Lamb support for Champ changes

PLYMOUTH Albion boss Ryan Lamb has welcomed the revised Champ Rugby format, which gives ambitious National 1 clubs potentially two opportunities to win promotion.

- By JON NEWCOMBE

The winners of next season’s National 1 will go straight up, as long as they meet the entry criteria, while the runners-up will join them if they beat the loser of the play-off between the 13th and 14th placed teams in the Championship.

“It’s nice, it gives you another pathway into the Champ,” Lamb told The Rugby Paper. “We have to wait for the finer details as to what the league looks like, if there is any funding and all that stuff but it is definitely welcome news to be able to present a plan to sponsors and get some off field stuff sorted. It gives you a target to go for gold.”

Albion have been on the fringes of the title race for a couple of seasons, finishing fourth under former England international Lamb, and will be among the favourites to push on this year, especially as some Exeter players could be following in the footsteps of on-fire Chiefs winger, Paul Brown-Bampoe, and playing for their Devon neighbours.