Roll-up Roll-up its Circus Time

Halliford all the "surveys" they did re: Future Comps aren't worth squat. Low sample size, skewed questions and moreover ignoring the "negative" points which disagreed with the FCS/RFU Comps plans. 

The Webinars on the other hand showed strong support against lower 15s entry in two of the four regions. The North was something like 75% against and similar for the Cups (which at the time was going to be straight knockouts.

CF makes a good point about the Final venue, the FCS document makes this statement on cups.

7. Cup Rugby As indicated above there is a strong demand from players for a varied diet of competition through both league and cup rugby. Feedback has also indicated that an issue with the existing delivery of cup rugby is that it clashes with the intensity and frequency of leagues, often leading to high numbers of walkovers or cancellations in early rounds. This feedback was pivotal in establishing the recommendations for new cup competitions at Level 5 and below. The key features of the proposed new cup competitions are: • Delivered after league season – all cups will take place after the league season has been completed. This removes the burden and clash between league and cup games being integrated into the fixture schedule. Furthermore, a team’s finishing league position will qualify them into the relevant tier of competition at the level they are playing at. For example, teams finishing 1st to 3rd will compete against teams finishing in the same positions from leagues across the country or region, ensuring meaningful matches. • Mid-season entry – entry into the cup (at all levels) will be optional and the deadline for teams submitting their entry will be mid-season (Jan/Feb). This will help support teams and players who may need breaks later in the season or have no interest or desire for the cup. Conversely for some teams this model maintains interest and excitement to the end of season for those who want or need more matches. • Pool competitions at Level 5 and top tier of Level 6 – teams will be grouped into pools, thus guaranteeing additional fixtures (minimum of 3 and maximum of 6) including with additional fixtures at home. The winners of each pool will then progress into the knockout rounds. • Waterfall competitions at bottom tier of Level 6 and Level 7 and below – teams will be drawn against one another in straight knockout matches. Teams losing in the 1st round will drop down into a Plate competition while 1st round winner’s progress. This will guarantee at least two additional games for entrants. There may be opportunities to regionalise in the early rounds to remove the burden of significant travel for some teams in the early stages. • Community Game finals day - the intention would be to try to ensure all cup competitions culminate in a National Community Game Finals Day held at prestigious grounds to provide a memorable experience for teams and players. 

So, no Twickenham final and as Robb says the memories that go with that. Now if that was included in the surveys how many of those players surveyed would have been positive about Cups?

Past Nat. Cups = Treading the hallowed grounds of TW2, FCS Cups = Birmingham Moseley? Sixways? somewhere central...... think you'll find a high percentage of players in the survey down in the South East (and the rest of the country) now fancy the cup a lot less if they aren't going to Twickers!

Another issue is how Level 7, presumably amateur, teams would feel playing a 2nd XV from a Level 3/4 Club which could have semi-professional retained players in their side. 

My own conclusion with the NCA work was not to allow 2nd XVs into the main League structure but to enhance and support the existing 2nd XV Leagues/Merit Tables. For example there could be an end-of-season play-off between the League leaders in each of the 4 Divisions. These matches would have to be played on the same dates as 1st XV League matches to avoid too many players being "dropped" but could provide some extra incentive.

The RFU did offer some years ago to provide administrative support to those Leagues and I'm not sure that got taken up. 

You may need to learn Francais if you want to play local.

They have not changed the league structure at the lower levels just promoted some teams and added in a sprinking of second teams without putting names on them. I cannot even guarantee they are the correct number of slots.

So Wimborne still get to go to Cornwall - but never play any Hampshire sides. (caveat it appears Ellingham and Ringwood II already play in the Dorset league so do play Wimborne III while E&R's first team play in Hampshire league both end up at level 9 in the new pyramid).

I am sure that with a little bit of coding and a few minutes of time on AWS they could have come up with new leagues that mimimised travel - either total distance or single journey. But that would have meant setting up a whole new set of league committees.