Fixtures, we have no idea of the format for the Championship, so heaven only knows when fixtures might be out  

The RFU have at least set a deadline for LI and Wasps to find their elbow with both hands and a map.

What odds on them extending it?

Pretty sure the PRL will not have anything to do with the Championships fixture list, I think the Arrrrrgh F U make a mess of that all on their own.

This is for France d2 of course?

Experience suggests they won't be with us soon. Over the last 10 seasons they've been issued 6 times between 22-25 June. There was one early year (2017 - 9 June) and one late one (2016 - 8 July). The other 2 years were Covid-affected: no summer announcement at all in 2020, and a late one (21 July) the following year.

On top of the trend above, there are quite a few uncertainties at present, as others have mentioned. All we've had so far is dates for the Prem/Champ Cup - 5 weekends starting 2nd w/e of Sept - and an indication the league will start on w/e of 21 Oct.

Regrets? When you have played your town cousins Blues in competition?

  

I think it's more that globally more people want to bet on West Indies v Sri Lanka than do on Bedford v Ampthill. On that basis it's got nothing to do with how many spectators are in the ground - the Sky Cricket channel will make its money from syndicating the broadcast.

We do not know, though we believe that the Prem cup needs 24 teams.

Which would imply they do.

In which case Esher should stay up - and so on.

Crikey.  11 in the Champ and 9 in the Prem...

or alternately the RFU could give a Championship place to a different club with no ground and no players that is currently a figment in Laurence Dallaglio's imagination.

Totally -  a team that wins 22 league games and losses out on point difference for promotion. RFU must promote a proper rugby club. 

Yes or run one or more teams below the main team or juniors or minis - clearly one which uses loan players cannot be a proper club unlike the other teams in the Championship which are kept afloat solely by wealthy businessmen who fund their club to keep them afloat. 

No wonder league rugby in England is in such a state. 

Makes sense except for National 1 finances 

If you follow Premiership precedent, they usually give the team that would have been relegated a reprieve. 

So you are saying every other Championship club is kept afloat solely by wealthy businessmen are you?

But on the point about who "should" or should not be in the Championship, it does seem to me as a biased observer that it says a lot about the state of the game that the club being relegated is the one 

* with its own ground

* with 4 Men's XVs (+Vets), 2 Women's TVs, Colts, Students, Juniors and Minis (approx 550)

* financially self-sustaining after the horror of the Premiership

* that has never used more than 3 and normally no more than 2 Loanees/DRs in a 23

* that has a substantial cash balance in the bank

* which has no wealthy owners (unless you count the entire membership/ownership corpus as being collectively wealthy, which I am sure it is)

* that does not pay unsustainable salaries to players but helps them have careers as well as playing at the highest possible level

* that competes with fully professional teams (most of the time, if not quite well enough) on two training sessions a week

* that sustains the spirit of rugby in its playing ethos

* that has cheap beer

* that tries to put up with the conduct of other clubs that behave, shall we say, not always in the most gentlemanly of ways, without too much moaning.

I am not saying nobody else has any of those factors, but nobody else has all of them. So all the other things people moan about (loans, sugar daddies, teams v clubs) do not apply to Richmond, but we are the ones who are dropping out.

Like I say, to me, that says a lot about the way rugby is heading. 

There is absolutely no place for well run clubs at the top levels of English rugby.

Embrace being back in the National League where rugby is honest!

Seriously though, it does seem to me that minimum standards are needed at Level 2 and Level 3. I know the Chair of NLR has strong views on this. Clubs should be more than one team, have a community presence and good facilities for both spectators and players. 

Absolutely nothing like the restrictions imposed by PRL on the Championship! Just trying to ensure that Clubs at semi-professional level provide the right facilities for players and spectators. Shame you can't see beyond the negative!

No doubt the PRL will say exactly the same thing about their rules.

To a certain extent Richmond have the benefit of a 10 million + catchment area, many of whom have been to schools where rugby is played. Again, many will be in full time employment and play for pleasure not necessarily personal advancement; hence no need for a large player cost base. There is also a cachet playing for long established London clubs. 

Cambridge played a pre-season match in September 1971 and received a hefty trouncing. I seem to remember being run through by Chris Ralston!

Football applies minimum standards down to the very lowest levels of the pyramid. Do you think that sport is also nothing to do with who wins and loses but just if your face fits and so is rotten to the core?

Or could it just be you have massively overreacted?

From what I was told yesterday at the Cambridge SGM.

No championship club has seen the Premiership Cup fixtures, so we are all working from the same rumours and some basic knowledge of how a round-robin has to work.

Championship fixtures are due out in mid-June, but we do not have a draft yet.

Everyone assumes we are going to a ten team Championship next season. So we expect two or three teams, to permit promotion, to be relegated. But there is no formal plan. 

People are assuming that London Irish are toast, so no relegation from the premiership next season - unless a miracle happens, and they permit one of us to be promoted.

There is no certainty on funding for this year, let alone next.

Cambridge have made some signings, but are not going to start making announcements until our DoR is back from his vacation. Then we will do a phased release of information to build excitement.

Cambridge will run a 2nd XV in a new Herts Merit League, as well as the 3rds in Eastern Counties.

I think my son played a few games for them around that time when based at a nearby barracks.

Don't believe that assumption is correct CC... & wouldn't expect the same minimum criteria to be in place for Prem/Champ Cup as for Prem league fixtures.

Has there been confirmation that the new Cup will have a mix of both Championship and Premiership clubs in the initial pools? 

My understanding is Champ clubs would also have 'home' games.

Given the various demonstrations of elasticity we have encountered from the game's governing bodies, having 2 sets of regulations/ minimum standards, 1 for the (top-flight) league and 1 for the (tiers 1/2) cup, doesn't seem especially implausible/outrageous...