Keep promotion, it gives clubs hope, says RPA boss Damian Hopley

Players boss Damian Hopley believes Championship clubs must continue to have access to the top-flight and says the RFU should think carefully before endorsing Premiership plans to introduce a moratorium on promotion and relegation.
Premiership Rugby have made no secret of their desire for a moratorium in return for expanding the top-flight from 12 to 14 clubs from 2016-17, with Gloucester chief executive Stephen Vaughan suggesting the league should be ring-fenced for five years.
Exasperated Championship clubs have cried foul, with Doncaster boss Clive Griffiths describing five years as akin to a “prison sentence,” while Cornish Pirates rugby director Ian Davies fears players’ jobs would be lost as clubs went part-time.
RPA chief executive Hopley, mindful of Exeter‘s stunning rise from the Championship, believes access from the lower leagues must stay.
He told The Rugby Paper: “There has to be access into the Premiership. You look at Exeter and they were well set up business-wise, but the job Tony Rowe and Rob Baxter have done is extraordinary and it’s still an old-fashioned rugby club.
“Over the last few years we’ve seen a different style of investor coming into professional rugby and it would be a folly if the access route was blocked off at a time like this.
“It’s not RPA policy, but my view is that I would like to see a ‘play-up, play-down’ situation where the top of the Championship plays the bottom of the Premiership.”
Premiership clubs argue that a moratorium would allow their businesses time to develop on and off the field. Hopley fears that could prove counter-productive, although he accepts the London Welsh disaster must not be repeated.
“Yes you’d like certainty around security of tenure, but you also have to create ambition within that structure for other ambitious clubs,” he said. “You need access, which in turn creates hope, which in turn brings investment; and it would be awful to see a two or three-tier Aviva Premiership start to develop because there is no longer the excitement of promotion and relegation.
“On the flip-side, you’ve seen what’s happened at London Welsh and that’s been a miserable experience for all their players. Whatever we do, we can’t have a repeat of that because it doesn’t do anything for the game.”
Hopley, meanwhile, is close to agreeing a deal with Premiership Rugby (PRL) and the RFU that would give English clubs the best chance of retaining top home-grown talent in the face of booming wage packets in places like France and Japan.
He said: “Market forces are there but we’re all dead set on trying to keep the best players in England. It’s about competitive club salaries, strong national salaries and less tangible benefits around a strong player welfare programme.
“The threat of France and Japan is looming large and if players feel they should cash-in, good luck to them. But we have to protect the pipeline of talent and there are strong people coming through.
“We want them to think twice about going to France and that’s entirely within our gift. We’ve had progressive talks with the RFU and PRL.”
NEALE HARVEY