AMBITION (10 Jan 2005)
Bath coach John Connolly has decided to call it a day at the Recreation Ground at the end of this season and,like most outspoken Aussie coaches,he has delivered his parting shot before he makes his exit from European rugby union.For the West Country side's boss insists that there should be no promotion or relegation to or from the Zurich Premiership and that,at the end of this season,the drawbridge should effectively be drawn up,the likes of Worcester,Harlequins,Leeds Tykes,and Northampton be allowed to relax their nerves,and Bristol,Plymouth Albion,Exeter,and Rotherham be firmly allotted their places in the National League First Division.
Argument is no doubt already raging in and around the clubhouses nationwide at the implications of Mr.Connolly's heresy and already cries of "what price ambition?" and "closed shop" rent the air.And yet just what are the realities of the current league system in operation in rugby union and the ‘professionalizing’ of so many teams below the Zurich Premiership?Does promotion and relegation achieve its purpose at the top end of the game or does it cause more woe and pain than the system is worth?
Promotion is intended to help an ambitious club move forward to the top but does it actually achieve its goal when,on arrival in the promised land of the Zurich Premiership(or even the rugby league's Super League)that new club immediately finds itself punished financially when the share out of the monies is made to the elite clubs.And how many clubs can,realistically,command the sizeable spectator interest and construct the infrastructure off the field needed to maintain a place in the higher stratosphere of rugby?Very few,ask Rotherham,Bristol,Richmond,London Scottish,and Wakefield.
Just what is ambition?It used to be associated with building a comfortable,accommodating club house,nurturing a number of talented youngsters,providing for half a dozen teams or more at adult level,and seeking to move forward on the back of a strong base of local talent.Not any more when young talent is taken from the clubs to the elite Academies and teams are plundered by other club coaches offering yet bigger and thicker brown envelopes at the end of the week.
What is ambition without a 'Sugar Daddy' or the ability to sell the club's land?There can be none,only,eventually,like Icarus in the Classics who flew too near the sun and melted his waxen wings,a fall from on high.
Has not promotion and relegation at the highest levels not made for a mad,outrageous scramble among our clubs and a huge waste of millions of pounds?Would clubs be wasting millions of pounds on players who have no right to call themselves professionals and who are merely rugby journeymen if they knew that their access to the premier division was blocked?I doubt it.Would it not be better for a club,when it felt it had all the structures in place both on and off the pitch, to apply to an independent body for entry to the elite league?Would it not be better for that independent body to monitor clubs in the Zurich Premiership over a three years period and then assess whether or not they could justify their position in it,rather than confronting any new club with sudden death based on a few results?
Whatever,John Connolly has reignited the controversy surrounding the promotion and relegation system at the highest levels in the game - a controversy which can have disastrous or pleasant(however temporary!) implications for many clubs and their willing bands of workers.Watch this space,Worcester,Harlequins,Leeds and company.And,Bristol,Pertemps Bees,or Plymouth Albion watch you don't fly too near the sun.