As the BUCS Super Rugby tournament kicked off this week, it remains hard to escape the feeling that university rugby in the UK is only going to get bigger. The way rugby is right now, with the financial hardship facing professional rugby post-Covid, not only is the university game a thriving place to be, but potentially a prudent pathway for the future.
As uncapped England squad member and Cardiff Met graduate Tom Pearson told The Telegraph earlier this year: "More and more players are being taken out of there on professional contracts year on year.
"Not only is [BUCS Super League] a good standard, but it’s probably quite a good financial decision as well for clubs."
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For those in charge of Wales' three universities playing BUCS rugby - Cardiff Met, Cardiff University and Swansea University - that's a sentiment that they'd probably agree with.
"Rugby at the minute, financially, you can't contract 25 international players," admits Swansea's coach, former Dragons and Ospreys front-row Hugh Gustafson. "It's just not possible.
"And not every player is ready at 18. Some need time in a structured environment to mature. You've got to buy them time.
"Some guys haven't been in that environment with conditioning. Having that pathway and seeing the regions looking internally, knowing that there's players in university who can step up - like a dual-pathway system - is important.
"I think in the days of that route of college, academy, Premiership and then regional, maybe it was the case that some 18-year-olds would feel they've missed the boat. But now it's so intertwined that you can go to university and pick up a contract later.
"Some guys haven't matured or hit their peak at 18, so the more we can open up our pathways, the better. It's not a straight line and there's more than one exit point."
However, as Cardiff Met director of rugby Danny Milton stresses, the universities don't want to be see as "being in competition with the academies". "Academies have a place and they are brilliant."
For many, as Milton admits, academies are the perfect place to aid their development. But the universities' focus goes beyond what happens on the pitch.
"What we want is for them to get that degree as well. That’s the nice part. We can look at things holistically and are not governed by the numbers going through to the senior team, as they are in an academy.
"If you ask all our performance players what they want to do in the future, they’ll say they want to be a pro rugby player. Three or four of them might, but what else are you going to do? There's so many more jobs in sport you can have. We can offer a much wider landscape.
"That’s a big advantage of the university pathway. We get guys who rock up and just want to play university rugby. Alex Dombrandt came in and he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to play rugby or cricket. After a while, he realised he didn’t have time to play cricket! So, that’s exciting."
There's a lot else that is exciting. Competing against the biggest universities in England cannot be overstated, with Met in particular enjoying success last year as they finished third in the league. They fell short against Exeter in the semi-final, but the continued growth of each Welsh side in the competition is encouraging.
Big crowds are also part and parcel of the university experience. As Gustafson explains: "A Wednesday night on campus without a rugby match is quite busy, so you can imagine what it's like when you add the match in!
"Ultimate frisbee gets a huge crowd in, so does equestrian and checkers. It's about who they represent.
"It's become less of a rugby match and more of an Student Union event. We're growing quick and BUCS are almost pushing into that American style of college sport.
"We'll never have 80,000 in the crowds, but they want travelling fans, lots of noise and plenty of fun. It's a vision in a way."
"It's that disconnect," adds Cardiff University director of rugby Alan Flowers. "In university, there's a connection. It doesn't matter what sport you do, you wear those colours."
For all the universities and their coaches, one of the recurring messages is giving guys who might have dropped out of the system elsewhere another shot. All three are aware they are working to different key performance indicators than the regional academies and that gives them a freedom to do things a little differently.
"We try to focus on those boys who have been released and need that second chance," explains Flowers. "We give them a structured environment to thrive elsewhere.
"You want them to make mistakes and have fun in the knowledge we won't burn them in four or five years' time. It's understanding that it's that dual pathway.
"We're getting those boys ready for what comes after in three or four years, as there's not always a professional contract waiting. I'm not sure that the support network is there in the academies. Boys are being sold a dream and then getting thrown out.
"With us, it's (that support) wrapped around them. With exam times and different pressures, we learn when to back off guys when they're struggling."
Sometimes, that difference in performance indicators can have a downside too. ”We'll measure things like if they've completed their degree and if they're good people,” says Milton.
He adds that professional rugby doesn’t always value those things in the same way. He points to the fact that they currently have a Dragons academy scrum-half who is likely fourth or fifth choice at the university.
“Now, if you’re an academy manager, would you be happy with that? Some people are, some aren’t.
“It should be ok, as he’ll play every week as we have 12 teams and there’s nothing to stop him working his way up. He could soon be first-choice. But there’s also nothing to stop them taking him out of our system and throwing him into a Premiership club if they want.”
Gustafson is in agreement that such an environment gets you ready for professional rugby. “You don’t simply walk in and become the next Alun Wyn Jones.”
Flowers admits that having players taken out of the system is the biggest problem they face. “They’re not leaving lads in there.”
“That lad has probably been made to think he’s the next Gareth Edwards and will go straight into the men’s game. That little bit of grounding will help manage his expectations.
"We're too small a country to have just one pathway. But it's about someone recognising we need that support and giving us that."
Support, like second chances, is a shared theme between Milton, Gustafson and Flowers. BUCS has grown at a rate of knots in recent years.
When Gustafson, who was voted BUCS coach of the year last season, started in the role, he admits he had to chase scholarships. Now, with the profile of the league, that's no longer the case.
It's understandable why. Playing in front of raucous crowds, the ability to study for a degree that could help you later in life, matches that have a rivalry and a meaning with relegation part of BUCS and, most enticingly of all, a potential route to the professional game. It looks like the perfect proving ground.
But that rapid expansion has created its own set of pressures. "The speed of growth has been phenomenal," explains Milton. "The infrastructure isn’t there to keep pace in some ways.
"We've gone from about 180 players to 440. What does that mean to the university in terms of bums on seats and financial value at £9,000-a-student? We've got to try to shove those figures in people's faces to try and get some additional support.
"We use a lot of volunteers. Loughborough have a 40K a year rugby administrator. We have Amber (a volunteer administrator who has spent the past year working with the Dragons). She’s better as a person and maybe in the job, too, but that doesn’t mean it’s right."
As Gustafson admits, BUCS makes it a "different beast". He jokes that he's still washing the bibs, but it's probably not far off the truth.
"You get 80 or 90 applicants so that means your second team is housing potential future regional players but you've got a student coach leading them as there's not the financial support there to meet the demands at times. It almost becomes a professional rugby club in a university, without the professional funding.
"I think it's a perfect storm at the minute. Danny and the success of Cardiff Met will make us or break us as Welsh universities. We need support sooner or later."
The three universities all tend to offer relatively different courses, which does have the added bonus that they rarely find themselves fighting for the same players in terms of recruitment. However, at Cardiff University, Flowers admits that the lack of sport-specific courses - the sort that Cardiff Met offers in spades - means that while they are sorted for physios, they're without an analyst.
The links the universities have with the professional sides are largely working well, with Gustafson stating that the Ospreys have realised that one academy alone couldn't "fulfil the supply and demand", while the Scarlets are also aware that it is on their doorstep. But none of them believe the pathway - and the future of the students - should be defined by geography.
"That would be my thing for Cardiff Rugby is that you don't have to work with just us or just Cardiff University, you can have links with everyone," says Milton. "In fact, my argument would be that we've got a responsibility for our players to go anywhere. If you're linked to one club and they've got three good scrum-halves, your scrum-half won't go there.
"We should have links with everyone. They should have the chance to go anywhere, a network of clubs at different levels, places they can all go to add value."
For each of the clubs, the hope is that they'll kick on from last season and continue to provide young players with a strong route ahead - either into the professional game or just into general working life. BUCS, it seems, is only going to get bigger as clubs cotton on to the fact that there's a steady stream of players coming through.
However, for the Welsh universities, it's clear that their own growth needs to match that of the league. The key, as ever in Welsh rugby, is support.
"Although we're looking at performance and we'd love to create the next regional and Welsh player, it's about the opportunities outside of the playing game," adds Flowers. "That's what the university offers.
"But we need support from the hierarchy. We're at a crossroads here where it could either go huge or die off."
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