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Author Topic: Exclusive: Premiership clubs asked to close academies and switch to six regional talent hubs  (Read 1327 times)

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deadlyfrom5yardsout

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Plan drawn up by Edward Griffiths envisages players graduating to Championship and, after at least a year, qualifying for Premiership draft

By
Gavin Mairs, (Telegraph)


Premiership Rugby clubs are to be asked to replace their academy system with a network of six “world class regional hubs” as part of a radical plan to overhaul the development pathway in England, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

The move, praised as “the most significant innovation since the move to professionalism,” is one of the foundation stones of the new blueprint to remodel the Championship, drawn up by Ed Griffiths, the former Saracens chief executive.

Details emerged last week of the proposal to restructure the Championship, with a recommendation that the 12-team division be split into into a northern and southern conference, with promotion to the Premiership based on agreed criteria between the leagues rather than a first-past-the-post format.


However it is understood that the proposed new structure would also see the 13 Premiership academies replaced by six regional centres based at universities across the country and linked to two clubs in a modelled Championship.


Premiership clubs would then be able to select the best young English talent through an American-style draft each December and give them three-year contracts.

The 76-page proposal, which has been seen by Telegraph Sport, forecasts that Premiership clubs would save between £600,000 to £900,000 by closing their academies with the Championship clubs meeting the costs of providing the coaching, strength and conditioning and medical staff at the six hubs.

Players would be guaranteed around 30 competitive games per season and after one year would be eligible for the draft system in which each Premiership club would be given four picks from a pool of 60 players.

Griffiths, who has already met with Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union chief executive, and the professional rugby director, Conor O’Shea, is to make a formal presentation to the Premiership clubs next month after a series of informal discussions.

He is also exploring interest from broadcasters, sponsors and universities with the aim of establishing the new academies by the start of the 2021 season.

“This proposal tries to primarily find a purpose and a role for a sustainable Championship but what it also tries to do is to harness all the resources available to the game into a more streamlined, integrated pathway for younger players,” Griffiths told Telegraph Sport.

“The plan for the new pathway, which would remain under RFU control, would harness universities’ facilities in a hub that would include other educational establishments and crucially Championship clubs, because Championship clubs can provide game time.

“There are many failings of the current system but the main one is that the best young players in the country in the Premiership academies spend too much time holding tackle bags and the A League, which I understand is not going to take place next season, has been a pretty poor competition.

“Young players in this structure would get world-class rugby coaching in six regional academies, they would get their parallel education and training from universities and associated educational institutions and they would get their game time with the Championship clubs.

“That to me is a streamlined, integrated solution where everyone in the game is working together to provide the youngster the best opportunity.”

Player welfare is also central to the vision, which has the working title TEC – The English Championship, with a comprehensive programme outlined with “game-leading” regulations including concussion protocols, use of painkillers, rest periods and workload monitoring.

“At some point the game is going to have to get serious about protecting players,” Griffiths added. “This will go further on player welfare than any other league in the world at the moment”

Griffiths, backed unanimously at a meeting of the Championship clubs last Wednesday to explore a new arrangement,  acknowledges however that persuading the clubs to give up their academies will not be an easy task.

“We have not ploughed all this money into our academy to hand it over to the Championship,” said one source.

The estimated cost of running the new Championship model, including funding player salaries and the new academies, is £15.6 million in the first year, which would require significant investment from both the RFU and Premiership Rugby on top of broadcasting and sponsorship revenues. Griffiths expects the requirement for external funding to reduce year-on-year.

“The challenge is to persuade people to change,” said Griffiths. “Change is always viewed with suspicion and ulterior motives but I genuinely think this is a win for everybody – the RFU, the Premiership clubs, the Championship and younger players.”


JammyGit

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This is a tough one. Instinctively I don't trust Griffiths at all for obvious reasons, and on the face of it this seems like a huge loss and a gamble for the Premiership clubs. Additionally, the Championship sides picking up the bill seems to fly in the face of their financial realities. But the ultimate goal seems a good one - somewhat similar to the successful NZ domestic system - and I would be largely in favour of it. I just don't get how it happens without major drawbacks.
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Quinky

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It looks like a mixed bag. There's mention of players training in parallel with education - but what if they don't want to go for further education? Would that be a compulsory element? FWIW I think it's a good thing, but would players have the choice?

poorfour

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Like JG, I was ready to hate this. Ed Griffiths isn't exactly the person I'd have picked to safeguard the future of rugby.

However, there's a lot of good food for thought in this. I like the idea of a more centralised player development pathway - it's likely to be more inclusive and (for instance) be less likely to reject potentially good players just because there's someone in the same position ahead of them in the pipeline.

I also like that it's tied to both University and Championship experience - ensures that they get good game time but also a degree so that they have a route into a post-rugby career.

A draft process also seems worth exploring. I have long been an admirer of how the NFL draft ensures that the league remains competitive and a few teams don't dominate year on year, and I could see something similar working for rugby. It would give teams the chance to prioritise the skill sets they need but also ensure a fair distribution of talent across the teams. It's not a perfect system - for one it appears that it would reduce player loyalty to the clubs that nurtured them - but it's definitely worth a look.

The big question is the one raised at the end of the article: how to persuade clubs to transfer the academies they've spent a lot of money on into the future centralised system. It's likely to require a compromise around transition - perhaps a cutover period to start in a couple of years' time, whereby future intakes go into the centralised system while a final generation of players work their way through the academy.
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Quinky

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I also like that it's tied to both University and Championship experience - ensures that they get good game time but also a degree so that they have a route into a post-rugby career.


Yes, this is the part that I focused on too. But how would this affect a future version of Marcus Smith, who's ready to play Prem rugby at barely 18 years old? Unless there were some option for clubs to take on the education element too. But my reading is that the players will have had to go through a year of the new setup before being allowed to join a club?

raedarius

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Based on the headline detail alone, it makes a lot of sense.  Haven't got time to read the report right now - what does it say about routes to academy for youth players (club EPDGs, school/home/club links to 'counties' etc)? 

Mayor West

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Would the draft system stop players going to clubs they WANT to play for if they are just picked by whichever club has their turn. Also the point about Championship clubs footing the bill when they’ve had their funding halved seems optimistic.

raedarius

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Would the draft system stop players going to clubs they WANT to play for if they are just picked by whichever club has their turn. Also the point about Championship clubs footing the bill when they’ve had their funding halved seems optimistic.

The current system stops players going to the clubs they want to play for, unless they are lucky enough to be in the catchment area or manufacture a route by picking a club that feeds to the preferred club.  If you live/study/play in Middlesex, it's London Irish for you (assuming they want you).
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deadlyfrom5yardsout

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So the Championship Clubs dont have to bear the brunt of the cost, perhaps Prem Clubs should pay a fee in for any players they take in the draft? After all, they wont have had to underwrite their own Academies.

poorfour

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So the Championship Clubs dont have to bear the brunt of the cost, perhaps Prem Clubs should pay a fee in for any players they take in the draft? After all, they wont have had to underwrite their own Academies.

It's implied in the article that the Premiership clubs will be helping (with the RFU) to fund the academies and the whole thing is part of a new financial structure designed to make the Championship more sustainable.
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Banstead Quin

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Although this would seem a sensible choice, I worry about it putting yet another decision maker in the way of someone progressing. At present if a local coach/rugby master believes someone is worth looking at by Quins, he'd contact the academy director and a scout would be sent to look at them and then make a decision.

Under this proposal, the Super-Hub director will make that decision and as he has no team affiliation, he may decide that back rows should be more like Tom Curry than Chris Robshaw and decide to only take those kinds of players into the hub. It then means that they are driving the direction of the quality/skillet coming into the clubs.

As the hubs are also regional, we'll be sharing them with Sarries/Not Nots etc so the needs of the clubs will be different...
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poorfour

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Although this would seem a sensible choice, I worry about it putting yet another decision maker in the way of someone progressing. At present if a local coach/rugby master believes someone is worth looking at by Quins, he'd contact the academy director and a scout would be sent to look at them and then make a decision.

Under this proposal, the Super-Hub director will make that decision and as he has no team affiliation, he may decide that back rows should be more like Tom Curry than Chris Robshaw and decide to only take those kinds of players into the hub. It then means that they are driving the direction of the quality/skillet coming into the clubs.

As the hubs are also regional, we'll be sharing them with Sarries/Not Nots etc so the needs of the clubs will be different...

The alternative view on selection is that today, the clubs take players into the academy based on perceived need. IF you have a promising tighthead, say, and Quins have several young senior players and a decent pipeline in the academy (which is a fair summary of today's position), then the player might be overlooked even if he or she is a bright prospect on a national level.

A centralised academy system would have the ability to look at the talent coming through nationally and make decisions at that level.

And the proposed draft system means that the regional academies wouldn't be "shared" with other local clubs, they'd be "shared" with the whole Premiership. Clubs would get to pick their preferred academy candidates based on where they are in the draft. We could use our picks to select a winger from the North East or a lock from Cornwall, for example

In the NFL, the draft has become integral to how squads are built. A team who finished bottom of their division (who will therefore have an early draft pick to compensate) might use that to pick a top prospect, or they might trade that with another team for additional picks or players. It leads to an evening up of squads that ensures the league as a whole stays competitive.
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Quinky

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Have Sarries insisted that they get the first 32 picks of any draft?  ;D
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Banstead Quin

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I get that Poorfour but at the moment of we see a good youngster in the 'North East' or 'Cardiff Met' we can still go and get them now without a Super-Hub being needed so that will mean wingers in our regional hub will be ignored if we shop elsewhere. Surely a major point of the hub is to give local youngsters a chance at a localish club, else it's no different to now. I'm all for improving and giving youngsters multiple options but I don't see how it's an improvement on what we already have.

The draft system works in America because its been in place for nearly 100 years so is part of the sport and clubs/youngsters know it exists. With a ringfenced Prem it can start to work OK over time but it still doesn't remove the hub director(s) deciding what kind of players they want. If say Mark McCall went on to be one his personal view would be that a more attritional, physical game is preferable to a flair style so that's what he would look for and produce which would benefit some clubs over others and limit chances for youngsters.

It's a bigger debate I know but I'd like to see some more detail and have a few QA's first.

grimsbyquin

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what happens to the late developers,who are not good enough as a teenager but become a good prospect in there twenties are they left to fester in the lower leagues with no hope of advancement?

 

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