This Premiership cartel is strangling our game

WELCOME to gridlock. Everything that is wrong with the English club game, and the governance of the RFU Board and its executive, was underlined on Tuesday when the joint RFU/Premiership PRB (Professional Rugby Board) succeeded in rebuilding the ring-fence around the top league cartel by denying Ealing Trailfinders - the Championship's leading club, which is odds-on to land a second successive title the right to be promoted.

- NICK CAIN

Picture Ben Ward, Ealing's director of rugby, having to tell his squad that two years of blood, sweat, and tears to get a chance of a play-off, probably against Newcastle, which could secure a Premiership promotion, is null and void, even though they are 13 points ahead of second placed Bedford with nine fixtures remaining. It is not just a coach-killer of a decision, but the sort that kills aspiration and ambition among players and supporters, pushing them towards giving up on the game.

The mechanism for refusing Ealing, and Coventry, is the PRB minimum standards criteria audit, which many clubs in the Championship, and the community game, believe has become a blatant ring-fencing mechanism.

Ealing were failed despite being a multisports club, spearheaded by the Championship champions, and Trailfinders Women in the Premiership Women's League, with an annual income from their ground facilities estimated at over £8m.

Ealing boast facilities of which most Premiership clubs would be envious, including two full-size 4G rugby pitches, with the main pitch enclosed by stands with a 5,300 capacity, which meets the first year minimum standards ground requirement.

In addition, there is a cricket pitch, pavilion and nets, and three more full-sized grass pitches, used by rugby union, hockey, football, and lacrosse teams. The 20-acre site includes a five-a-side floodlit pitch, tennis and net-ball courts, an indoor training pitch, and three softball squares. There are pavilions and a clubhouse capable of hosting conferences, corporate days, and weddings, and the site has parking for almost 1,000 cars.