Article in the Grauniad

So, reading through this it appears traditional Summer Tours will become a thing of the past. As the plans stand, we'd get a cycle of RWC, New Comp, B&I Lions, New Comp, RWC. Given the new comp relies on 6N teams playing 3 different opponents in the Summer, we'll only get a single-country tour in years when the B&I Lions tour. That precludes the teams touring Tier 1 countries as what point would there be sending a below-strength England squad to get thrashed by South Africa? You'd get tours to Japan, Argentina, maybe some involving teams like Fiji, Samoa, Canada, USA, etc, but a tour like this summers' one to Australia will disappear.

If in doubt, play some more games.

Given the potential for the Premiership to expand to 14 teams and that the URC and French leagues are already that size, I think the only way they can make sure that club league games don't overlap with International windows is that the leagues more away from a simple "every team plays every other team twice" model. There simply aren't enough weeks to fit it all (including the European comps) in.

Completely agree

28 weeks for the Prem
9 for Europe this year
7 for the 6N
3 for the AIs
5 weeks rest mandated by the PRA

Leaves a pre-season of 0 weeks.

Edit: it seems Europe will only be 8 weeks next season

Completely agree

28 weeks for the Prem
9 for Europe this year
7 for the 6N
3 for the AIs
5 weeks rest mandated by the PRA

Leaves a pre-season of 0 weeks.

Edit: it seems Europe will only be 8 weeks next season

Yep. I know I've banged this drum before, but I can see it switching to two conferences of 7 teams. Play Home & away gainst every team in your conference (12 games) Home OR away against every team in the other conference. Draw up the conferences so you can have a final cross-conference derby round (If we're in Conf A, put Sarries in Conf B. If we played them at home in the rest of the season, we play away in the derby round) That's another 8 fixtures with everyone guaranteed to have the same number of home regular season fixtures. Top 2 in each divisions standings qualify for the Semis. Conf A winner plays Conf B runner up & vice versa, and the Final adds another 2 weeks so the whole season is covered in 22 weeks, 2 less than it was prior to expansion.

Is it ideal? No. But it means every team plays every other team at least once. Every club has the same number of home fixtures (admittedly 10 rather than 11 or 12), and you actually free up a couple of w/es that are currently used.

Yep. I know I've banged this drum before, but I can see it switching to two conferences of 7 teams. Play Home & away gainst every team in your conference (12 games) Home OR away against every team in the other conference. Draw up the conferences so you can have a final cross-conference derby round (If we're in Conf A, put Sarries in Conf B. If we played them at home in the rest of the season, we play away in the derby round) That's another 8 fixtures with everyone guaranteed to have the same number of home regular season fixtures. Top 2 in each divisions standings qualify for the Semis. Conf A winner plays Conf B runner up & vice versa, and the Final adds another 2 weeks so the whole season is covered in 22 weeks, 2 less than it was prior to expansion.

Is it ideal? No. But it means every team plays every other team at least once. Every club has the same number of home fixtures (admittedly 10 rather than 11 or 12), and you actually free up a couple of w/es that are currently used.

Not sure about the idea of Derbies. Mainly because I’d guess Sale’s would be Newcastle (150 miles/2hr 41mins) rather than Wasps (102 miles/1hr 45 mins).

That said, the unintended consequence is that indirectly for this plan it makes more sense for Ealing to come up and for ring fencing:

Sale v Falcons - Northern Derby
Tigers v Saints - East Mids Derby
Worcester v Wasps - West Mids Derby
Bristol v Exeter - M5 Derby
Bath v Gloucester - SW Derby
Irish v Ealing - West London Derby
Sarries v Quins - London Derby

Swap Ealing for Pirates or Doncaster and it starts to fall apart a bit.

Not sure about the idea of Derbies. Mainly because I’d guess Sale’s would be Newcastle (150 miles/2hr 41mins) rather than Wasps (102 miles/1hr 45 mins).

That said, the unintended consequence is that indirectly for this plan it makes more sense for Ealing to come up and for ring fencing:

Sale v Falcons - Northern Derby
Tigers v Saints - East Mids Derby
Worcester v Wasps - West Mids Derby
Bristol v Exeter - M5 Derby
Bath v Gloucester - SW Derby
Irish v Ealing - West London Derby
Sarries v Quins - London Derby

Swap Ealing for Pirates or Doncaster and it starts to fall apart a bit.

If it were Pirates instead of Ealing, you could go with:

Sale v Falcons - Northern Derby
Tigers v Saints - East Mids Derby
Worcester v Wasps - West Mids Derby
Pirates v Exeter - The "Surfing & Seafood" Derby
Bath v Bristol  - The "Get your tractor orf my Land!" Derby
Irish v Gloucester - The "Colour Blind (red/Green)" Derby
Sarries v Quins - London Derby

For Doncaster, how about:
Doncaster v Falcons - Northern (Flat Cap & Whippets) Derby
Tigers v Saints - East Mids Derby
Worcester v Sale - West Mids Derby
Bristol v Exeter - M5 Derby
Bath v Gloucester - SW Derby
Irish v Wasps - The "Massive stadium too big for us!" Derby
Sarries v Quins - London Derby

Surely 2 Pro Leagues of say 10, properly funded by TV and RFU money wood be a better bet? 13/14 premier teams and 6 top championship if they want it? Premiership and championship, but with increased funding and exposure for the championship.