In Rugby Paper December 29, Paul Rees refers to Exeter’s Rob Baxter, whose club were bottom of the Premiership after eight successive defeats.
Exeter are the outstanding example of how a club could benefit from an open-ended league structure in which clubs could rise and fall from top to bottom – including the now-ringfenced Premiership.
Nick Cain suggests that French rugby shows how a vibrant, open-ended league structure can provide huge interest – unlike in England, where the fortunes of the ring-fenced Premiership club provoke little interest in areas such as Yorkshire and Cornwall.
In hi...