Call to attract players back into county tournament
Surrey director of rugby Marc Bertrand feels the Bill Beaumont County Championship has lost its edge with players since Covid-19 realising there's more to life than rugby at the end of a long campaign and suggests bringing back England Counties as a carrot to attract players back to the tournament.
Bertrand has spent five years in charge of Surrey and will be guiding them into a higher level this season after his side were promoted to Division 1, despite finishing bottom of Division 3 Pool 2 last year.
Placed in Pool 2 of the premier competition, South African Bertrand is cautious of the calibre of his opposition with his group involving seven-time winners Cornwall, a Hampshire side that will have a point to prove after losing all three of their pool outings last term and reining champions Kent, who beat Lancashire in the final 39-37.
Pool 1 in Division 1 comprises of Lancashire, Somerset and Yorkshire with the action getting underway on Saturday.
Bertrand told The Rugby Paper: “Coming back into Division 1 there's been a lot of excitement and apprehension. We're not as established as a lot of the other counties like Yorkshire, Cornwall, Kent and it's a building process, one that isn't going to happen overnight.
“We're confident we can play some rugby but we're not the finished article yet. Cornwall are a very established team and over the last 10 years have been one of the more successful teams. Having played rugby in Cornwall many years ago and understanding the culture of Cornish rugby, it's a religion in Cornwall. They've got two really good teams that are providing the backbone of that squad in Camborne and Redruth, who have done particularly well in National Two West. Kent won it last year and have a very good setup, I have a lot of time for Taff (Gwilliam) and his setup there.
“The dominant thing for us is building team cohesion, with that will come the structure and confidence. It would be fantastic to win it but we have to set achievable milestones. We want to compete against the best and the pool we're in are the best counties in the south of England.”
Surrey have a large player pool with players from National One all the way down to the 10th tier, but Bertrand says access to players at this stage of the season is becoming increasingly difficult.
He added: “On paper Surrey looks a strong county, like Kent. We have two National One clubs, four National Two and a handful from Regional 1. There's a lot of talent but one of the downsides of being in London is there's more to do than for people in counties further out.
“When the season finishes at the end of April a lot of players want a break because pre-season comes around in seven weeks. The final is held on the June 15 which is two weeks before pre-season starts. Players have realised there's more to life than rugby and it's a struggle to keep them engaged.”
The former Redruth player and current senior men's administrator at Wimbledon suggests bringing back England Counties to entice players to play in the county competition.
Formed in 2002, England Counties provided an opportunity for players below the Championship to play on an international stage with recent matches against Romania A and CSM Bucuresti in 2018 and two games against Georgia XV in 2019.
The team have not appeared since then and Bertrand said: “We have to acknowledge the factors that are pulling people away from county rugby and work out how we can get people to engage. We hope the RFU can reengage with counties.
“A good aspect of the men's, women's and U20s county games was that people got the opportunity to be able to be selected for England Counties but that's no longer there. People feel disenfranchised as there's very little to aspire from county level. England Counties used to be a really good point for people to aim for in the county game for players not lucky enough to be in the professional setups.”
