NATIONAL One leaders Rams are among the clubs to have submitted an expression of interest to join the new Tier 2 League proposed by the RFU.
Reading-based Rams have gone through the 16- page Minimum Operating Standards document and are confident they can meet the mandatory requirements within the timeframes set by the RFU.
A draft copy of the document, which TRP has seen, states that the minimum total licensed capacity of the club’s principal ground should be 2,000 in time for the inaugural season of the competition, which will replace the Championship, in 2025/26.
Rams’ Old Bath Road ground already meets that figure and they’d have over four years to increase the number of seats currently inside the ground from 300 to the 800 required by July 1, 2028.
Dedicated press rooms, TV gantries and changing rooms of a certain size, and close to the principal playing area, are some of the other criteria stipulated by the document.
“I think it is a good document. When you look through it, it seems pretty reasonable to me. I think some Championship sides won’t have any problem meeting the criteria, some National One sides won’t have too much of a problem,” said Rams’ chief executive Gary Reynolds.
“I think everybody knows we have to have certain minimum standards. If rugby wants to be taken seriously outside of the Premiership and the Six Nations and the World Cup then we have got to go to work and make it more attractive for people to come along and watch a tier two or tier three game.”
Rams achieved a record crowd of 1,500 for the visit of Chinnor at the start of the season, double that of their previous best, and Reynolds foresees Friday night slots being a regular feature of Tier 2 rugby if the league goes down the full-time route.
“I like what Coventry do and how they are going. They certainly believe, and Nottingham do too, that Friday night games are the way forward and I would say from our own experience with the boost that we got from our own crowd against Chinnor, they are right,” said Reynolds.
Rams happy to play in RFU’s new Tier 2
“We are gradually increasing our support base, we’re averaging just over 800, but when you have the Friday night games you get a big boost.”
Chinnor, Rams’ main rivals for the one available promotion spot, were still considering their position at a board meeting on Friday but the general consensus seems to be that they, too, will also throw their hat in the ring.
However, like the rest of National One clubs, Chinnor chairman Simon Vickers would like places in Tier 2 to be earned by right, on the field of play.
“We were sort of led to believe that it was going to be effectively chosen by the RFU, that Prem level, but we think, subject to verification, the incumbents will be offered the opportuni
