Why Doncaster Knights could be given two-year window to finally claim Prem Rugby spot
One month after the community season kicked-off, a week after Prem Rugby clubs resumed combat and Zoe Aldcroft led the Red Roses to glory at Twickenham, English rugby’s second-tier teams belatedly enter the fray with – you guessed it – uncertainty over what is required to win promotion to the top flight.
Doncaster Knights – Yorkshire’s highest team up the pyramid – kick the rebranded Champ Rugby season off at their long-time rivals Nottingham tonight.
When the second-tier board announced their strategy via a glossy power-point presentation in May, the gist was that promotion was there to play for. The format was a return of the play-offs for the top six, a final to decide the champion and then for that Champ winner – provided they pass the RFU’s minimum standards criteria – to play the bottom team in the Premiership over two legs to determine who takes the final spot in the top flight.
Now, on Friday, just hours before the first conversion is kicked, the goalposts could be moving again. For the RFU Council will meet to hear proposals from Prem Rugby (the rebranded top flight) to remove the play-off between the Champ winner and their bottom club and grant instant promotion to the second-tier champions, provided they meet the minimum standards criteria.
The following season would be the same, taking Prem Rugby from 10 teams to 11 and then 12. Thereafter, the proposal is for a season of stability, no promotion or relegation, after which the situation will be reviewed. If it passes at RFU Council level today, it moves onto the RFU executive to be ratified.
At first glance, this looks good news for a club like Doncaster, who have passed the minimum standards criteria four times and in each of the past two years were the only club in the Championship to do so.
If the motion carries, it opens a window over the next two years that represents their best chance to finally get to the Premiership and actually stay there.
But as ever with this thorny situation, there is caution. The Champ Rugby clubs are a much more united force than in recent years and are wary of the drawbridge being pulled up long term.
Steve Lloyd, Doncaster’s co-benefactor and president, told The Yorkshire Post: “The proposal to go to 11 clubs and then 12 is appealing.
“But what the Champ is against is not knowing what happens thereafter. When Prem is at 12, what then? A wait-and-see approach won’t do us I’m afraid.
“We’ve got to know a bit more detail about it. For me, it’s sacrosanct that we should always have an opportunity to go up and also go down.
“It’s good for the next two champions, but for an aspirational club like Doncaster, if we were to fail to go up these next two seasons (which we’re not planning on doing) – where do we go from there?
“Even for the clubs that go up the next two years, a lot more information is required; how do the finances pan out, the more teams going up the fairer it has got to be and therefore funding has got to be shared out equally. We’d like a bit of help. I don’t want a golden hello, but I’d like to think it’s worth it. We need more clarity before one can say ‘yes, I’m really in support of that’.”
Doncaster are ready to push now. In April, Lloyd told The Yorkshire Post “we have passed the audit again, it would be nice to use it”. Even since a change at head coach from Joe Ford to Darren Fearn, that declaration has not wavered.
“We’ve got the ground, we’ve got planning permission, so why wouldn’t we?” reasoned Lloyd, whose club will face the stiffest challenge to their ambitions from the re-born Worcester, Ealing Trailfinders and Coventry. “But we wouldn’t go up spending money we haven’t got.
“And we don’t just want to do it for Doncaster, we want to do it for Yorkshire. It would benefit the Yorkshire RFU academy, we want to see a pipeline of Yorkshire talent.
“Are we ready for the Prem? It’s like the old kids’ saying: ‘ready or not, here we come’.”