By Keith Jenner
December 18 2003

Here's a nice thought. When I started doing these articles I decided to try to alternate between ones which are specifically related to Quins and others which would be about general rugby issues, maybe looking at them from a Quins viewpoint. Anyway, it is nice to think that this weeks article, about relegation, definitely falls into the latter category. I wouldn't have been able to say that in the last few seasons.

Not that everything is that rosy though. It has to be said that the main reason why we are safe is that Rotherham are struggling so badly. Take them out and we certainly wouldn't be safe yet, although rather better set than in previous years.

So, why are Rotherham having such a bad time of it then? That is a question which I have been asked a few times lately. There is certainly a lot of disappointment here in South Yorkshire, where football is much more dominant than it is in West London. People are used to promoted teams making quite a good fist of things when they get promoted to the top division, and the people who I have spoken to have certainly been taken by surprise by Rotherham's experience.

We know that there is a vast gulf between the Premiership and National One. It appears to be far larger than that between the football premiership and the 1st division. On average, two of the three teams who are promoted to the football premiership each year avoid being relegated straight away, and even those who don't survive can expect to win half a dozen games. This compares very favourably with the experiences of newcomers to the Zurich Premiership.

Some of this may be due to funding issues. I don't know anything about football funding, but there is a problem, experienced by both Leeds and Rotherham, of seemingly unfair distributions of funds. Surely we should all be playing off as level a playing field as possible, and this is something that needs looking into.

However, if we want promoted teams to be anything but whipping boys, National One needs to be improved to reduce the gap between the two leagues. If that can be done then relegation and promotion will become a far more viable concept. The investment in the lower league would also probably be to the benefit of the game as a whole as some of these clubs became bigger.

There is a problem though. This increased investment would have to come from somewhere, and the existing Premiership clubs are understandably going to be reluctant to give too much help to clubs who may one day replace them in the top division. There are also only so many supporters to go round. Why should Quins, for example, help to make London Welsh a bigger club when the result could be that potential Quins supporters end up going to Old Deer Park instead.

There is one advantage to the Premiership clubs of increasing the profile of National One. If the worst did happen and Quins were replaced in the Premiership by one of these young upstarts then it wouldn't be the disaster which it is portrayed as now. If the overall quality of National One was better then relegation wouldn't be the kiss of death that it is seen as now. Investment in stadia and facilities wouldn't be as hindered by the prospect of relegation if income wasn't expected to crash as is the case currently.

I don't know whether the sums add up, although I have a suspicion that they probably don't. At least they didn't in the pre World Cup days. It is far too early to know whether the increased interest from England's success will introduce enough new followers to transform rugby's finances and make a stronger, maybe fully professional National One feasible. Again, I suspect not. So, what I have written above may be the ramblings of someone living in a dream world. If that's the case then what is the alternative.

Let us consider the basic question of whether there should be relegation from the Premiership. The main argument against it is the problems with raising finance etc. when there is always the threat of relegation hanging over a team. This is obviously a very strong argument and in the current situation it must hinder clubs significantly, especially those like Quins who have come pretty close themselves in recent years.

It has been suggested that relegation from the Premiership would spell the end of many clubs, and Bristol's experience does nothing to ease these fears. I'm not so sure myself. Bristol had other issues and it is not certain that they would have survived even if they hadn't been relegated. It certainly wouldn't be a bed of roses for relegated teams, but I feel that if they managed to keep their youngsters on board many would be able to challenge for promotion the following year. Obviously there are financial issues which I am not aware of, so I could be wrong but each club is different and some would be less affected than others. We shouldn't forget that the most high profile club failure in recent years (Richmond) wasn't due to relegation.

Another argument against relegation is that the premiership teams are all so closely matched now that there can be only a few points between relegation and relative success. Remember last season where we were flirting with the drop, but then made the Heineken Cup playoffs, or consider Bath who were nearly relegated but are running away with the league this season.

There is also Leeds, who would have gone down had there been relegation in 2002. They may have problems getting people into the ground, but few would argue that Leeds have now established themselves as a premiership club.

The two main points made in favour of relegation are that it gives teams in National One something to strive for and also can add to the excitement towards the end of the season. We know from bitter experience how exciting the final few games can be when a team is caught up in the relegation battle. It may not have been much fun at the time, but I count the relegation game against Leeds in 2002 as one of the highlights of my Quins supporting days. However, that has probably now been lost for a few years, as I believe we will now have a period of time where the newcomers don't challenge and therefore relegation is practically decided before Christmas.

It appears that the rugby authorities recognise that the relegation battle is important. In 2002, I believe that they had decided Rotherham wouldn't be promoted some time before the decision was revealed, but they delayed the announcement in order to keep the interest up. It did backfire somewhat as some people still erroneously believe that the decision was made to protect teams such as Bath & Quins.

The other point in favour of relegation is very important. I believe that removing the possibility of promotion to the premiership would be very damaging for National One teams. Their league would become rather pointless and this would have a demoralising effect on the teams and their supporters. The possibility of promotion must always be there.

But should it be automatic? I'm not convinced myself. If it is then I predict that we will have Rotherham and Worcester taking it in turns to have a crack in the Premiership for the next few years. I believe that there is a good case for a playoff. My preference would be for it to be a one leg game played at the ground of the National One team. This would hopefully give the challenging team a chance against their better funded opposition.

There are some rumours around that the premiership will be expanded to fourteen teams for next season. This sounds unlikely to me and I hope that it isn't the case. It was tried once before (in 1989/99) and wasn't a success then. There may be the temptation to try expansion on the back of the World Cup, but surely consolidation is what is required at first rather than over extending and relying on long term support which can't be guaranteed.

Overall, I believe that the concept of promotion and relegation is essential in order to develop the club game. Someone with the relevant information should investigate how feasible it would be to increase the profile of National One to make the jump up to the Premiership more manageable, and if this looks possible then it should efforts should be made to do so.

We are now in the situation where there are only 11 true premiership teams and therefore there are a number of teams who are all aiming to become the twelfth. Until that happens, we will see teams coming up for a year and struggling before going back down. The introduction of a playoff for promotion will give teams the chance of a couple of seasons to build themselves up as Leeds have done, but the introduction of the playoff game would probably not go down well with the National One teams who are challenging.

The main thing we can learn from this is in the professional era, clubs have to look over their own interests. It is not due to selfishness, but can be a matter of survival. A team in National One will campaign for promotion but when they reach the premiership may vote against it. It may be hypocritical, but it is the way of the professional world and they are acting in the best interests of their businesses.

We will wait to see what happens in the future. I have my views and I know others have different opinions. One thing I am quite sure of is that we all, as supporters, would like to know where things stand. The rules regarding relegation and promotion should be laid out clearly at the start of the season and stuck to.