Jim McKay arrival at Worcester shows gulf in club resources

When Nottingham played Championship high-flyers Worcester on Sunday in their second game since moving from 20,000-capacity Meadow Lane to Lady Bay, a training ground with temporary stands which hold barely 1,000 supporters, some- one with some clout at the RFU ought to be there.
Someone like Rob Andrew, the former Nottingham and England fly-half and current RFU professional rugby director.
It would give former Green-and-Whites lynchpin Andrew – who is one of the main brokers in the club-country negotiations – a timely reminder of the parlous state of the clubs in English rugby’s second professional tier.
It might also persuade him to apply pressure on Premiership clubs who constantly raid their Championship counterparts for players and coaches, and on the RFU, to ensure that the second tier is properly funded, rather than living off financial scraps.
Nottingham are fourth in the table on 40 points, and yet, like every other club in the table bar Bristol they are English pro rugby’s poor relations.
While Worcester, sitting pretty with Premiership parachute payment and ‘P’ share funding, were able to herald the arrival this week of former Wallaby backs coach Jim McKay, clubs like Nottingham and Plymouth Albion were reflecting on recent rescue packages which have, for the moment, saved them from liquidation.
A £750,000 funding package which has seen Nottingham taken over by a 15-strong consortium, led by chairman Alistair Bow, called “The Friends of Nottingham Rugby”, contrasts starkly with McKay’s imminent arrival at Sixways. Where Nottingham have downsized, putting the club’s survival before playing and preparation, Worcester have had the boost of gaining a backs coach who worked alongside Euan McKenzie for Australia, and for the Queensland Reds before that, to burnish stars like Israel Folau, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Will Genia and Quade Cooper.
Worcester director of rugby, Dean Ryan, is banking on McKay, who cut his coaching teeth with the Cornish Pirates back in 2006, encouraging a Worcester backline which includes England fullback/wing Chris Pennell, Scotland centre Alex Grove, England A wing Tom Biggs, and former England U20 starlets like Ryan Mills and Ben Howard, to become even more incisive as their promotion battle with Bristol intensifies.
Worcester captain Pennell, who showed in the recent Saxons win over the Irish Wolfhounds in Cork that he has the makings of a superbly balanced Test-class No.15, is likely to be a willing accomplice for McKay when he arrives at Sixways this week.
However, despite their difficulties, Nottingham refuse to give up on their dream of winning promotion to the Premiership. The clearest sign of this an agreement with Notts County that, should they win promotion, they will return to Meadow Lane as their home ground.
They acknowledge that with Worcester and Bristol – backed by billionaire owner Steve Lansdown – well clear at the top and already in unassailable play-off positions, this season’s Championship is a two-horse race.
This week Nottingham head coach Martin Haag’s Championship forecast was matter-of-fact. Haag says: “We can’t worry about the Bristols and Worcesters of the league. Financially and structurally they’re miles apart (from us). We’ve got to treat it like a cup game and see what happens. In the grand scheme everybody will lose to Bristol and Worcester, apart from the odd upset.
“The game doesn’t really matter in terms of league position. That gives us the freedom to go out and show what it means to be a Nottingham player without the consequences of a win or a loss.
“We’ve played them three times this season (in the league and British & Irish Cup) and been competitive even though the score has been hefty. All I can ask is that we show that attitude and commitment.”
If the RFU, and the Premiership, want a competitive second professional league for the benefit of the elite end of the English game they will need to show far greater commitment to funding it, or the Championship will stagnate despite the best efforts of clubs like Nottingham.
NICK CAIN