Quote:Peter D
If Yorkshire Carnegie win the play off (unjust system though it is) they deserve Premiership Rugby. It's based on winning the Championship - not on the size of the crowd.
...and this is exactly why the Championship in its current form (play-offs or not) simply isn't fit for purpose. The RFU continue to cling to the romantic notion that a club should be able to squeeze through on playing merit.
Noble though that is, in the real world a club without a strong enough infrastructure, financial backing and "bums on seats" will simply get slaughtered in the Prem and then be rendered rudderless once they come back down (a la London Welsh)
Ring-fence, by removing the TWO Championship clubs who can even compete in the Prem, and you then get a competitive Championship, with some sort of election system to allow for the very rare likelihood of "an Exeter" emerging from the crop.