Why 10 teams?

No slight intended on Blackheath - in my head they're more the east side of south London than East London. When they say East London I was more expecting they really mean Inner Essex....

I remember going to Headingly many years ago - Leeds had to beat The Pirates that day to secure promotion to the Premiership (remember that?). There were about 1,000 people in the ground, probably a hundred were Pirate supporters. The next day Leeds Rhinos played (can't remember their opponents) and there were 15,000 in. That's what they are up against in Leeds.

Wow, that’s out priced me as a retired pensioner. In comparison I can buy a season ticket for the Emirates Lions 23/24 season includes URC/Curry Cup/Champions cup home games starting at £41.50 for the budget package rising to £126 for Gold. All season tickets include entry to the Springboks in July, plus discounts on flights, hotels and a Lions tee-shirt or replica jersey (depending on the package selection). Also entry to all Lions Cricket domestic competitions.

The RFU have outpriced the less wealthy fans at Internationals games and it’s creeping into club prices with lack of central funding. Sadly I won't be watching the Championship at those prices, I'd rather sit in a sunny stadium with a cold Windhoek and save the airfare money.

Definitely not! The franchise idea is only an idea to create Level 2 Clubs in under-represented areas. It is an idea which is being discussed but on which no decision has been made and it would not, as I understand it, apply to existing Clubs or even be open to existing Clubs. It is to increase engagement with rugby, if possible, in areas which have little engagement at present.

You only suspect?

Too many schools were forced to do that.

Without getting into the politics, we all agree it was a stupid decision.

Which means we need to shuttle the pupils to a playing field - which eats into time and adds to costs.

Or do what can be done within the facilities the school has.

But it does not mean that offering all pupils a taste of rugby should not be an ambition.

Obviously, touch or tag at infant schools - moving to full contact in line with the age grade laws.

Otherwise we will continue to draw from an ever decreasing pond.

Without being Conor O'Shea and able to tell you what his options are I think they look at it more like MLS (Major League Soccer) in the USA, or more like the original Football league in Victorian era.

There would be a professional league of X clubs.  Membership of that league would be guaranteed, there would be no automatic relegation from it.

Membership of that league would be expanded by selling places in it to interested parties. Existing historic clubs could bid.  Totally new enterprises could bid.  In English RFU they'd inevitably pick the worst bids because the leaders went to the right schools, but let's park that for a second.

Non-interested historic clubs would continue to play in existing leagues, albeit likely downgraded if the ambitious clubs had all been added to be members of the professional league.

This is how the original football league in this country operated originally.  There were 12 clubs who wanted a guaranteed number and type of fixtures at decent grounds, so organised themselves into a ring fenced league.  Clubs joined & left it as finances allowed.  It merged with another such league (called the Football Alliance) to create two divisions with promotion & relegation between them, but nothing at the bottom.  As the popularity of football spread it added extra divisions, first a north & south league, then combined into the third & fourth divisions.  In the 70s the best "non-league" clubs created the conference, that is now basically a 5th division of "league football" in all but name.

I think all the RFU want to do with the future second tier is ensure that there is a geographical spread of clubs with decent facilities that would require minimum upkeep if a club was promoted to the top tier, so none of those continued end of season arguments about meeting MSCs... I would expect them to be revised down as part of any new deal. 

So no forced clubs, no new clubs just 'invites' to existing clubs with good grounds in certain regions to fill perceived voids. Maybe something about Player development and Womens rugby too. 

You might think that, I could not possibly comment.

We would have had to institute a national cup, to run alongside the county ones, ideally for the Calcutta Cup as the donors intended - and a decent set of leagues.

We would still have had to fight the "rugby is too dangerous" brigade, that got a lo of schools to adopt soccer.

But if someone had come up with rugby pools, there might have been mass interest in the results.