An uphill battle for Champ winners

AMI the only person who thinks the idea of the Championship setting up a new idea of multiple play-offs to decide the club that wins the Champ, as it will now be called, before facing a duo of challenging home and away matches against the bottom club of the Premiership is a no win situation?

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Those final two matches are set to favour the Premiership team, as they are purely based on a total points difference from a combination of both match scores.

Sadly, it will favour the Premiership clubs as they will be playing fewer fixtures throughout the season. First, the Premiership currently has just 10 teams compared to the revamped Champ which will have 14 from next season — including Worcester Warriors who have begun to build a squad under new head coach Matt Everard with former England flanker Matt Kvesic, Saracens prop Fraser Balmain and 32-cap Wales scrum-half Lloyd Williams signed up.

Second, the bottom team in the Premiership will be able to rest its players in preparation for those decisive matches, while the Champ clubs will still be battling for the chance to actually win their league and then take part in that final contest.

Even then there is no certainty that promotion will actually take place, with the minimum operational standards that are in place, despite the supposed four-year grace time that was agreed to allow promoted clubs the time to upgrade stadiums in order to meet all the criteria.

Another question is, will the relegated Premiership club still get the parachute payment money that will give them more money than the rest of the Champ clubs as a result of its previous Premiership membership?