THE idea that English Premiership clubs have rejected the ‘buddy’ initiative with Championship clubs because they feared they were in danger of being saddled with the second tier’s problems should be taken with a cellar of salt.
The main reason that the buddy system hatched by Nigel Melville, the RFU’s professional rugby director, has been elbowed aside by the Premiership clubs – as reported in our front page news story– is that they were not going to get the de facto control of Championship clubs that they wanted.
Wisely, most Championship clubs were not...