WHAT IS CHAMP RUGBY?

The English second-tier competition is at a crucial crossroads with an uncertain future

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BY SOME happy accident, the top two leagues in English rugby union have both had similar rebrands this summer.

Both have shorn seven letters from their names. Premiership becomes PREM - excited capitals is the style - and Championship becomes Champ, no capitals. It's almost unbelievable that we are told this shift at the same time was coincidental. Almost.

The RFU’s slashing of second-tier funds has been well covered but Champ Rugby’s relaunch is a nod to the old days. We have 14 teams and proper playoffs. Get yourselves in the top six and you have got a puncher's chance.

Of what exactly remains to be seen because as we headed to Ealing for the league's launch, all the talk was about the latest murmurings surrounding PREM Rugby’s desire to pull up the drawbridge on promotion for good. Nothing quite like the competitive equivalent of a cul-de-sac to whet the appetite.

It’s nothing new with the pesky minimum standards only being met in recent years by Doncaster - who failed to put that status to good use by finishing third.

All of this leads us to the pertinent question of what is Champ Rugby? Is it the pinnacle of the community game for semipro stars? Or could it become a franchised pro league?

At the moment it’s something of a hybrid. A handful of full-time sides compete for the honours and wonder if they will ever get the chance to mix it in the PREM. And the semipro grafters do their best to upset the big boys while ultimately trying to finish as the best of the rest in the table.

Perhaps the best place to start is with Simon Gillham, chair of the Champ Rugby board, which comprises senior representatives from both the RFU and the clubs, and is responsible for driving the growth of the second tier.