Championship Collection
Featured
The new season kicked off, but the side who’d finished the previous one with a record win, were nowhere to be seen. London Scottish, for the second time, were missing from professional rugby.
Saved from extinction for the cost of ‘one hundred trips to Paris’, Cambridge leapt from third to first on the final day of the season to secure what seemed an unlikely promotion to the Championship. It’s a story that even their former chair Jeffrey Archer couldn’t make up.
Just west of France on an island stretching nine miles by five, you’ll find one of the ten oldest buildings in the world, deserted Nazi war tunnels, a booming financial centre, two languages and the best rugby side outside of the Premiership, the Jersey Reds.
In the days of the British Empire, Nottingham was the epicentre of the world’s lace trade. It was then that a lace baron by the name of Birkin sewed the first stitch in turning the city’s rugby club into one of the nation’s finest.
One of Charles Windsor’s early jobs as King was to head north to Doncaster and give it a fresh new title of its own. After 800 or so years as a town, it was now a city. All it needs now, is for the local rugby club to gain the premier status it so richly deserves.
A farm in Gloucestershire has become the most prolific breeding ground for professional rugby players. Coupled with a Championship model that could be the blueprint for the future and complete with a meerkat garden and llama and emu orchard, Hartpury College has truly completed rugby education.
The village of Caldy hadn’t seen crowds like it since the big dances of the 1960s. Three thousand people descended on Paton Field, filling the grassy slope that gives the best view. Could a small club unknown to many, reach English rugby’s second tier?
In 2014, owner Mike Gooley sent a letter to club members to clear up a few misconceptions about his involvement with Ealing Trailfinders.
The daily life of Matt Williams used to involve deals with Hollywood execs, launching girlbands across the planet, making movies with the Harry Potter team, and helping the Hannah Montana soundtrack go platinum. Today, it’s much harder. Finding rugby refs for friendly fixtures and helping to get Chinnor RFC promoted from National One.
“If nothing else,” probably thought Catherine of Aragon as she was handed her divorce papers in the castle, “at least I’ll put this lovely town of Ampthill on the map”. Sadly, she didn’t. That job has now been left, almost 500 years later, to four Tongans and a Welshman called Paul.
One-by-one, the councillors stood up to say their piece. Twenty, thirty, maybe forty of them. Some were for, some against. Some eloquent, some, less so. Then, the vote. All 123 councillors, a single vote apiece, to decide the future of Cornish rugby. It started with a single ‘For’, but then, one after the other, the ‘Againsts’ rolled in.
It’s survived World Wars, industrial collapse and royal insults, but Coventry has always shrugged its shoulders and got on with it. Its rugby club is no different. Once, only hours from extinction, it now turns over £1.6m, regularly pulls in crowds of over 2,000 (in the third tier), has internationals both playing and coaching, and has run away with the league title. And that’s before we mention UB40 and Steps.