Plenty of arguments are raging in rugby union and the next big battle is for the soul of the English game. There is recognition on all sides that something has to change. As Bristol’s director of rugby, Pat Lam, said last week, it has become a source of global curiosity. “Everyone around the world knows England have the most rugby players and the most resources,” he said. “They’re envious. So how are we struggling? You have to ask the question.”
What suits Lam and his club’s wealthy owner, Steve Lansdown, however, does not necessarily suit a Premiership rival like Newcastle, whose playing budget for next season is understood to have shrunk appreciably. Where in all this are the most fundamental of questions? What is best for the health of the whole game, not just the high-profile apex of the pyramid, and what, exactly, is ultimately the aim of the entire exercise?
