IT was a near certainty that the English Championship Proposal was not going to get unanimous approval, and two of the core tenets of the plan drawn up by Ed Griffiths have hit the barriers.
The Premiership clubs are strongly opposed to the reorganisation of their academies, with the former Saracens chief executive advocating they be turned into regional centres which feed into the Championship.
Meanwhile, a number of Championship clubs are wisely reluctant to abandon the principle of one-up, one-down annual promotion/relegation.
However, I understand Griffiths does not see the setback as i...