TheTimes8April2020

When we get out of this mess, will

someone please come to the rescue of

Yorkshire?

On Friday last week, the final

placings in the leagues below the

Premiership were confirmed and in the

promotion and relegation equations,

the Yorkshire clubs did not fare well.

Yorkshire Carnegie were relegated

from the Championship to National

One and Rotherham went down from

National One to National Two. These

teams once played Premiership rugby.

One of the other clubs to be relegated

from National One were from York-

shire: Hull Ionians. And Otley, who

once rose to what is now the Champi-

onship, were relegated from National

Two. Yorkshire is a rugby heartland.

There are more clubs in Yorkshire (125)

than in any other county. Yet, some-

how, this county has become the land

that professional rugby forgot.

Why does this matter? Because if you

are a young wannabe professional

player, where do you go? Quite a lot go

to Bath at the moment. The cream of

the crop from West Park, one of the

Leeds clubs, have just signed for

Warrington to play rugby league. It also

matters because if you have a strong

professional club, it gives the game a

shop window. It sells rugby to young-

sters. Ideally, professional rugby should

be spread evenly across the country;

Yorkshire has become its big black hole.

The only Yorkshire club left in the top

two divisions now, is Doncaster who

finished tenth in the Championship.

For a long while, the hope and expec-

tation was that Yorkshire Carnegie

would rebuild and bounce back into the

Premiership, but the opposite has

happened. The club has gone into free-

fall. No one can be sure that the club

can afford to keep going next season.

Indeed, the club has dropped so far

that it has changed its name. No longer

the “Yorkshire” that had intended to

create a county-wide identity, the club

has returned to its geographical name:

Leeds. Changing the name might wipe

away some of the recent toxicity.

Here is the problem. Yorkshire has

not just been left behind as a county; its

leading club have become reviled. This

is why. Last season — the 2018-19

season — was one of catastrophic mis-

management. Yorkshire (as they were

then) were languishing at the foot of the

Championship and sought to remedy

that situation mid-season by recruiting

nine players, mostly from New Zealand.

However, it soon became clear that

the club couldn’t afford their wages.

Actually, it could hardly pay anyone’s

wages. So the entire staff were laid off

— players and non-players — and a

deal was agreed where they would re-

ceive only 15p of every £1 they were

owed. Some of them didn’t receive that.

Somehow, the RFU cast ethics and

player welfare to one side and the club

was allowed to continue unimpeded. In

August last year, an entire new squad

was recruited on cut-price deals. That

they were playing their first games a

month later made a sequence of heavy

defeats inevitable. The absence of long-

term strategy was then exposed, before

Christmas, when the coach who had

recruited this squad was sacked.

When Phil Davies then arrived to

take the helm, people asked him: why?

Davies had coached Leeds for a decade,

from 1996-2006, and had just come

back from the World Cup where he had

coached Namibia. Davies is one of the

good guys. When Davies recruited four

of his old Namibian players, it seemed

that the story was about to repeat itself.

Then Covid-19 brought the whole

thing to a halt. Yorkshire Carnegie still

hadn’t won a game. The Namibians

flew home. Relegation was confirmed.

Yorkshire/Leeds now have a chance

to rethink, to reset. They need it. Davies

seems to understand that. “This is the

end of one era,” he said. “It is time for a

new era”. The fact that Davies came

back is one reason why “Leeds” now

have a chance of making that happen.

Why did he come back? “It was a case

of trying to help an old friend,” he says.

“I didn’t make those decisions and I

wasn’t there when they were. Hopefully

respect and credibility can return.”

Leeds probably need more than a

new name. There has been talk of shift-

ing home to York. Headingley Stadium

has a capacity of 21,062, which doesn’t

look too good when, sometimes, less

than 500 come to watch. It also costs

just less than £100,000-a-season for

them to play there, which they will

struggle to afford. That is why Davies

has been putting feelers out for help

from former players.

In another world, the RFU could take

a stake in the club and run it as a fran-

chise. Imagine having that vast player-

base at your command. The RFU has

already taken over a shared ownership

of the academy (after Yorkshire Carne-

gie made the staff redundant).

The reality is that Yorkshire/Leeds

have raw materials aplenty. The

academy is a proven success, there are

two universities in the city where sport

is a priority, and a massive network of

clubs on the doorstep. But this is a long-

term project. And it needs someone to

take it on. Not Davies alone.

Until then, this remains the county

that professional rugby forgot.

Sport

Yorkshire - the land that rugby forgot

Rugby union

Owen Slot Chief Rugby Correspondent

Premiership

Championship

National One

Bath Somerset

Bristol Bears Bristol

Exeter Chiefs Devon

Gloucester Gloucs

Harlequins London

Leicester Tigers Leics

London Irish London

Northampton Northants

Sale Sharks Manchester

Newcastle Tyne & Wear

Wasps West Mids

Worcester Warriors Worcs

Ampthill Beds

Bedford Blues Beds

Cornish Pirates Cornwall

Coventry West Mids

Doncaster Yorkshire

Ealing Trailfinders London

Hartpury Gloucs

Jersey Reds Jersey

London Scottish London

Nottingham Notts

Richmond London

Saracens London

Birmingham West Mids

Bishop’s Stortford Herts

Blackheath London

Cambridge Cambs

Chinnor Oxford

Cinderford Gloucs

Caldy Merseyside

Darlington

Mowden Park Co Durham

Old Elthamians London

Plymouth Albion Devon

Rams Berkshire

Rosslyn Park London

Sale FC Gtr Man’ster

Taunton Titans Somerset

Tonbridge Juddians Kent

Yorkshire Carnegie Yorkshire

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9

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Tyne & Wear

Yorkshire

Notts

Cambs

Leics

Northants

Oxford

Herts

Beds

Kent

London

Gtr Manchester

Merseyside

West Mids

Worcs

Devon

Cornwall

Bristol Gloucs

Jersey

Co Durham

Where clubs in England’s top three leagues play

2

Somerset

With Yorkshire Carnegie

relegated, Doncaster are the

only club from the county left

in England's top two leagues

545 2GM Wednesday April 8 2020 | the times