Dual-registered players issue still causing concern at RFU
Earlier this month an e-mail was circulated from Premier Rugby offices to its constituent clubs that caused more than a little consternation in certain parts of the Championship.
Predictably it concerned the vexatious issue of dual registration, a subject to turn even the mildest of men into deranged sociopath.
Typically the practice affords young English qualified players, who have been selected for academies, the opportunity to play for either the Premiership club to which the academy is attached, or an allotted Championship team.
Obviously there are other variables – such as the hugely significant fact second tier outfits Bristol and Exeter have their own RFU funded academies and National League sides can also partake – but the basic outline is there.
The initiative was launched a couple of seasons ago amid fears that the gulf between Guinness A league matches and the white heat of the Premiership was too large for talented youngsters to gain enough exposure to competitive rugby.
Instead they were left to take their supplements, lift their weights and develop into what British Lion and England international Simon Shaw derided as gym monkeys, fine physical specimens devoid of any rugby smarts.
And overall the principle has proved pretty successful. Not only has the Championship seen some lavishly gifted tyros like Leicester’s Billy Twelvetrees, Gloucester’s Henry Trinder and Harlequins’ George Lowe, many of them have profited from their exposure to men’s rugby and graduated into their parent clubs’ first teams.
Indeed rising stars like Matt Mullan and Scotland’s Alex Grove have already made the step to the highest level. Would they have done so without their various postings around level two? Probably but maybe not as quickly.
So what’s the problem? Basically there are those in the Championship who feel disadvantaged by others’ enthusiastic mining of what is undeniably a rich vein of talent.
Nottingham are often cited as the most successful in this regard – though their director of rugby Glenn Delaney maintains they have averaged just 3.6 dual registered players per game this season.
Moseley have also done reasonably well in previous years with Dan Norton, Jack Adams and Tristan Roberts vital components of the team that won the National Trophy at Twickenham last April.
What was initially a flow of regular talent to Billesley Common has, however, slowed to a trickle and only Roberts, Rupert Harden and Jonny May can be considered anything like Red and Black regulars.
Nevertheless, there are those who feel they are not being given access to the same pool of talent. Look at poor old Cornish Pirates for instance, isolated in their Camborne outpost and forced to be self-sufficient.
