Friday 28 October 2016 10:00, UK
I have always enjoyed the way Danny Cipriani has played, and feel he has not had as much Test rugby as I believe he warrants, but I am nonetheless excited to see Alex Lozowski in the England squad.
For me it speaks volumes of England's depth, as well as Eddie Jones' willingness to pluck players from outside the traditional big names. With this weekend's Championship game on our screens, depth is something that has been particularly on my mind all week.
Recent talk of scrapping the promotion play-offs in the Championship has me concerned about what will happen to the game on our shores. I know business is business, but rugby is still a sport and therefore has to remain competitive at all levels in order to maintain its appeal. We must keep the promotion-relegation system if we are to retain our integrity.
As the wage gap keeps increasing, towards arguably north of £8 million-a-year, we are in danger of pricing our game out of the reach of those not currently involved at the upper levels.
In the Championship game on Sunday you will have your first view of promotion favourites London Irish. When they were relegated at the end of last season, the Exiles had a large parachute payment to help them cope with the drop, while the rest of the division is funded by the RFU on a figure of around £500,000. You can already see the huge disparity between the leagues, and the void is something that should concern the RFU as well as the PRL.
You need a highly competitive league beneath the Premiership, and the Championship needs something to play for right until the end of the season, which the play-off system offers. Without the play-offs you potentially have a team securing promotion into the Premiership by Easter.
London Irish are currently unbeaten, and with the squad they have, should stretch out to a healthy lead over the next few months. I would add that Yorkshire Carnegie are also unbeaten, and might have something to say about London Irish stretching out to an unassailable lead! For the sake of a competitive league, I certainly hope they do.
If one team does end up climbing the summit early, but there are still play-off places available at the end of the season, then teams who can't finish top of the league still have something to play for right up to May, which makes for a healthy league.
In some leagues where there is no promotion and relegation, the end of the season sees a higher number of dead rubbers.
Below the Championship, according to recent reports the RFU are looking to place restriction on National 1 teams, to stop clubs from paying out more than £150,000 in total salary. That number then reduces to £100,000 in National 2 and £50,000 in National 3. How is that fair, and further than that, how is that even policed?
That will stop competition for promotion into the Premiership, which stifles progression and achievement in the wider game. My mantra is that if you're good enough to secure promotion then you are good enough, no one team deserves it more than the others.
The vast funding for TV deals and club-and-country packages need to be distributed as evenly as possible, not just top-heavy.
We have a great game, there is some fantastic talent operating in the Championship, don't ruin what is a progressive league by under-funding it. The rich should not get richer in this great game of ours, we don't want a cartel or a mini-FIFA to dictate its future.
