The money cut from the funding to Championship clubs in the last five years is believed to be very close to the amount of money invested by Bill Sweeney’s RFU administration in allowing the top tier of the English women’s game to go professional.
Whether the push for an accelerated women’s pro tier was the most prudent path, with England much stronger than all of their semi-pro/amateur rivals, bar NZ and France, is debatable.
The absence of a level playing field may have led to England being a dominant force, but the number of tries-galore mismatches involving the only pro side has done l...
