Champ rebrand can be a real game-changer

THE rebranding this week of England's second professional league as Champ Rugby could be a game-changer in English club rugby, and it is a new dynamic required so urgently that it almost cannot afford to fail.

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The disaffection with the administration of the game is such that it was predictable that naysayers would be out in force, focusing on the name change with a blizzard of social media sniping.

There were suggestions that the brand concept was too close to 'Chump' for comfort, and therefore money for old rope, despite the confusion of the ubiquitous Championship title also being used to describe the Six Nations and the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship.

However, the chumps are the carping keyboard warriors who overlooked that the new Champ Rugby format, unveiled by Tier 2 Board chairman Simon Gillham and his team on Thursday, comes closer to giving each match significance and value than any previous English league structure since true promotion-relegation was blocked.

It is why Champ Rugby should spell the end of Premiership owner attempts to consign the second tier to being a zombie league, because in pro sport you are as good as your competition structures - and this is a good one. It has the hallmarks to galvanise the second tier, not least on the sponsorship and broadcast fronts, because Champ Rugby has secured ownership of its commercial rights from the RFU.

What should make it attractive to fans, as well as broadcasters and sponsors, is a format that is coherent and credible, and embraces the principles of "aspiration and jeopardy" that are integral to a merit-based competitive structure. Crucially, it offers hope for the future, not just to the second tier but also to the national and community leagues below it.

Champ Rugby is a 14-team league with a promotion-relegation play-off system at both ends of the table.

Next season the 12 current tier two clubs will be joined by Richmond, promoted from National One, and phoenix club Worcester Warriors.