Cambridge and Chinnor ruled out of Premiership Cup
EXCLUSIVE
LAST year's bottom Championship side Cambridge and newly promoted Chinnor are to be excluded from the 2024/25 Premiership Cup.
The competition's organisers, Premiership Rugby, have opted for a 20-team competition rather than the 22-team format last year. This leaves the two lowest-ranked Championship clubs out in the cold.
The upside for the ten Championship clubs invited to take part is that they will now host more fixtures against Premiership clubs.
Last season Championship clubs were at home to Premiership clubs in only ten of the group stage fixtures. This is less than 20 per cent, despite having more clubs involved.
The Rugby Paper understands the competition regulations are set to be signed off this week following the Championship clubs' AGM on Tuesday. The new rules will attempt to mitigate against severely weakened teams being fielded by Premiership clubs. How this is enforced remains to be seen.
Growing the game
Involvement in the Premiership Cup has been one of the few positives for second-tier clubs. Fixtures against English rugby's elite help boost gate receipts as well as put the league's players in the shop window.
And for top flight clubs, it has added some colour to an increasingly staid fixture list.
Coventry, however, attracted just over 4,000 for the visit of Saracens. All other Championship clubs that benefited from having a Premiership club come to town reported bigger than average crowds.
While the make-up of the groups has still to be announced, the dates for next season's Premiership Rugby Cup were released last month.
Next season's competition will begin in November with the first games taking place over the weekend of November 1-3, with further rounds in February, before the quarter-finals (February 28-March 2), semi-finals (March 7-9) and the final over the weekend of March 14-16.
