Do us all a favour and fill it in 

And ideally support the idea of more teams in the Championship.

With promotion and relegation without conditions

And less long gaps in the fixture list.........zzzzz

Yes -  https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90391408/Championship-Review" rel="nofollow - RFU Championship (alchemer.eu)

It does not actually ask anything about format.

It is a typical marketing thing - no real substance.

I think the final question gives you ample scope to set out what you'd like to see

I'm to be convinced...

I filled it out a couple of hours-ish ago, and, as I think you did, went to some great lengths to make my points about substantial expansion of the league, plus guaranteed promotion and relegation, etc, but they've already set their moronic stall out on all of that, so...

But we'll see. Maybe.

Jameson's fuelled.

It's been a crap week(s) 

There's only 2 questions to be answered as far as I can see -

1) How many clubs do you want in your League?

2) Do you want a cup competition?

These prevarifications merely prolong the unknown implications for every club down the pyramid which appears to them to be a complete irrelevance 

That told me everything I needed to know about that 'consultation'.

To be honest I don't care what the eventual outcome is anymore - just want it sorted so the the rest of the pyramid (2000+clubs?) know what lies ahead

I think that's pretty fair actually, a huge amount of the pyramid below the Championship is in limbo entirely because they haven't got their act together about level 2 yet. Leaving aside level three for a moment (it's one division, so despite not having a clue how many are going up or down it's manageable), the potential for chaos at levels 4 and 5 (with complete uncertainty *and* the added fun of level transfers) is the main pain point of the current shambles. 

It makes most difference at level 3 where it is between zero and seven clubs being promoted.

By level 6 that is a difference of one club per division, and below that less than that.

Now I do not believe the championship will stay at 10 teams, but nor did I think it likely that London Scottish would leave

Yes but I'd argue (as a supporter of a National 1 club so I'm not downplaying it for our teams) that the fact National 2 is simultaneously going to three leagues from two is going to create more problems. I'd argue that just about the worst place to potentially end up at the end of this season is the bottom of National 1, where you simultaneously don't know if you're going down, and if so to what/where...

At least the new level 4 will be run by the NCA/NLR.

As far as I am aware, there is no indication who will run the new level 5.

It cannot be the current DOCs as they will cross division boundaries.

What makes you think anyone will get a vote on anything to do with this? The fact that the box-ticking exercise labelled a 'survey' included no questions about the format of the season or competitions should have been enough of a clue.

Presumably, the current eleven clubs in FDR have a vote.

Though Ealing and London Scottish might abstain for different reasons.

This.

Making no assumptions - presumably there's no plan, in which case please can they get on with making one, or there is a plan, in which case please can they share it, or there are several contending plans, which they need to decide between, in which case please can they get on with making the f ing decision?

At the moment especially at levels 3 and 4 every club is existing in a state of Schrodinger's League Pyramid.

Unless, secret option D, all the clubs at levels 2-5 do in fact know what's going on and this is the first plan in the history of the RFU that no one at any of those levels, at all, has leaked...

1) How many clubs do you want in your League? 

2) Do you want a cup comp running alongside?

Just decide please then the rest of us can get on with running our clubs accordingly

1) How many clubs do you want in your League?   14

2) Do you want a cup comp running alongside?   No.

Does that help?

I believe there are multiple answers to those two questions, otherwise they would have given us the answer.

However if the amount of central funding on offer is the same for 14 clubs as it is for 11 (I must stress “if” as I have no inside knowledge ), that is no small issue.

In addition, do the Championship clubs know what the Nat 1 front runners think about the prospect of competing in the Championship week after week? Have any of these conversations take place 

I do not know about frontrunners, but Cambridge are certainly looking to doing that as soon as they can. The coaches and players want to test themselves at the highest level they can reach, it is up to the club to give them the platform. The only sides I cannot remember Cambridge playing competitively are Bedford, Pirates and Nottingham - the other eight we played on their way up. We regularly beat Ampthill. It has been a while since we beat Coventry or Ealing. London Scottish I think we only beat in the cup, the others we might have got a bonus point. 

Rosslyn Park have been a big club for a long time, Cinderford are the hard men of the forest, and nobody goes there lightly, Sale FC cannot be promoted from the Championship due to their links with Sharks, so they will know what it is about. Rams are the new boys, but they made it plain they will ride this wave of success to wherever it takes them. Caldy will sit in their wooden hut and play the 'we are a little  local club' card - and surprise everyone. Chinnor will make you work against that wind in the second half.

I doubt any of the Championship clubs will regard visiting any of those grounds as an easy trip.

And of course, when I say somewhere is tough to visit, I only mean from whistle to whistle.

It has nothing to do with the welcome off the pitch.

It’s a bit much pointing the finger at the Championship clubs. Let’s assume that the general preference is for 14 clubs and no Cup.

We still don’t know whether the winner of the Championship will be welcomed into the tender bosom of the Premiership and we also have the intended move by London Scottish. Presumably the latter have been given a deadline to sort themselves out.

Depending on the above 2 factors, we don’t know whether the implications for Nat 1 would be 3, 4 or 5 coming up.

If the Nat 1 clubs have clear plans and strategies for the future, then great. There are posters here with much more knowledge of these clubs than me.

Obviously there is even more uncertainty for the clubs in Nat 2, but to be fair there is always some lack of clarity until the end of the season when the relegation and promotion issues are sorted out and the implications for level transfers become clear.

I can remember when the current Nat 2 North leaders were Redruth’s closest away fixture in 2 South.

Level 5 will be run by same people who run level 4 NCA/NLR, as i understand it 

Always wondered why this is the case at L5

Will the winner of the Championship be promoted? We don’t know.

Are London Scottish off or not? We don’t know.

I think we (Pirates) have been in the Championship or equivalent since 2003/4.

I remember this because the following two seasons we got to the play off semi finals in the championship, and I recall in 2013/14 we beat Ealing 79-9 and they were relegated back to Nat 1 for the 2014/15 season, but bounced back immediately and have been in the Championship since 2015/16.

Nottingham have been back in the Championship since 2004/05.

Penzance & Newlyn (now Cornish Pirates) won the National 2 (now National 1) Championship in 2002/03 and have played at level 2 (as Cheshire Exile said)  since 2003/04.

Bedford lost the Premiership play off to us in 1999/2000 and have been at level 2 ever since. They are currently the longest serving club at that level.

 You posted that Sale FC cannot be promoted from the Championship because of their links with Sale Sharks. This is not true. They are totally separate clubs, although they share a good relationship when it comes to d/r and loan players. Sale FC own Heywood Road and the Carrington complex and are one of the wealthiest members clubs in the country.

Skalpy - I know they are legally separate, but I still do not believe it would be acceptable to have both Sale clubs in the Premiership.

I have not been up to Heywood Rd since we avoided relegation a couple of seasons ago, must get back - it is a great place to watch rugby.

 

Salford Red Devils are imminently moving to Salford City - who are moving/buying into the AJ Bell... Salford Red Devils will then have primacy of tenure and control of F&B in their own ground, though the 5k capacity doesn't give them much room to grow.

Essentially everyone's moving round one (except Sharks) - the AJ Bell is going to be RU and football, and Salford City are vacating their current ground for RL.