Worst-case scenarios waiting to happen in domestic rugby

Nov 20 2008 by Brian Dick, Birmingham Post

So there we have it. The horses have been traded, alliances built and cracked and the landscape, no let’s call it a roadmap in honour of another great political cock-up of our time, has been fashioned for years to come.

National One will be the Championship, 12 teams not 16, play-offs will decide who goes up to the Premiership and down to National Two - which will be National One, everyone’s professional right down to the bin-emptier - and, best of all, Sky shows the last second of every bankrupted club’s existence.

The Coventry-Moseley derby - assuming they’re invited and accept of course - will be advertised as The Pain in the Butts and voiced over by that bloke who used to be a superintendent on The Bill. It will kick off at 7.36 on Thursday night because the Boxing Day slot has been filled by Hull City’s Premier League match at Reading. Oh good.

Unless, of course, there’s a slip ‘twixt cup and lip, a fly in the ointment or a spanner in the works. Here’s a few to be going on with.

Scenario One - Premier Rugby throws a wobbly

The newly-created - and by-passed - Professional Game Board meets a week today. Premier Rugby representatives are so piqued by the Rugby Football Union’s failure to consult with them plans to alter relegation from the top flight that they vote to reject the proposals accepted at council last Friday.

Premier Rugby says it will only accept the plans if the notion of a promotion play-off is scrapped. After all, they do not even want to countenance the prospect of the Championship’s eighth-placed team - and the country’s 20th best - trying to break into their cartel.

The RFU is in something of a tight spot, having given their word to Championship clubs there will be more than 22 league games a season. Odds 3-1

Scenario Two - Welsh throw a wobbly

The Welsh governing body, piqued by the Rugby Football Union’s early announcement of embryonic Anglo Welsh competitions, pulls out of negotiations leaving the RFU at least six games light in their commitment to level two clubs.

Someone comes up with the outrageous idea that the top flight and second tier clubs play each other - you know, like they used to in the old days. They are denounced as heretics and sent to Waterloo. Odds 5-1

Scenario Three - Rugby goes west

The plans are accepted by the Professional Game Board and put in place ready for September next year. Unfortunately Moseley, having sustained injuries to two key players, finish twelfth and are effectively relegated back into the community game. Coventry join them after fielding an ineligible player and being docked three decisive points.

Redruth, 29th best team in the country, win National Two by drawing at Sharmans Cross Road on the last day of the season. The South West now has