WRW #14: MONEY MATTERS
Sport England and Leicester Tigers combine forces
RUGBY ON TV THIS WEEKEND
Premiership
Friday:
Bath v Gloucester, BT Sport 2
Saturday:
TIGERS v Wasps, 3.00pm BT Sport 2
Exeter v Northampton, 3.00pm BT Sport Extra
Harlequins v Sale Sharks, 3.00pm BT Sport Extra
Sunday:
London Irish v Bristol, 3.00pm, BT Sport 1
Pro 14
Friday:
Glasgow v Ulster, 7.35pm, Premier Sports
Dragons v Leinster, 7.35pm, Premier Sports
Saturday:
Scarlets v Benetton, 3.00pm, Premier Sports
Ospreys v Zebre, 5.15pm, Premier Sports
Edinburgh v Munster, 7.35pm, Premier Sports
Connacht v Cardiff Blues, 7.35pm, Premier Sports
NB Six Nations rest weekend
HARLEQUINS UPDATE
Frustration was in the air on Saturday, when Leicester went down to Quins. Not just the final maul which to my eye looked a stone-cold Leicester penalty…but the ability and ease with which Quins were able to get the ball wide and find space.
It is easy on the neutral’s eye when teams play like that. Quins’ decisiveness to do that, helped by terrific control up front and especially at fly-half, surely caused gaps to emerge in the Leicester midfield, allowing Quins to take advantage for some excellent tries.
As good a try as Van Poortvliet’s try was - more on that anon - it was an individual finish. A coach might prefer the way Quins tries came, as after the initial break arrived, support runners were there flooding the channels to back up. (Smith’s try a good example.) They were willing to back themselves and others when a break was made.
I’m starting to wonder if Leicester are trying to play more than we’ve given them credit for, but there’s not quite the same cohesion that we saw from their hosts. As well as Van Poortvliet played especially in the first half, Henry looked to be a man under pressure. He will have better days and maybe that might come against Wasps - and it may also say something about the rumours of a rigid coaching style used at Oval Park. Henry though was not the reason why Leicester lost.
But clearly the good points from Saturday include the display of the young guns. Indeed, after Murimurivalu’s kick, Van Poortvliet’s try comes from a combination we might have to get used to…Steward with the fine take inside the Quins half, Martin tying defenders in on the carry, before the young scrum-half’s attentions led him to break on his own.
His performance was spotted by others (including ex-Saracens coach Mark Evans who coached JVP’s dad among others - check the whole thread), so don’t say the kids aren’t being noticed…
JVP will surely not be no.3 scrum-half at Tigers for long.
MONEY MONEY MONEY
The battle to maintain cashflow within the Tigers accounts continues apace. New commercial deals emerge which one assumes will bring in fresh cash, although if they bring in new services for free or reduced rates, that’s almost as good.
Those season ticket holders who opted to donate have been told that direct debits from their accounts will cease from this month onwards, which has the knock-on effect of meaning that Tigers will manage without season ticket income for a whole season - around £4-5m income.
There will be a decent hit. One club observer suggested the total loss of income could be as high as £7-8 million when all is said and done. Come on the vaccinations!
But the recovery package may be arriving even sooner, with the help of Sport England.
Companies House records filed on Friday afternoon suggests that the programme announced by the Government last autumn to help professional sport during the Covid-19 crisis may be bearing fruit.
In a scheme managed by Sport England, two investment vehicles linked to Tom Scott and Peter Tom respectively have loaned funds to Tigers. Sealyham Investments and Hermco Property are providing an undisclosed sum of up to £3 million, at 5% interest.
Now, Peter Tom has said in the past that he and Tom Scott would be willing to invest in the club to maintain its financial position. The club will certainly say that this is their keeping that end of the bargain. While I have been told that no Sport England funds have yet been received, this is a loan which unquestionably help manage Tigers’ cashflow, especially in the light of their season ticket announcement.
But these terms are certainly beneficial to the owners. Indeed, if converted into equity, a sum of £3 million could take Scott and Tom’s combined ownership over to 75% - which would allow them to do anything with the club, including taking the PLC private and offshore.
No question that this money is very helpful to the club, having the biggest stadium in the Premiership lying dormant.
There is a lot we don’t know though. How much have Sport England loaned Tigers? Government rates are a maximum of 2% over 10 years, with a 2 year holiday - again, good rates. Also, was this loan contingent on shareholders loaning funds and if so, is there a matching requirement?
Supporters may well want to know answers to these questions - even if Sport England appear to have already helped Newcastle and London Irish via different means - especially when this process further shores up control for those two owners and at a time, when fans are being asked to donate their season ticket fees.
I’m expecting to hear from Sport England in due course. Check back to the website for their response. When I receive it, I’ll add it here.
What are your thoughts?
WELCOME TO THE NEW WAY OF WORKING
So ring-fencing is here and say goodbye to relegation. What has been long-promised (or much-feared depending on your perspective) is now here and is likely to be so for at least four seasons.
The RFU press release released on Friday hinted at the likely shape of things to come over the next four months:
Over the next four months the RFU, Premiership Rugby and Championship representatives will work on recommendations for changes to the season structures for 2021/22 and beyond for both the Premiership and Championship.
It is hoped that proposals will include a different approach to promotion and relegation from the Gallagher Premiership.
The aim will be to retain the ambition of clubs in the Greene King IPA Championship and below and to continue to allow a route to promotion to the Gallagher Premiership. New minimum standard criteria, investment in facilities and club funding will be discussed.
The suggestion here is surely some element of franchise system, so that clubs can be incorporated into any revised top flight. The optimist might argue that this will give those teams who want to play at the highest level, the chance to do so over time but I can’t see it.
In any case, only one other team bar Saracens and Ealing could even contemplate a Premiership place - and even then, the chief claim to fame for Cornish Pirates was its Stadium for Cornwall and that appears to be going nowhere.
I should note too the comparisons made between the Championship and Pro D2 in France seem a huge red herring. A Rugby Paper article had the highly optimistic headline that “THIS is how it can be done.”
It looked at Rouen, run by ex-Bath scrum-half Richard Hill. But in the details, it noted that..
He says that Rouen have a €7m annual budget, of which €1.6m comes from TV rights from broadcasters Eurosport and Canal Plus – who between them broadcast Pro D2 games. A further €1.5m comes from local government grants from the Town Hall and the local “Department”. The remainder of the budget is funded by local sponsors and millionaire backers – boasting the sort of money you can win by placing free bets.
Ok, a moneybags investor is there, but Rouen get 3m euros for just turning up like every Pro D2 club. If equivalent across the league, that’s over 35 million Euros across Pro D2.
Put it in context, that is nearly equivalent to one season’s entire fees from BT Sport in their outgoing deal for the Premiership. Where is English rugby going to find £30-35 million to get the Championship clubs up to that level?
The Championship won’t be getting that sort of money, but what will the RFU extract in return for the Premiership getting a closed shop?
The domestic calendar will be reviewed, which will also allow additional preparation time for the England senior men’s team ahead of Rugby World Cup 2023.
Player welfare will be central to the proposals and the RPA will be consulted on the development of season structures.
This is where the detail will be important.
However you define it - be it central, joint or otherwise - players’ contracts are going to change so that a player signs one contract of which his chosen club will be party as well as the RFU.
As I understand it, it doesn’t necessarily mean that England would get complete control over the player but the balance of availability would be up for grabs. I’m not expecting player availability for clubs to go up, but don’t be surprised if there are fewer players involved than say, season-long EPS. Let’s wait and see.
ONE MORE WEEK AROUND THE WORLD
Cue more anger amid the Premiership when they heard that the World Cup in France in 2 years’ time is likely to be one week longer.
The reason? Scheduling the pool stages so that every team gets the same period of rest between games. Chris Foy had the story originally in the Daily Mail.
The RFU - note, not primarily the clubs - are apparently up in arms. (Worried about Japan, Eddie?) The reason? Having an odd number of teams in the pools which means one team has to be out of one round of fixtures, making it all the more complicated.
At least this looks likely to be the last 20 team World Cup, with host favourites Australia pushing for a 24 team tournament, as are many nations currently on the fringe of qualification.
For something that is so obviously player-welfare driven, it is common sense to extend for a week, rather than take the pandora’s box option of re-opening up every contract relating to RWC 2023.
When the Premiership clubs are prepared to hand over even more control as we have discussed, they haven’t got a leg to stand on here.
NB Final part of the private equity series to come on Friday, in the new Six Nations update
ALSO…
AND
BIG HITS
But is it legal? We see a lot of these type of tries nowadays but there is clearly a grey area.
Nigel Owens says no.
But Jonathan Kaplan says yes in the Telegraph:
Scoring a try is, on occasion, an act which requires great skill. May improvised with a finish straight out of rugby league, and sometimes you have no choice but to take to the air to score a try. If we disallowed it (and I have no idea under which law you would do so) then we would be oversanitising the game and you run the risk of having to rule out a try every time a player dives for the line, which is clearly ridiculous.
In the same breath, if Luca Sperandio had made the tackle then that would have been fine as well - I don't see it as taking a player out in the air. If a player jumps up in the act of diving to score, I would imagine a common sense approach would prevail in allowing a defender to actually defend. It was a super score that was correctly given.
And yes, Sir Clive. You CAN coach it.
This is such an underrated bit of skill in the build-up to LRZ’s try v Scotland:
RUNNING FROM DEEP
Some of those who want Italy gone from the Six Nations have short memories.
However, lest we forget, Irish rugby wasn’t so hot itself once upon a time. Witness the not so plentiful 1990s: between 1988 and 1999 Ireland never finished above the bottom two. In 48 matches over those 12 years, Ireland achieved only 10 wins, with two draws and 36 defeats. There were five wooden spoons in those dozen campaigns, with three in a row from 1996, culminating in a whitewash in 1998. Record hammerings abounded, and it is only six years since that 60-0 horror show in Hamilton against the All Blacks. .
Wiese’s trademark physicality wasn’t always a feature of his game, though. When he started at the Cheetahs he weighed in at only 90kg. His power is something that has come with time. At 25 years of age, he may just be coming into his own.
Some may even quietly draw comparisons between Wiese and another former Cheetahs eighthman. This player also began his career as a lighter, rangier back rower. As he progressed he, too, became increasingly defined by his power. By 2019, he had played 50 times for South Africa and lifted the Rugby World Cup after a man-of-the-match display in the final.
While many will dismiss any comparisons between Jasper Wiese and Duane Vermeulen as decidedly premature, I’m more circumspect. It is worth remembering that Vermeulen’s success for the Boks also came relatively late in his career. ‘Thor’ only received his first cap at the age of 26.
And you would hardly expect me to disagree with this. Provocative as ever from Nigel Pearson.
“If all we get is journalism from the perspective of the football club, we’re moving towards a dictatorial state and that’s not what we are.
“If we don’t have [independent journalism] we may as well not bother, we may as well live in a Communist state where we’re taught not to think.”
……
Discussing his relationship with the press, Mr Pearson told the students: “If I’m doing a press conference or any interviews, I know the ground rules: I’ve got a job to do and so have you.
“I’ve sat in some press conferences and been grilled by very tenacious, well-prepped, well-read journalists who know their stuff.”
He added: “What irritates me more than anything is lazy journalism.”
More on Friday when I will have another Six Nations special (what rest weekend?)
Enjoy your week…
Another fascinating edition Chris and one that generates lots of questions, most notably about this debenture that has been registered for Tom and Scott against their companies. Seems to me that it's protecting their interests should worse come to worse and Club go bust, but it begs the questions.
1. Is this money a loan?
2. What are PT and TS getting out of it? What percentage on their outlay?
3. Is it on the assumption that the Govt are funding some of it?
4. I'd be really really intrigued to know actually how much PT has 'given,' other than buying the shares, how much has he actually 'invested' with Tigers or has it all be loans?
We know that TS wants out, for personal reasons and the chances of PT finding another channel island millionaire with bottomless pockets willing to 'buy a rugby club.'
The transfer of Season Ticket monies from 2020/21 to 2021/22 makes perfect sense, and 2 of the options (do nothing, or ask for refund) makes sense to me. There is a 3rd option, donate (again) and your DirDeb will continue. I can't see anybody doing that unless the Club publicises what state the club is in and whether they expect it to still be in existence in 2021/22
And finally, if we are all no longer Season Ticket holders for 2020/21, should we still be getting the free BT Match Passes for matches we can't go to - we ain't ST holders anymore?
Answers to all that on a postcard to 'puzzled of Lincolnshire' ..................
Franchises and an end to relegation will see me lose interest in what used to be a very competitive elite sport.
Also, funny how all the people saying no try for May were Celts 🙄
How is touching down hands first anything other than a dive?