Premiership II plans announced

Many years ago, when both clubs were in the second tier, the academy was taken away from The Pirates and given to Exeter because they had better facilities. This has meant that Exeter now hoover up all the top talent in Cornwall (mostly through their link up with Truro College). It is a shame that Cornish boys have to trek to Exeter to chase their dream of being a pro rugby player. The hope was that the new stadium in Truro would provide top class facilities and maybe convince the powers that be to nurture the talent in Cornwall rather than exporting it to England. Now, sadly, the stadium dream has died so the status quo remains.

I am surprised it has taken this long for the suggestions of a British and Irish League to emerge, I thought it would have been one of the first suggestions of CVC, once they bought into both leagues, to 'leverage' their investment and get some return from it. 

What makes the concept difficult is the South African involvement in the URC.  Would they (and the Italians) be included in any revamped competition?   Could we see a combined league but with conferences - (and maybe extended to include other countries - I'm not thinking of the logic here of Georgian or Spanish teams but that pipedream of the USA)?

Personally I don't see it happening in the short term - something will happen in the longer term, possibly once existing contracts end. 

The academies are like franchises - the licence to run it is granted by the RFU, and they carve up the county pathways to decide which clubs the young players will feed into. This is the main reason why clubs outside the Prem have closed their academies - their best players were being hoovered up by the system from around age 13.

It beats me why local clubs engage with the Academy system at all. You get an email each season encouraging coaches to bring their best players along to be vetted. If they do get into the pathway the likelihood is that they will be spat out by 17. By this time they are disheartened and had their fill of rugby.

Benefit to local club = Zero

Create your own academies that are club agnostic. If you have a great player then they at least have a choice of multiple clubs they could play with home or abroad. 

Meanwhile back at the ranch

Saints get it right, IMO, but it is harsh. 

They start at over 100 boys and trim to a handful at the end. And those handful aren't always in the starting 100. (T Freeman was dropped from Leicester academy)

Agreed  the champ has little/no negotiation power. I would give them nothing in PRL's place, and the RFU has been captured by people who are only interested in Twickenham revenue, and not by the health of Rugby in general.