’t keep covering what was originally funding of £750,000 per annum from the Rugby Football Union (pre-Covid), to now £130,000. Even on the most basic of salaries, you still have a big bill facing you with logistics, coaches, medics etc.”
Asked if scaling back reduces Doncaster’s chances of claiming a place in the Prem, Lloyd was bullish.
“No, absolutely not,” said Lloyd, whose club have repeatedly been the only team to apply for and pass the RFU Premiership audit in recent years. “Completely the opposite. It’s like pruning a tree, you take it right back and then it grows and we will do that with our squad.
“As and when we know what we’ll be aiming for in the Prem, whether it’s just promotion or it’s a franchise - and I’m reliably told by a number of sources that they want a Yorkshire franchise - we’ll still be in position.
“Then at that stage we can make a Knights team that is investable.
“This allows us, at the right time with a year or two build-up into it, to develop the right squad and then we can pay proper salaries - though not silly salaries which create debt.
“We’re taking a backward step before we take a forward step. If that’s one year, we’ll do it in one. If it’s two, three, we’re not putting a timeframe on it. We will be able to fit into whatever is announced for the future of the Prem.”
Having witnessed part-time squads enhanced by players from Prem clubs beat his full-time operation too often this season, Lloyd believes it is the best way to operate at this level, for the good of the finances of the game and the players’ well-being.
Doncaster also want to make more use of Yorkshire’s RFU academy, which is working towards nurturing players beyond the age of 18.
The talent drain of players leaving Yorkshire to pursue their Prem ambitions outside the county has long been a concern since the last of the White Rose teams, Leeds Carnegie, lost their Premiership status for the final time in 2011.
“I want Premier rugby for Yorkshire and we will do our bit to achieve it,” said Lloyd.
“If somebody can come along and do it better, then so be it. But we are developing this whole Yorkshire attitude.
“There’s another RFU council meeting next Friday, let’s see what the vote is and where it goes.
“If, for example, they’re going to take expressions of interest in the Prem, then Doncaster would certainly be expressing interest for Yorkshire.
“I know we’re on the southern border, but it doesn’t mean we cannot embrace the whole of Yorkshire. We are giving that a lot of consideration at the moment.”