Jeff Probyn: Dual registration could be casualty of London Welsh triumph

So natural justice has prevailed and the winners of the Championship have finally been allowed to take their place in the Premiership. After a long and protracted appeal that saw three independent QC’s find that the Premiership’s entry criteria was against European and UK competition law, London Welsh have been given the all clear to plan for next season’s fast approaching Premiership campaign.
Already disadvantaged by this late decision, they will face the prospect of trying to compete at a level they have never played at with substantially less funding than their illustrious rivals, at a stadium (the Kassam) in Oxford which is more than 50 miles from their home in Old Deer Park.
One thing that puzzles me is that if the rules that the Professional Game Board put in place fall foul of competition law, shouldn’t it be possible for London Welsh to continue playing their fixtures at Old Deer Park?
If the Minimum Stadium Criteria is no longer valid, why should the regulars who have supported London Welsh on their journey to the Premiership be forced into a 100 mile round trip?
While it is highly unlikely that London Welsh will ever get permission to redevelop Old Deer Park the rushed decision forced on the club to set up home so far away from their traditional base should be reconsidered and the club given time to find a suitable venue, perhaps a little closer than Oxford – unless they intend to make it their permanent home.
The eventual promotion has thrown the PGB into total melt-down and has led RFU chief executive Ian Ritche to instigate a full review to agree on a new entry criteria with the aim of ensuring all stakeholders are happy with the process.
I hope that when formulating the entry criteria this time, one of the stakeholders is the Championship and that they are given fair representation – because if it is just left to the RFU and the Premiership in the form of the PGB we will have this same farce repeating itself time and time again.
If there is to be unfettered promotion and relegation with a fairer agreed system it does throw up another potential fly in the ointment – dual registration.
At the moment the Championship is home to a number of young Premiership academy and ex-academy players on dual contracts who are playing and honing their skills in preparation for the step-up to a full Premiership contract.
Some of the clubs in the Championship are well aware that their fortunes on the field are dependant on the generosity of those premier clubs that are willing to let them use their ‘spare’ players and they will be worried should the Premiership clubs decide that they no longer wish to help clubs that may one day be their rivals. This would also be a major set-back for the RFU who, if they were honest, would admit that they only created a professional Championship to house the many players being produced by the academies.
The academy system churns out about 300 elite players each year, but unfortunately rugby is not a one year sport which makes obtaining a contract extremely difficult.
Dual registration has allowed players to showcase their talents in competitive match environments, enabling their Premiership master to see which of them have that ‘certain something’ and can be moved up; it has also allowed some Championship clubs to climb up the table without having to make a huge investment.
What hasn’t been said in all that has been written or broadcast is that there are some Championship clubs that really don’t want to get promoted and are happy just to make the play-offs each year.
Some, like my old club Bedford with (I believe) ten dual registered players (from Saracens) for next season, would find it almost impossible to fulfil their fixtures, let alone compete in the Premiership, should they get promoted were Saracens to withdraw their support, which obviously they would as they would not want to be playing against their own players.
In many ways it would be better if dual registration was applied below the Championship, so that all would know that the teams fighting for a place in the Premiership were doing so with their own players and could take up their position with only a relatively small number of changes needed in their playing squad.
The problem that faces all clubs is that although the RFU are the richest Union in the world, they don’t have enough money to fund the game below the Premiership at an adequate level to enable the Championship to build their own teams and stadium to compete at Premiership levels without relying on an exceptionally generous sponsor.
In forcing the PGB and RFU to confront this issue London Welsh have done the game a great service and deserve their promotion.
Now in the Premiership all they have to do is be competitive which will not be easy. But if they show the same tenacity on the field as off they could succeed.