The BUCS-Championship Conundrum
BUCS Super Rugby and The Championship are both excellent breeding grounds for rugby talent. Will there only be room for one of them?
In a previous newsletter, I remarked that The Championship teams are sat in limbo. Not just due to the lack of clarity surrounding the issue of promotion, but the ambiguity of their identities. As The Championship edges ever closer to an ‘A’ League for the Premiership clubs, the clubs are targeting developing players for higher level clubs as a goal alongside any domestic ambitions they might possess.
I noted a quote from Nottingham forwards coach Andy Kyriacou:
“We wanted to win as many games as we could for Nottingham, but we also wanted to quantify success a little bit differently. We wanted to see how many players we could get into the Premiership, into the Pro 14 or into France. Could we develop our players to move on? If we did that, we were going to have better players playing for us at the weekend.”1
And that is totally okay. Developing players for the next level has become the goal of many a club around the globe, not just in rugby. There are clubs who have outright stated their lack of desire to reach The Premiership in its current form; which is totally understandable. The last thing any club wants is to experience their own London Welsh situation, who, after gaining promotion, scrambled to arrange a groundshare with Oxford United at the Kassam stadium in 2012 to appease the RFU’s criteria. It was an unmitigated disaster, playing home matches 50 miles away from their usual Richmond abode. 2 They were relegated from The Premiership in 2013 and 2015 and swiftly entered liquidation in late 2016.
Having followed The Championship closely this season, I can attest to what a captivating competition it is. Ealing and Doncaster brawled in one of English rugby’s tensest title tussles in years and it was wildly frenetic and exciting. It would be nice for the viewing public to have access to watch it, but that’s a different discussion.
Entertainment factor aside, the league has become a successful and proven breeding ground for young players to hone their talent against quality opposition week in, week out. Make their mark there, and your chances of a Premiership contract skyrocket. Equally, it represents a second chance for players whose careers haven’t quite sparked into life as they might have expected.
Glowing case studies are aplenty, and steadily growing. Ollie Chessum impressed for Nottingham Rugby and now has two caps for his country. His Leicester teammate, Nic Dolly, cut his teeth with stints at the likes of Jersey Reds and Coventry, before breaking into The Premiership and swiftly earning an England callup. Bedford Blues have a partnership with Northampton Saints, which has seen several academy players move to Goldington Road. The likes of Tom Litchfield, Ethan Grayson and Tom Lockett were all named in Alan Dickens’ England U20 squad for the Six Nations.3
The Championship cannot be understated as a vital tool in the pathway to elite rugby in England, but it is entrenched in uncertainty. Both Ealing and Doncaster were denied entry to The Premiership as their ground capacities do not exceed 10,000.4 Under that criteria, no team in the league is eligible for promotion.
And that is how we head towards the erosion of The Championship as a reputable and entertaining league in its own right.
The RFU have sounded plans for a hybrid cup competition between Premiership second teams and Championship clubs for the 2023-24 season. With the option for Premiership and Championship clubs to merge if squad depth isn’t suitable. It is understood that if it is successful it could replace the Championship entirely, even if the RFU have quelled talk of such an outcome. 5
But the idea of The Championship as a formative stage for youngsters could soon face its own competition. Last night, in the BUCS Super Rugby final, Exeter University ended their six-year wait for a title by edging past Durham in a tense affair. For the unaware, BUCS Super Rugby was launched in 2016 as a new, top level of university rugby, and a potential pathway for university players into elite rugby.
Durham’s hooker Fred Davies, who tops the BUCS all-time try-scoring charts, was very recently signed by Bristol Bears ahead of the 2022/23 season. Alongside Davies, Bears also signed Martin Mulhall from Swansea University, and Rhys Charalambous from Leeds Beckett.
“The progress and development of Fitz Harding, as well as other players in the Gallagher Premiership, has shown us the talent that can be found and developed in the BUCS competition,” said Director of Rugby, Pat Lam. 6
BUCS players making the step up to Premiership sides isn’t new. Lam obviously noted Durham graduate Harding, who has made a number of impressive performances as a Bear.
There is even a growing number of BUCS alumni who are gaining international caps. The likes of Alex Dombrand, Harry Randall, or Christ Tshiunza. The caveat with them being, that they come from universities - Cardiff Met; Hartpury; and Exeter - that are already linked to existing academy structures with professional clubs. Bristol’s approach of signing multiple players from universities is a new manner of bringing in young talent. One that, with the likes of Harding and Dombrandt being able to adapt to elite rugby quickly, could soon become the norm.
BUCS is in its infancy, and like all leagues, had its fair share of Covid-enduced disruptions, stunting its growth. But the competition is back on its feet. It is only going to keep improving and its sides will continue to be leveraged by Premiership teams. Tapping into BUCS teams is essentially a simple way of having another developmental team who can plug holes in your side when needed. And, as we’re seeing, there are plenty of hidden gems waiting to be unearthed. Thibaud Flament, as you might have heard by now, was a Loughborugh student. Now, he is a Grand Slam winner. Leicester Tigers’ centre Dan Kelly, who has fast become a crucial part of Steve Borthwick’s side, was also a BUCS player at Loughborough. The more teams mine, the more diamonds they will find.
This shouldn’t be a BUCS or Championship ultimatum. There should be plenty of room for both to peacefully coexist as pathways to elite rugby. There are even players who balance university rugby with The Championship, such as Nottingham’s Lewis Barrett.7
Both competitions are extremely valuable to English rugby and Premiership teams, even if they don’t realise it. But just because a balance between the two should be found, doesn’t mean that it will. The RFU’s lack of investment into The Championship has been well documented and the denial of budding promotion-hopefuls stirs concern. In light of this, it might be BUCS, not The Championship, that could be where the future is.
Meet Ollie Chessum, the 6ft 7in dynamo with echoes of Tom Croft in line to play for England against Italy (telegraph.co.uk)
Doncaster and Ealing have Premiership promotion hopes dashed over stadiums | Championship | The Guardian
Alex Day Exclusive: “I wanted to play every week and enjoy rugby” (talkingrugbyunion.co.uk)
Doncaster and Ealing have Premiership promotion hopes dashed over stadiums | Championship | The Guardian
Championship race a thriller but meaningless as RFU lets limbo persist | Championship | The Guardian
Bears snap up BUCS front-row trio | Bristol Bears (bristolbearsrugby.com)
Lewis Barrett Exclusive: The University of Nottingham flanker balancing BUCS with the Championship (talkingrugbyunion.co.uk)