League disparity

[Ricardowensleydale]

Following Newcastle Falcons win yesterday, making it 5 bonus point wins out of 6 games with only Cornish Pirates holding them to 3 tries whilst losing 25-3, a newspaper stated that "Such is the disparity in standard between Newcastle and the chasing pack that results are becoming a formality".
Does such a disparity exist in other leagues? I imagine this is purely a result of Newcastle maintaining a Premiership squad in the Championship and this happens when other teams drop a level but one sided games are rarely attractive or exciting even when it's you team winning.
Does anyone believe anything should or can be done or is it just a fact of life?

 

[OB..]

A little early to be making that sort of judgement. Bedford are only 2 points behind at the moment.

However it would be fun if Newcastle went unbeaten during the regular season only to get knocked out in the playoffs. It might make Them realise the nonsense in using a playoff to decide promotion.

 

[Ricardowensleydale]

Bedford are only 2 points behind but only 2 of their games appear to have been uncompetative. I bet their games have been more enjoyable to watch.

 

[Robert Burns]

Quins had the same issue when they dropped down.

If you can retain your players it is simply a premiership team in the championship. Got to be hard for the others.

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Does anyone believe anything should or can be done?

Stop promotion/relegation between Prem. and Champ.

:wow:

 

[Dixie]

Stop promotion/relegation between Prem. and Champ.

:wow:

I wouldn't go quite that far, but I may well consider whether automatic promotion/relegation is in any way sensible, given the gap between the leagues. Instead of the playoffs, I'd rather see the Championship winners and the Premiership losers face off in a three-match series to decide which of them plays premiership rugby next year.

 

[OB..]

I wouldn't go quite that far, but I may well consider whether automatic promotion/relegation is in any way sensible, given the gap between the leagues. Instead of the playoffs, I'd rather see the Championship winners and the Premiership losers face off in a three-match series to decide which of them plays premiership rugby next year.

In 1999 there were 14 teams in Level 1 (whatever it was called then). West Hartlepool came 14th and were relegated. Bedford came 13th and had a home/away playoff against Rotherham, winners of Level 2. They drew with exactly the same number of points etc, so Bedford stayed up.

Next season London Scottish and Richmond merged into London Irish, leaving 12 teams at Level 1. Bedford came 12th and lost the playoff (again against Rotherham). Then they dropped the system and Rotherham went straight back down again.

It has been argued that we have a 12 team Level 1 because the team that goes down simply bounces back to replace the upstart. In consecutive seasons, Harlequins, Leeds, Northampton, Leeds (again) did the one season bounce. Then Bristol failed but Worcester did it, and we are now waiting on Newcastle. However since Worcester got promoted in 2005 we have had 15 different teams at Level 1.

Money is obviously a big difference between the two levels, exacerbated by the fact that the newly promoted club gets less from the RFU than the rest of Level 1, and the relegated club gets a parachute payment. A cynic might see that as an attempt at de facto ring-fencing, but there does seem to be genuine movement and IMHO it would be wrong to stop that. A few years ago, under "The Way Forward" exercise, ring-fencing was pushed hard by some, but was resisted by many others.

 

[irishref]

My gut feeling of how things pan out in France would seem to suggest something opposite. I think it's quite rare for a relegated Top14 team to bounce straight back from the Pro D2 - looking at the makeup of the Pro D2 there are a lot of teams that a few years ago were playing Top14

That's a gut feeling, not empirical in any way!